In preparation for yesterday’s panel discussion, I spent some time looking through newspapers published during 1968.
Here’s one snippet that caught my eye right away (below).
It was January 1, 1968, and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin published several reviews of the past year. One dealt with tourism.
The big news: There were over one million visitors to Hawaii in 1967, a new record.
The other side of that news: Questions were already being raised about whether there needed to be controls or limits on the growth of tourism.
In 2017, we have learned, another record was set with 9.3 million visitor arrivals.
But the questions regarding the limits to this growth seem to be fewer and more muted, although someone really should be sounding red alert.
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That was the time the State’s Dept. of Planning & Economic Development took up the question and wrestled with it in a report titled the “Tourism Impact Planning Study (TIPS).” Didn’t get much traction.
Here in Maui, we were told by the “planners” in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s that tourism would be “confined” to the Kaanapali and Wailea resort areas. However, with condo-conversions, vacation rentals and now Airbnb, we are overrun, with no limit in sight.