Beautiful beaches, tropical weather and the promise of leaving your everyday worries behind help portray Hawai’i as the ideal travel destination—a paradise—for anyone living on the mainland. However, the influx of tourists stretches already limited resources even thinner, causing Native Hawaiians to reap the negative consequences of having an economy so heavily reliant on the travel industry. According to the University of Hawai’i, tourism accounts for almost a quarter of the state’s economy .
Last year, Hawai’i saw over 9.6 million visitors . At the same time, high costs of living and other factors have caused residents to flee to other states, with a higher population of Native Hawaiians now residing on the mainland .
Not everyone can leave or wants to leave, and those who remain are faced with dealing with the fallout. “Tourists flock to our native land for escape, but they are escaping into a state of mind while participating in the destruction of a host people in a native place. To Hawaiians, daily life is neither soft nor kind.
In fact, the political, economic, and cultural reality for most Hawaiians is hard, ugly, and cruel,” Native Hawaiian activist Haunani Kay Trask told Cultural Survival in 2010. For years, locals have urged tourists from visiting the island, many taking to social media to voice their frustrations. Hawai’i is not your paradise, not your playground.
It’s occupied land with dying resources due to colonialization and ongoing tourism.