The Hawaii Tourism Authority is inviting Big Island residents to share their mana‘o about tourism next week.
Through a pair of public meetings, HTA will present the agency’s progress in fulfilling the goals of its Destination Management Action Plan for the Big Island, which it released in early 2021.
“That plan, we developed it during the pandemic, so it will be good for us to talk about it and see how it’s working with more people visiting the state,” said HTA spokesman Ilihia Gionson.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when tourism to Hawaii plummeted to a fraction of its typical rate, the DMAP focused on the concept of “regenerative tourism” in order to counteract the industry’s effects on the environment. With tourism back in full force — as of September, visitation rates had recovered to 95% of prepandemic levels — Gionson said residents can help determine the direction of future DMAPs.
Ross Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitor Bureau, told the Tribune-Herald on Wednesday that while the planning for the DMAP was completed during the pandemic, most of those plans were enacted after tourism began picking up again.
For example, he said the DMAP’s goals for educating future travelers about how to be responsible visitors to the state have only begun to be fulfilled recently. Birch said this while in Seoul, Korea, to discuss with that country’s tourism agencies how to responsibly promote Hawaii as a tourist destination.
Back in 2021, an HTA spokesman said that the nine core goals enumerated within the DMAP — which include things like “promote agritourism” and “develop programs to perpetuate authentic Hawaiian culture” and “create new funding sources to improve infrastructure” — should be fully implemented by the end of 2023. An October report claimed that 92% of the plan already has been fulfilled.
“We’re seeing some great success and community support with our goals in the DMAP,” Birch said, explaining that in cases like Waipio Valley, listening to and acting on the community’s preferences for how the land is managed is central to the entire DMAP concept.
Waipio Valley is what the DMAP calls a “tourism hotspot,” which requires additional actions by HTA and other agencies to manage visitors’ access to the site.
Gionson said that the current limited access allowed to Waipio Valley has funneled more visitors to Pololu and other locations, which has led to additional impacts that the public might discuss at next week’s meetings.
“Ultimately, what we focus on is going to be up to the community,” Gionson said. “Any of our goals that we’ve been able to complete, that’s been because of the community’s work.”
Gionson added the meetings next week will help HTA determine the direction of the next DMAP after 2023.
Birch said future incarnations of the DMAP will include new goals and new action items such as how to handle short-term vacation rentals.
“We haven’t done anything about the vacation rentals, because we haven’t had updated legislation to work with yet,” Birch said, adding that, once legislation regarding vacation rentals is introduced and passed after the Legislature convenes in a January, it will be incorporated into future DMAPs.
The meetings will be held Tuesday, Nov. 29, at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo and Wednesday, Nov. 30, at the West Hawaii Civic Center in Kailua-Kona. Both events will run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Attendees can register at hawaiitourismauthority.org/what-we-do/events.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.