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Christian Shimabuku

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Haley Lehman

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Rick Hamada

Business & Tourism

Columnists

[{"type":"text","text":"Hawai‘i’s tourism industry is in trouble. "}]

Now, this is not breaking news. We have encounted over generations the apparent demise of our No. 1 economic engine. Time after time, we have emerged, at times even stronger, and business would continue, even flourish. 

However, our dependence on one industry would also continue. The exposure would continue. And our vulnerabilities would become more pronounced promoting uncertainty, anxiety and, yes, economic failures. 

I am not a tourism expert. I worked in the tourism industry when I was a younger and more adventurous man and I have been blessed to have hosted national and international tours with listenters 20-plus times over the years. But I do have eyes and I do have a degree of expectation and perspective when it comes to travelling and touring. I am sure you do to so instead of asking the “experts” I am asking you. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Why is Hawai‘i tourism in trouble? "}]

We first have to understand that our tourism is a product in the open market. Tourism is one of the most competative industries anywhere. Our product is the unique experience of Hawaiian culture and beauty in the Pacific. When selling a product, one of the most important aspects to a customer is value. 

When you’re considering a family vacation what is likely first on the list? You would think that it’s destination but leading the charge is price. Cost. Cash. Budget. Now, you may say it is destination first but I maintain that cost that is often the final deciding factor. 

OK, yes, some tourists don’t care about the cost. I want to go to Paris and I’m going. I want to go to Australia and I’m going. I want to go to Boise and I’m going. Well, two out of three and you get the picture. This percentile of traveler is comparatively low.

From the purveyor's perspective you base your business on one of two premises. 

One, you rely on volume. Your pricing and inventory determine profitability. I need to sell a thousand widgets a day at X amount of dollars, that covers my hard cost and what remains is profit. You don’t care who buys. As long as a thousand are sold, you’re good. 

Two, you rely on premium pricing to attract a specific demographic. You market your product as essential, desirable, exclusive, and assure the customer they will receive a premium return on their increased investment. It's not quantity, it's quality.

[{"type":"text","text":"There are some businesses that co-mingle these two different strategies."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"One that comes to mind is Macy's."}]

Macy's, especially here at home, has a certain cache, a reputation for upscale brands in virtually all they sell. Clothing and jewelry come to mind. But they are also known for their deeply discounted sale items. When the kids were young, we shopped at Macy's at Kāhala Mall for their clothing from infant to pre-teen years. It's not that we were loaded but the discounts on Polo, for example, were 30% to 50% off and more on some items. Cha-ching! 

[{"type":"text","text":"Hawai‘i marketed our tourism product in a similar way."}]

We would have travel organizations and agencies in the past that would market a discounted or budget experience in Hawai‘i. The state would rely upon great numbers of visitors to generate more of a volume-based revenue model. And it worked. For example, in 2019, we hosted about 10.4 million tourists. That's about 10 times the number of residents statewide. This number generated over $17.75 billion. From a marketing and sales perspective, this would define success.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then Covid hit."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Numbers plummeted, both in visitors and revenue."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The industry and, well, life took a hit."}]

I'm in a fairly decent mood so I'm not going to continue down the Covid path. We all know because we all lived it.

[{"type":"text","text":"However, in the years to follow, recovery has been mixed."}]

The upside. Domestic travel increased dramatically. Many believe Hawai‘i is an exotic destination, albeit one safely within the United States.

The downside. International travel continues to produce flaccid numbers far below pre-pandemic times. 

According to a recent Civil Beat report, "there was once a time when about 1 in 4 tourists on Oʻahu was from Japan. In 2019, almost 1.5 million people — 24% of the total tourism traffic that year and more than any country outside the U.S. — came from the island nation. But that’s not the case anymore, according to data from the Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Over the last six years, the number of people traveling to Oʻahu from Japan dropped by roughly 50%. Last year, only about 1 in 8 tourists visiting the island was from Japan — a total of just over 715,000 people."

International tourists, especially Japanese, are the ideal customers. They spend more, they stay longer, and they'll come back. Unfortunately, that's not the case now.

"The number of foreign travelers coming to the Hawaiian islands crashed by 95%," Civil Beat reported, "falling from roughly 3 million in 2019 to just over 148,000 in 2021. The number of tourists from abroad remains about half of what it was before Covid-19. Visitors from countries including Korea, Canada and Australia still aren’t back to their pre-pandemic numbers."

[{"type":"text","text":"A post-COVID reality was the impact to locals after the pandemic."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Without tourists, we could again enjoy our home!"}]

Beaches were clear and open. Hiking trails were accessible. Locals reacquainted themselves with places like Waikīkī, the Ko'Olina lagoons, and tourist typical attractions. Once we got a taste of it, things changed. Overtourism was always a topic of discussion but this time it was more than just talk. Educational outreach to visitors on how to behave was implemented and the already-high rates for accommodations, car rentals and meals and restaurants went higher and higher. Interestingly, despite these changes, tourism numbers were holding steady for the first quarter of 2026.

