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| Jumping forward, this Hawaiian Horse carries the rider straight to the calf at the rodeo that continues through Sunday in Na'alehu. Photo by Brenda Iokepa-Moses |
RODEO IS BACK IN KA'U THIS WEEKEND, after years of being out to pasture during the covid pandemic. The Ka'u Roping & Riding Association event at Na'alehu Rodeo Grounds drew a good crowd of paniolo and onlookers on Saturday. It's on again on Sunday with slack roping starting at 8 a.m. and the competitive roping, racing and other traditional events beginning at noon. On Saturday, the Rodeo Queen was named. She is Lily Dacalio, of Wood Valley and she reigns over the event with runnerup Zira
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| Hat's off to the return of rodeo in Na'alehu. Photo by Eva Liu |
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NOT ONLY RESIDENTS, BUT VISITORS ARE PRICED OUT OF THE HAWAIIAN PARADISE, according to Grass Root Institute of Hawai'i. Its President Keli'i Akina released the following opinion piece this weekend:
It's not just Hawai'i residents who are being priced out of paradise. Slowly but surely, tourists are also wondering whether they can still afford to visit here.
A survey by Anthology Research of almost 4,000 tourists during the 2022 first quarter found that visitors from the U.S. West who say they will return to Hawaii within the next five years declined by 4.1 percentage points since the same period a year ago, to 82.2%. The percentage of people from the U.S. East wanting to return anytime soon fell by even more, 6.6 percentage points, to 66.6%.
According to the study, conducted for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the No. 1 reason cited by those who said they are unlikely to return soon was price. Visitors from across the U.S. said Hawaii has become "too expensive." A related complaint was that a trip to Hawai'i has become a "poor value."
Allison Schaefers reported in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser yesterday that, "Given Hawai'i's dependence on domestic visitors and repeat travelers, such a decrease in U.S. visitors returning to Hawaii in five years could negatively affect the state's tourism performance."
This is not to say the state should be using tax dollars to fund tourism marketing. Instead, I am saying we should cast off policies that are unnecessarily discouraging visitor arrivals. As we learned the hard way during the coronavirus lockdowns, any drop in tourism can have a ripple effect throughout every sector of our economy, including our state and county budgets and tax revenues. Like it or not, Hawai'i depends on tourism.
Even our excessively big state and county budgets are made possible — some might say "enabled"— by visitor dollars. If tourism declines, the pressure to make up those lost dollars will fall directly on Hawai'i taxpayers, accelerating the exodus that has already caused so many locals to leave for the mainland in search of lower living costs and greater opportunities.
Yet, policymakers continue to treat tourists as an endless source of revenue, apparently never imagining that raising the price of a trip to Hawai'i could have a negative effect on tourism trends.
It's not just Hawai'i's hotels and rental cars that are expensive. Tourists also pay among the highest visitor-related taxes in the nation, including the state's 10.25% transient accommodations tax, the 3% TAT surcharge of the counties, the state's 4% general excise tax, the 0.5% GET surcharge of the counties, plus other fees and taxes.
Jack Richards, president of Pleasant Holidays LLC, told Schaefers that compared to 2019, the cost of a vacation to Hawai'i is now about a third more than in 2019.
"The prices to Hawai'i aren't sustainable," Richards said. "[The tourist industry] could get it before because there was so much pent-up demand, and a certain segment of the population would not travel internationally."
Now, with renewed competition from a reopened Europe and other destinations, Hawai'i is not as competitive as it used to be.
I recognize that some people might view the prospect of fewer tourists as a good thing. Hawaii residents sometimes have a love/hate relationship with our largest industry. But we should not be blind to the fact that tourism is an integral part of our economy.
When the Legislature panicked during the COVID-19 crisis and grabbed all the state TAT revenues, and allowed for a county-level TAT to further hike visitor taxes, I warned that higher costs could depress tourism. The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii has issued similar warnings as the counties have tried to eliminate short-term vacation rentals, thereby shutting out another category of visitors.
Proposals like the $50 environmental-impact fee and continued efforts to shut down short-term vacation rentals will increase the price of a Hawai'i vacation even more, making the state even less attractive to repeat visitors.
If Hawai'i is going to fully recover from the economic effects of the lockdowns, we must focus on economic growth rather than new sources of tax revenue. That means giving Hawai'i's businesses — and our tourists — room to breathe.
We can do far more to shape the future of Hawaii tourism with a healthy economy than we can with one that is still limping, especially if we want our state to be affordable enough to both live in and visit.
E hana kākou! (Let's work together!)
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| Wahine and kane compete in roping and many other events at the rodeo through Sunday in Na'alehu. Photo by Eva Liu |
A survey by Anthology Research of almost 4,000 tourists during the 2022 first quarter found that visitors from the U.S. West who say they will return to Hawaii within the next five years declined by 4.1 percentage points since the same period a year ago, to 82.2%. The percentage of people from the U.S. East wanting to return anytime soon fell by even more, 6.6 percentage points, to 66.6%.
According to the study, conducted for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the No. 1 reason cited by those who said they are unlikely to return soon was price. Visitors from across the U.S. said Hawaii has become "too expensive." A related complaint was that a trip to Hawai'i has become a "poor value."
