Reviewing Business Models of Hawaii Vacation Companies

General Description of Work:

The overall purpose of this component is to assure public awareness of, and input to, the overall project … to consider the social and cultural effects of Hawai`i tourism (past, present, and especially future) … and to see if the ideas generated during the project are supported by the overall public in meetings and a survey of residents on all islands. The consultant for this component is also responsible for “overall project coordination,” but just in the sense of preparing a final report summarizing all three components, in a consistent format.

The Infrastructure and Economic/Environmental components are intended to produce some hard facts and figures. They are the “bones” of the Sustainable Tourism project. The Socio-Cultural and Public Input component puts some “flesh” on those bones by analyzing some of the human issues and by gathering resident input. Some parts of this study include facts and figures, but other parts have to do with beliefs and values.

Critical activities include:

1. Developing a public information and input effort, including this website, to deal with all three components of the Sustainable Tourism project.

2. Holding public meetings on all islands.

3. Assembling a Study Group of “stakeholders” from different interest groups – various parts of the tourism industry, environmentalists, Native Hawaiians, etc. – who are meeting throughout the life of the project. They are working on a statement of “Sustainable Tourism Goals and Indicators” which can represent agreement among many groups about how to maintain a good balance of economic, environmental, and social outcomes as tourism changes.

4. Preparing a two-part Socio-Cultural Report investigating evidence about the likely effects of tourism growth and/or change on social factors known to be of particular concern to residents – e.g., crime, housing cost, Native Hawaiian issues, etc.

The first part deals with impacts on Native Hawaiians and was written by a Native Hawaiian advisory group. The second part deals with tourism’s socio-cultural impacts on Hawai`i’s general population.

5. Compiling ideas and recommendations from all the above activities, and then conducting a survey of residents of all counties.

6. Preparing a final report, covering all three components, including recommendations for action by public and private organizations, along with ideas for future studies or public activities that could not be done during this initial Sustainable Tourism effort.

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