Tourism Takes A Toll on Native Hawaiians, But Here’s How You Can Help
(CNN) -- The Hawaii most tourists see is one of azure waters and towering resorts, of “aloha” and “ohana,” and “hula.”But as it exists now, the powerful tourism industry dictates the lives of Native Hawaiians, often for the worse, said Kyle Kajihiro, a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and activist for the rights of Native Hawaiians.The tourism industry in Hawaii powers its state revenue, but that reliance on tourism has resulted in Native Hawaiians getting priced out of their homes, climate change wreaking havoc on the natural landscape, and a lack of respect for the 50th state that is also the ancestral land of more than half a million people.“I think that it is too easy for people to visit places like Hawaii,” Kajihiro said. “It conditions visitors to feel entitled.”The industry must change to improve the futures of Native Hawaiians, Kajihiro told CNN.
He’s one of several residents who have worked to educate visitors and return some elements of Hawaiian culture to the people from whom it originated.
If visitors to Hawaii decenter themselves and instead take with them respect and a willingness to learn -- or choose not to visit at all -- then Hawaii may be preserved for the people who have called it home for centuries, activists say. For many residents, living in Hawaii is no vacationTourism is Hawaii’s largest single source of private capital, per the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