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| Young riders, young calves in this weekend's rodeo in Na'alehu. Photo by Brenda Iokepa-Moses |
This is not to say the state should be using tax dollars to fund tourism marketing. Instead, I am saying we should cast off policies that are unnecessarily discouraging visitor arrivals. As we learned the hard way during the coronavirus lockdowns, any drop in tourism can have a ripple effect throughout every sector of our economy, including our state and county budgets and tax revenues. Like it or not, Hawai'i depends on tourism.
Even our excessively big state and county budgets are made possible — some might say "enabled"— by visitor dollars. If tourism declines, the pressure to make up those lost dollars will fall directly on Hawai'i taxpayers, accelerating the exodus that has already caused so many locals to leave for the mainland in search of lower living costs and greater opportunities.
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| Patient horse as the team attempts to tie the calf. Photo by Brenda Iokepa-Moses |
It's not just Hawai'i's hotels and rental cars that are expensive. Tourists also pay among the highest visitor-related taxes in the nation, including the state's 10.25% transient accommodations tax, the 3% TAT surcharge of the counties, the state's 4% general excise tax, the 0.5% GET surcharge of the counties, plus other fees and taxes.
Jack Richards, president of Pleasant Holidays LLC, told Schaefers that compared to 2019, the cost of a vacation to Hawai'i is now about a third more than in 2019.
"The prices to Hawai'i aren't sustainable," Richards said. "[The tourist industry] could get it before because there was so much pent-up demand, and a certain segment of the population would not travel internationally."
Now, with renewed competition from a reopened Europe and other destinations, Hawai'i is not as competitive as it used to be.
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| Lily Dacalio is the 2022 Kaʻū Roping & Riding Rodeo Queen. Photo by Brenda Iokepa-Moses |
When the Legislature panicked during the COVID-19 crisis and grabbed all the state TAT revenues, and allowed for a county-level TAT to further hike visitor taxes, I warned that higher costs could depress tourism. The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii has issued similar warnings as the counties have tried to eliminate short-term vacation rentals, thereby shutting out another category of visitors.
Proposals like the $50 environmental-impact fee and continued efforts to shut down short-term vacation rentals will increase the price of a Hawai'i vacation even more, making the state even less attractive to repeat visitors.
If Hawai'i is going to fully recover from the economic effects of the lockdowns, we must focus on economic growth rather than new sources of tax revenue. That means giving Hawai'i's businesses — and our tourists — room to breathe.
We can do far more to shape the future of Hawaii tourism with a healthy economy than we can with one that is still limping, especially if we want our state to be affordable enough to both live in and visit.
E hana kākou! (Let's work together!)
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| Youth roping with Kaʻū Roping & Riding at the rodeo this weekend. Photo by Brenda Iokepa-Moses |
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| Safe roping event for keiki introduces them to competitive roping and sportsmanship. Photo by Brenda Iokepa-Moses |
To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see www.facebook.com/kaucalendar. See latest print edition at www.kaucalendar.com. See upcoming events at https://kaunewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2022/04/upcoming-events-for-kau-and-volcano.htm
The Department of Law Enforcement will include the Department of Public Safety’s Law Enforcement Division (State Sheriff Division and Narcotics Enforcement Division) and Internal Affairs Office, Department of Transportation Harbors Division and the Department of the Attorney General’s Criminal Investigative Division. The department will also include the Department of Defense Office of Homeland Security, and the Hawaiʻi State Fusion Center.
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| State law enforcement officials at the signing of a bill that creates the first new state department i 30 years. It's the a state Department of Law Enforcement. Photo from the Governor's Office |
“Hawaiʻi is the only state in the country that doesn’t have a centralized, independent state law enforcement agency. The new department will allow more efficient and effective emergency response, criminal law enforcement, investigations and homeland security operations,” said the governor.
Jordan Lowe, Public Safety Department's Deputy Director for Law Enforcement, said, “The consolidation will centralize command and control for the State’s critical incident management, improve interoperable communications, and the ability to handle complex multi-island investigations and improve overall efficiency of statewide law enforcement operations. The new DLE will also be able to provide additional resources for other law enforcement agencies in both independent and joint operations.”
State Sheriff Bily Oku, Jr. said, “We want to thank everyone involved in this past Legislative session who contributed to this momentous achievement to get this bill passed, creating our new State Department of Law Enforcement, It would take a week or longer to name everyone, but we want to thank the many people within the Department of Public Safety Sheriff Division who came together to craft the bill, along with all of the law enforcement agencies that threw their support behind it, and the lawmakers who saw the importance and passed it. We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s hard work and support.”
Jordan Lowe, Public Safety Department's Deputy Director for Law Enforcement, said, “The consolidation will centralize command and control for the State’s critical incident management, improve interoperable communications, and the ability to handle complex multi-island investigations and improve overall efficiency of statewide law enforcement operations. The new DLE will also be able to provide additional resources for other law enforcement agencies in both independent and joint operations.”
State Sheriff Bily Oku, Jr. said, “We want to thank everyone involved in this past Legislative session who contributed to this momentous achievement to get this bill passed, creating our new State Department of Law Enforcement, It would take a week or longer to name everyone, but we want to thank the many people within the Department of Public Safety Sheriff Division who came together to craft the bill, along with all of the law enforcement agencies that threw their support behind it, and the lawmakers who saw the importance and passed it. We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s hard work and support.”