Despite escalating COVID-19 positivity rates from breakthrough cases and the variants, as well as stagnation in vaccine numbers, an alarming number of tourists have flooded Hawai’i and strained its people, land, and resources this summer. It is a continuation of America’s history of wrongfully occupying the islands, showing us that we are not as far into the ‘post-colonial era’ as one may think.
In June, over 791,000 people visited the area. They came without quarantining after travel restrictions were lifted and sometimes without proof of vaccination, even though residents were told to reduce indoor capacities and social gatherings. They stayed in hotels, while the islands ran out of quarantine spaces and put COVID-19 patients on a waitlist. To keep pools for tourists full, the Native Hawaiian population was prohibited from watering their lawns or cleaning their cars. Beaches that were clean and thriving during lockdown became once again polluted and overcrowded.
“I am hurt, confused, frustrated, and saddened by the influx of tourists traveling to Hawai’i,” said Chelsea Cordero, a multiethnic Native Hawaiian residing in Colorado. “With the limited availability of resources, I am in awe of how tourists are placing their individual interests over the wellbeing of the people and the land.”
Shauna Medeiros-Tuilaepa shared similar sentiments about the harm inflicted by the damaged state of her homeland. She is Native Hawaiian and the owner of No Ke Aloha Polynesian Food Truck and Catering.
“It is spiritually stressful and disappointing. Native Hawaiians, or K?naka Maoli, are incredibly connected to the water and deeply rooted with the land. Although it is a trend that has been plaguing the islands for hundreds of years, seeing so many people flooding our lands is still hard to come to terms with on a physical, mental, and spiritual level,” she said.
To enter the islands, unvaccinated individuals can either quarantine for 10 days or provide a negative COVID test before their flight. Vaccinated tourists do not have to quarantine to travel. Starting Sep. 13, all persons will have to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to enter local bars, restaurants, and other business establishments in Hawai’i.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority only recently announced its intention to cap the number of visitors staying at Oahu. They plan to charge a “regenerative tourism” fee, make zoning changes, and review airport policies within the next three years. Their failure to act in the present relies on the misguided belief that Hawai’i needs tourism to stay fiscally afloat. This is capitalist rhetoric that places the money of American tourists over the lives of Native Hawaiians.
“Tourism is a servants’ prison that keeps local people in a permanent underclass in our own home. It’s a system that only works when the people who play here are richer than us, [those] who live and work here,” said Kaniela Ing on Twitter. He is Pasifika and the campaign director for People’s Action.
Cordero agreed, explaining that tourism has always been destructive to the islands and this has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“The majority of the time, visitors fail to recognize or choose to acknowledge that there is an ethnic group native to Hawai’i and that this place is more than a playground or destination,” She said. “With this unintentional or chosen ignorance, people are dismissing an entire group’s history and current conditions, and this action is hurtful.”
Knowing this history is critical to understanding the ways in which over-tourism is rooted in colonization. Polynesians are the aboriginal settlers of the islands of Hawai’i. They formed chiefdoms and trading networks, and in 1795, the Kingdom of Hawai’i was established when Kamehameha the Great brought them under one government. It was internationally recognized, and they entered into treaties with over twenty nations—including the U.S.
In the 19th century, Christian missionaries created a small class of American elites. They controlled the islands’ sugar industry, contracting laborers from China, Japan, and the Philippines. These businessmen pressured the Kingdom to give them greater control over the government and land, and it culminated in the overthrow of Hawai’i’s last monarch, Queen Lili?uokalani. In 1892, in an effort to make the islands less Asian and more white, they formed a bureau of government tasked with launching Hawaii’s tourism industry.
When the U.S. entered the Spanish-American War and found itself wanting a naval base in the Pacific, Congress proclaimed Hawai’i as an American territory. In 1959, Hawaiians were asked to vote on whether or not they wished to become a state. There was no option for independence. In the subsequent years, airlines opened routes to the islands, making travel fast, cheap, and accessible to the mainland masses.
The American government encouraged this tourism, using Asians and Pacific Hawaiians who made up the islands’ population as a racial wedge to justify the white supremacy of the Jim Crow and segregationist era.
In 1993, Congress issued an apology resolution that acknowledged “the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty.” This lip service served as momentum for the land back movement being organized by Native Hawaiians, which is alive and well today.
The over-tourism that Hawai’i experiences is the product of this colonization, making the two inseparable. Tourists are the result of a settler mentality that the U.S. is privy to using Hawai’i’s people, land, and resources without regard for the preservation of Native Hawaiian communities. Visiting Hawai’i, while its rightful inhabitants are demanding that Americans leave, is a selfish act that prioritizes the comfort and luxuries of white and non-Native Hawaiian people of color.
Native Hawaiians deserve to be given the energy and labor required to learn about and advocate for the issues that directly affect their communities, such as over-tourism. It is especially pertinent to the present moment to understand that they never needed nor wanted the voyeuristic business of American settlers on their land.
Community care is the bare minimum to dignifying Hawai’i and its people. Medeiros-Tuilaepa summed this up best, saying: “Hawaiians are beautiful, talented, cultured and kind people. Being giving and accommodating is so deeply rooted in our way of life, and this should not be taken advantage of or exploited. It should be appreciated and reciprocated in thankfulness and gratitude.”
For those who cannot avoid traveling to the area, consider reading up on the history of Native Hawaiians, supporting locally-owned businesses, and seeking out online resources on how to practice harm reduction.
