06-06-2024, 08:58 AM
In as much as tourism does not affect our family directly, when its down, the economy of Hawaii goes down. Which becomes that vicious cycle - which drives the cost of living to the resident up higher and higher.
The interesting fact about tourism is it's a ball constantly rolling down the hill. Gaining speed and size. First impacts air travel. The hotels. Car rentals. Entertainment. Restaurants, on and on. Each "industry" with employees. What happens when that ball hits the end of that hill?
One of the most interesting facts I learned during the Maui fires - when Maui more or less shut down to tourism overnight - was that almost immediately - 18,000 rental cars became idle. They didn't even have a place to park them all. Never even thought about that need. The place to "store" a rental car is at the hotel the customer is staying at!
And then - consider at 50 bucks a day to rent a car - that's 900,000 bucks a day into the economy and poof it's gone!
And that's just rental cars!
But the real question is, aside from tourism, what can Hawaii do that can run an economy that benefits all - most importantly - its own people?
The interesting fact about tourism is it's a ball constantly rolling down the hill. Gaining speed and size. First impacts air travel. The hotels. Car rentals. Entertainment. Restaurants, on and on. Each "industry" with employees. What happens when that ball hits the end of that hill?
One of the most interesting facts I learned during the Maui fires - when Maui more or less shut down to tourism overnight - was that almost immediately - 18,000 rental cars became idle. They didn't even have a place to park them all. Never even thought about that need. The place to "store" a rental car is at the hotel the customer is staying at!
And then - consider at 50 bucks a day to rent a car - that's 900,000 bucks a day into the economy and poof it's gone!
And that's just rental cars!
But the real question is, aside from tourism, what can Hawaii do that can run an economy that benefits all - most importantly - its own people?