Agency to Hawaii residents: Don't hate tourists

No matter the city of place, there will always be people who HATE tourists, and those who LOVE tourists. Unfortunately, both have valid reasons.

This is why I'm sorry for the residents of Kyoto.

For the average resident, living in a place with an economy based around the Tourism Industry is terrible. I can see why people complain and their points are very valid. Unless you own the hotel or restaurant you have very few ways to advance on the economic ladder.

Living in Hawaii is actually even worse than living in Japan. Even smaller islands that are all even more crowded and even more expensive. The only good things about living in Hawaii are surfing, weed, and getting a suntan. Everything else sucks. Everyone knows that. Especially the Hawaiians. Most locals who have a home, are forced to live together in very depressing and overly crowded multi-generational homes for their entire lives. Many just crack and can't take it and turn to alcoholism, substance abuse and homelessness. It's like a paradisiacal nightmare to many Hawaiians - it looks beautiful but it really is so truly horrible.

On all the islands there is a housing shortage because of so many moratoriums of building on "sacred land" etc. So, because of that, so many people can't afford anywhere to live! If one is wealthy enough to be able to build a new place, the building quality is generally much cheaper than even Japan and the mainland US and following that the buildings are severely punished by more harsher weather and have to be repaired more often. And then the new homeowner from the mainland will face local dislike and racism at some point or another. Many people end up leaving Hawaii because of that. And Hawaiians are even worse than Japanese about that. I know I use to live there and in Japan too. Back on the mainland now.

There is an almost mirror situation in Japan right now, with record tourism, growing popularity of the nation abroad, massive economic benefits here, and a love-hate relationship with locals. As long as you try to remind yourself there are two sides to it, either as a tourist or a local, you will hopefully put the hate aside long enough to welcome the people and help their experience be a positive one and that they will want to come back. As a tourist, you should not forgetting that others live here and you are just visiting.

Hate or hatred of others is a human problem and this tendency builds out of frustration, inferiority, superiority. over-confidence, jealousy, and lack of self-esteem. Hate or hatred of others is not a healthy reaction. It prevents you from becoming independent and responsible for oneself. Hate as a mode of guilt or of pride, generates destructive thoughts and when directed to other people it represents pride. In the end if you think over the reasons and objects of hate, you will find that one never benefits from hate therefore you should let go of unpleasantness, self-diminishing feelings and focus on the good.

Tourism is not a friend to the locals. The locals are trapped in a lifetime of minimum wage customer service jobs while the real money goes to people who don't even live in Hawaii or who don't even care about Hawaiian people or culture.

Sounds exactly like something here too!

When I was in the Navy, my first duty station out of "A" school in '79 was a ship stationed at Pearl Harbor. Once there I purchased a moped to get around. On my little moped, I could travel all the way around Oahu in about 4 hours. Two and a half years of living there and I had just about seen all there was to see. That's why when people ask me about Oahu, I tell them it's a nice place to visit, but you don't want to live there. Even back in the late 70's-early 80's there were problems between the "locals" (mostly imports from American Samoa) and the tourists.

Yes, first the country was taken away through dubious means (read about it), and made a state.

Nothing "dubious" about it. It was an overt coup d'etat orchestrated by the American and European business interests on the island and facilitated by the aid of the U.S. Marines.

Yes, first the country was taken away through dubious means...

Sounds exactly like something here too! The similarities are amazing. Where is the outrage at the injustice? Where are the calls for independence?

Many of the classic tourist destinations around the world are grappling with the same problem: too many tourists.

Yes, first the country was taken away through dubious means (read about it), and made a state.

Actually, before being taken away by whites, King Kamehameha defeated other tribes and united the islands. So the first land grab was done by the natives on the natives. They weren't all just some "noble savages" living in peace and harmony with each other until getting screwed over by whites. They had their own divisions amongst them selves.

in regards to the locals not liking tourists, I lived in Hawaii for 2 years, and yes there are divisions, but also there are many cases where the locals don't want to interact with anyone who is an outsider, or if you are not one of "Da' kine" you may get substandard performance or over charged for any type of assistance or job you may need.

Over taxation for property is something that they can resolve by restructuring their tax assessments. Some of the problems that locals faced can be resolved by making their elected officials be more accountable, and to stop doing things because "they have always been done that way" and make real changes that will help the local people there.

Mr. Noidall,

So basically this campaign is telling locals to shut up and keep smiling and keep doing the hula so the money will keep on coming in and going out to outside interests. Very very bad if you ask me.

With all due respect to the real issues Hawaii faces with tourism, "rich, self-centered mainlanders arrogantly coming over to rent or buy property" isn't a tourism issue. It's a real estate and property issue. And before you rev your "evil outsiders take advantage of poor locals" engine even further, do ask yourself the question who rented or sold that property to The Arrogant Mainlander in the first place? The answer is obvious: it was extremely likely to be a Hawaiian.

As for the tipping issue, it's not just Japanese tourists who don't tip. South Korea, Singapore, China, Malaysia -- none of these countries have a tipping culture. Or perhaps you think tipping is something more civilized, decidedly Caucasian cultures are better attuned to? Well, clearly that's not the case, since neither Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, nor Spain -- just to name a few -- engage in a custom I like to call, "Aristocrat for a Day." Tipping is an obnoxious American custom that needs to die a horrible, painful death. But to put the blame for failure to tip on tourists rather than where the blame squarely belongs -- American culture -- is absurd.