The Honolulu Marathon weekend brought more than 30,000 visitors and residents to Waikīkī. Before that kicked off, the Hawaiʻi Lodging and Tourism Association was part of an annual Waikīkī safety conference Wednesday alongside the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority and other organizations.
The next big effort to promote tourism on Maui will have to wait until those displaced by wildfires can move out of hotel rooms and into more permanent housing — according to Mufi Hannemann, a former Honolulu mayor and councilmember who is now the president and CEO of the association.
Hannemann said the HLTA is working closely with state and county governments to encourage short-term rental owners to convert their properties to long-term rentals to create more housing inventory for fire survivors.
He believes residents generally support that effort because of how visitors have impacted neighborhoods in the past.
"My problem is when they go into the residential neighborhoods, they make it difficult for many of our coworkers to be able to live affordably, and that's difficult, especially when we took some very turbulent times in tourism like we did during the pandemic," he said.
"I know that people that live in these neighborhoods would love nothing better than to see local residents renting long-term, as opposed to visitors from afar that come and go. And you never know who's going to be your neighbor from week to week," he added.
When asked how the proposed Hawaiian-Alaska Airlines merger would impact the tourism industry, Hannemann said it would be a good thing. He hopes it will enhance service to and from the U.S. West Coast and international markets.
This story aired on The Conversation on Dec. 11, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
