James Mak
Hawai‘i Tourism in Search of the Promised Land
By Paul Brewbaker, Frank Haas and James Mak Public pressure has been mounting on the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA) to shift its focus from mainly marketing to destination management to mitigate tourism’s negative impacts on the community. HTA’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan states that “This is the first strategic plan developed while HTA is re-balancing our […]
Read MoreTo Tax or Not to Tax Sale of Food and Medicine
By James Mak Inflation is soaring at the highest rate since the early 1980s. Not surprisingly, many Hawaii residents are struggling financially today. Sadly, this has been true long before the pandemic and the recent spike in prices. In 2018, 42% of Hawaii households struggled to make ends meet; 33% were ALICE households, households that […]
Read MorePrivate Actions to Combat Climate Change Through Offsetting: The Story of The Coconut Traveler
By Kimberly Burnett, James Mak and Christopher Wada In late 2021, the United Nations (UN) held its 26th climate change conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. Among the many agreements that emerged from the conference was a coordinated plan for tourism climate action (Glasgow Declaration) to cut tourism’s global carbon emissions in half over the next […]
Read MoreCharging Visitors to Access Hawaii’s State Parks and Natural Recreation Areas
By Kimberly Burnett, James Mak and Christopher Wada Senate Bill S.B. 3192 S.D.2 in the current (2022) legislative session proposes to: “establish a visitor impact fee program, to be administered bythe department of land and natural resources, as a license requiredby visitors for usage of Hawaii’s public beaches, parks, trails, coastlines,and environment. The purpose of […]
Read MoreShould Hawaii Levy a Visitor Green Fee to Protect Our Environment?
By James Mak Since the visitor to the Islands unquestionablycontributes significantly to the State’senvironmental problems, he will no doubthave to bear a substantial portion of the outlays needed for their solution. William Baumol1970 IntroductionMore than 50 years ago in 1970 when Hawaii hosted a relatively paltry 1.7 million visitors, Princeton University economist, William Baumol, authored […]
Read MoreHawaii Needs to Focus on Developing Good Governance in Managing Tourism
By Paul Brewbaker, Frank Haas, and James Mak In order to develop and apply policies for tourism in destinations, there is usually a requirement for knowledge, thought, the application of power, resources and rules, and also coordination and cooperation among numerous actors. Together, these are the key features of governance. Bill BramwellSheffield Hallem UniversityUK At the […]
Read MoreDeveloping a Dream Destination: From Laissez-Faire to Destination Management
Read the full UHERO Brief. By James Mak In 2008, I published an interpretive history of how public policies toward tourism in Hawaii changed over nearly half a century from statehood until circa 2005. During much of this period, tourism in Hawaii was booming until the 1990s, followed by a period of relative stagnation. The […]
Read MoreDeveloping a Dream Destination: From Laissez-Faire to Destination Management
Read the summary blog post. By James Mak In 2008, I published an interpretive history of how public policies toward tourism in Hawaii changed over nearly half a century from statehood until circa 2005. During much of this period, tourism in Hawaii was booming until the 1990s, followed by a period of relative stagnation. The […]
Read MoreFunding the Hawaii Tourism Authority: TAT vs General Fund…Or?
By James Mak A majority of the states in the U.S. have a government tourism office (also known as Destination Marketing Organization, DMO) that markets their state. The National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL) notes that the most common way for states to fund their tourism offices is by appropriation from their general fund. [1] […]
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