[{"type":"text","text":"That swiftly changed."}]

Hawai‘i tourism is now having its worst year in recent memory, with storms, shorter stays, and higher costs worrying the industry. Residents and businesses have faced one severe weather event after another, and the tourism sector has taken a huge hit.

As a series of storms, powered by a strong El Niño, continued to skirt around the Islands, the number of visitors on any given day dropped dramatically. In March, the average daily visitor census was 

 compared with the year before. The decline widened to 

The state reported there was over $1 billion in damages suffered due to these storms. Coupled with the drop in tourism revenues the financial situation looks bleak.

I understand resiliency and that incredible quality which is found in our people, businesses and more.

[{"type":"text","text":"Yes, through time and incalculable efforts, we will overcome."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"But, at what price?"}]

I admire and commend the positivity held by those who were the most negatively affected by storms and more. You should be elevated, celebrated and advocated by all.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":" "}]

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<title>Hamada: Tourism on the rocks</title>

We said we wanted fewer visitors and our wish was granted — and now revenue is dropping. Where do we go from here?

Hamada: Tourism on the rocks

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Government & Politics

Aloha State Daily received a press release today from a Mainland-based national interest group, U.S. Term Limits (USTL), letting us know that “2026 Hawai‘i state senate candidate, Wallyn Christian (District 13) has committed support for term limits on Congress by signing the term limits convention pledge.”

Why does this matter to that organization? “(USTL, the leader in the national, non-partisan movement to limit terms for elected officials, is gathering support from state lawmakers across the nation,” the statement says. “Its mission is to get 34 states to apply for an amendment proposal convention specific to term limits on Congress.”

Term-limiting Congress is a popular idea, and USTL cites a 

 that, “An overwhelming majority of adults (87%) favor limiting the number of terms that members of Congress are allowed to serve. This includes a majority 56% who strongly favor this proposal, just 12% are opposed.”

The idea emerges often for local politicians, as well. Civil Beat has found public support for term limits to be as high as 70% in a 2018 poll of likely voters, a stat Honolulu Civil Beat resurfaced 

 of the lawmakers themselves to see where they stand on the idea of limiting their own time in office. “Nearly half of House members and more than a third of senators say they support term limits. There are enough undecideds in both chambers to give it a good shot if they held their position for two years,” CB found.

Respectfully, all of these people are wrong. Well intentioned, but they're aiming term limits at the wrong people.

I mean, I totally understand where the frustration is coming from. We elect people, nationally and locally, then are disappointed in their results. We could end their terms ourselves by simply not reelecting these people and yet obviously a lot of the people who say they want term limits do something very odd: They seem to reelect the lousy politicians they say they want to term limit.

You want to limit someone’s term? You’re just a month away from your next opportunity to vote for someone else!

So we’ve always had the power to fire politicians with every election, but don’t, then remain convinced that what we need is more turnover in government to make it more efficient, effective and responsive. Somebodies’ terms need limiting, but who?

Easy: The workforce. The bureaucrats. See, I want term limits, too, but I want them on the people staffing all the departments and agencies that we’re perpetually frustrated with. 

Consider, to cite just one example, how many different mayors you’ve seen over the past 20 or 30 years promise to reform the departments of planning and permitting in each county. The mayors have term limits. They come and go. Have any of them succeeded at this reform?

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has done more than any predecessor but there’s a long way still to go.

How many Hawai‘i governors — term-limited governors — have promised Hawai‘i a public education second to none? Which of them succeeded? Who is still in place, immune to reform?

What happens in real life is, candidates make bold promises of reform, we elect them, then they announce bold plans for reform and those plans run headfirst into a culture of unfirable civil servants shielded by union protections. These folks don’t even have to noisily and aggressively oppose the reform, all they have to do is … not do it. And wait. Four years later, or eight years later, their antagonist is gone, the staff remains, with its culture of job security over excellence safely intact.

[{"type":"text","text":"We, the taxpayers and voters, then sit around wondering what happened."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Hawai‘i’s"}]

What’s happened is simple: Since statehood, Hawai‘i’s people have steadily split into two camps, those who work for government and everybody else. The appeal of Government Hawai‘i is the security and benefits — lifelong employment, if you want it, totally protected from market forces and competition, with solid benefits like healthcare and retirement, paid for by the rest of us in Real Hawai‘i.

If you think the security and the bennies of government jobs are a trade-off to compensate for low pay, guess again. Government Hawai‘i earns more than Real Hawai‘i.

The annual average wage of a non-government job in Hawai‘i is 

 from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The average annual wage in state government? 

What does Real Hawai‘i get in return? One of the highest tax burdens in America for one thing, and then very little to brag about in high-quality government service. (

I would say that that two Hawai‘i’s have hardened into opposing camps, except that’s not exactly true. Government Hawai‘i drives an Us vs Them dynamic, that was never clearer to me than it was during Covid, when Government Hawai‘i showed us that it will shut the rest of down for years at a time given the slightest opportunity. It will also protect itself first, at the expense of the public is supposedly serves, as we see in the lingering effects of the schools closing for so long. That policy made no one safer, but it did mess up the kids. (And have you noticed ever since then, Government Hawai‘i takes the day off for even bad weather like it never did before, while the rest of us soldier on with our work?)

Out here in Real Hawai‘i, we grumble but otherwise settle for apathy (i.e., low voter turnout) or outright flight to states where it feels like a good life is more possible. I don’t know who Government Hawai‘i is going to tax when the last of us moves to Vegas.

With all that in mind, term limits on government service seem like the one revolution we haven’t tried, haven’t even discussed, but should. Say 10, 15 years max, total lifetime employment in government at any level. We want people to stay long enough to learn the ropes and finish things they’ve started, not so long that they just settle in and kill time until retirement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The upsides:"}]

Breaks up all the pockets of resistance to change. Turnover would occur systemwide, one person at a time, as they age out. Reformers at the top have a chance building support in the workforce among newer staff.

[{"type":"text","text":"Brings in new people and new ideas in government at every level."}]

Opens up more opportunities for Government Hawai‘i and Real Hawai‘i to trade places and live in each other’s worlds. This may be the biggest upside — more of us would get a chance to feel like we had a chance to change the system from the inside and deliver the service we’ve always wanted, while more of them would be forced to realize that Real Hawai‘i is something more than subjects to be ruled and tax cows to be milked.

Forces a revolution in how government hires. Using Mayor Blangiardi again as an example, he’s talked about how it took people six months on average to get hired by the City & County of Honolulu when he assumed office. 

, he had cut that down to three months. Compared to the speed at which the private sector can hire, that’s still an eternity, and that would have to change immediately to deal with the kind of turnover we need.

(To be fair, government is not alone on this front. In my decade at Pacific Business News, I heard executives at Hawai‘i’s larger companies talk endlessly about a labor shortage. At the same time, I knew plenty of talented people who could not land great jobs. Something is seriously broken in the hiring process, and I suspect HR, especially using automated keyword-based filters on resumes, is to blame. Make Direct Hiring by Managers Great Again!)

Loss of expertise, I suppose, but we’ve seen what the accumulated expertise gets us: A chief elections officer who thought a lauhala basket suited the dignity of a Hawai‘i electoral tie-breaker and ended getting his office sued — successfully — and 

. Scott Nago has worked at the Office of Election for nearly 26 years, almost 17 of those years as its chief election officer. As Civil Beat 

, it’s just about the only place he has ever worked in his life. Well, in the private sector, you can lose your job for bungling things so badly you get sued. Under my plan, the private sector is where he would’ve been sent years ago. Had someone else, perhaps with a wider range of life experience, been at the helm, maybe that person would've made better decisions.

[{"type":"text","text":"So, OK, there are no downsides."}]

Term limits on government service. If you like this idea, spread the word. We’d be moving a mountain to make it happen. But that’s got to be better than carrying the mountain of Government Hawai‘i on our shoulders forever.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

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People take time out of their lives to participate in the democratic process by testifying before committee hearings. Too often, the committee isn't there.

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Pipikaula Corner: Invisible Legislators

It's not getting much media attention, but the private diaries of Dr. Anthony Fauci have been published online by Sen. Rand Paul in advance of his hearings this week into Fauci and Covid-19. What they reveal across thousands of pages is man in love with the adulation he received, who privately knew that many of things he said publicly about the pandemic were wild exaggerations.

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Pipikaula Corner: Fauci revealed as fear-mongering, fame-loving fraud

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms</title>

It's an election year, and some people are running on the popular idea that legislators and Congress should have term limits to prevent lifers from working the system. ASD Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier argues this is a great idea, with the wrong target. What if it's actually the government workforce itself that needs a term limit?

Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms

ASD Staff

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I have plans tonight, sorry...\""}]

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<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026</title>

"I have plans tonight, sorry..."

Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026

Hawai'i Skies

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Pauline Penano on da freeway out of Honolulu.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: A thumbs up

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Julia Getty on the Big Island.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: So many kinds of clouds

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Daily Smile: Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026

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Daily Smile: Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026

Oh look, it's the dreaded anti-cat table...

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Jim Gurganious in Honolulu.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: A perfect emergence

A golden retriever suffering from seizures seemingly lost her spunk — until one day her owners brought home a miracle cure — a duck named Louie...

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Daily Smile: Monday, Aug. 17, 2026

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Daily Smile: Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026

Could watch this all day. Just put it on auto loop...

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Daily Smile: Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026

Prime example of all bark no bite and he never looked back...

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Daily Smile: Friday, Aug. 14, 2026

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Daniel Dinell.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: Throwback Thursday

Swimming comes more naturally to some dogs than others...

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Daily Smile: Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026

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Daily Smile: Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Stephanie Salmons in Honolulu.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: Azure sky

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Daily Smile: Monday, Aug. 10, 2026

Two dogs letting each other know they aren't a threat...

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Daily Smile: Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026

This is Hunter. He came very close to having an entire thought. Ended up being a false alarm...

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Daily Smile: Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026

This is a very fast tater tot. Please stay out of the way as he clearly has places to be...