“A record-setting 10.2 million tourists are expected to visit Hawaii this year. What’s the full cost of welcoming them?

According to a new academic study, “Destinations at Risk: The Invisible Burden of Tourism,” even the best attempts at answering this question are informed by inaccurate, incomplete and otherwise misleading data. 

The impact of global tourism on local economies remains largely unknown, and this knowledge gap has allowed poor management to fester, according to the study authored by EplerWood International, Cornell University and the Travel Foundation.

Overtourism is identified in the March 2019 study as a symptom of this underlying problem. To fix it requires a paradigm shift.”

Lisa Kleissner introduced me to this article, and my immediate reaction was that this was such an important article, I wanted to feature it over the rest of the summer on Tourist Tuesdays. In fact, Megan Epler Wood, cited extensively in this article is the author of Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet and the founder of the EplerWood Institute. CABS thinks that the speaker they have arranged for August 5, Christ Costas, who partnered with Megan Epler Wood in the early days of the sustainable tourism movement, is a better fit for us. But the information in the article and in her book, is invaluable.

Form an introduction to this book:

“This book recommends that decision makers assess the current and future value of natural, social, and cultural capital to guide investment in destinations and protect vital resources. Case studies illustrate why budgets to protect local destinations are consistently underestimated and offer guidance on new metrics. Innovative approaches are proposed to support the transition to green infrastructure, protect incomparable landscapes, and engage local people in the monitoring of vital indicators to protect local resources.”

This will be a lengthy series which will probably last throughout the rest of the summer season. It is already in 4 parts and I have at least 1 or 2 more parts to write. Tune in next Tourist Tuesday for part 2.

By Ellie Nakamoto-White| July 11, 2019 at 2:12 PM HST – Updated July 11 at 2:12 PM 

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) – The growing number of illegally parked vehicles along Kauai’s state highways has prompted an increase in fines for those parked illegally in places along the North Shore.

A bill first introduced by Rep. Nadine Nakamura, and signed into law last week by Gov. David Ige, establishes a new State Highway Enforcement Program, establishing a parking violation surcharge in special ‘no parking’ zones ― in addition to other penalties and fines for parking violations on state highways.

According to Nakamura, the thousands of people drawn to the island’s north shore on a daily basis causes gridlock, safety concerns and numerous complaints.

“This bill is the direct result of Haena and Wainiha residents raising the concern about illegally-parked cars taking over their community and causing health and safety issues,” Rep. Nakamura said. “Adding a $200 surcharge to the existing parking fine of $35 will deter visitors from parking in the newly established ‘no parking’ zone.”

This is just one step officials are taking in hopes of controlling the tourism at Haena State Park.

Other ways are reducing daily visitor counts from 3,000 to 900, having visitors make advance parking and entrance reservations, and accessing the park via the North Shore Shuttle.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/07/12/state-raise-fines-illegally-parked-cars-along-parts-kauais-north-shore/ Copyright 2019 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

And this is what we need for Bixby. A complete and total ban of any parking anywhere near Bixby. Want to stop and take a selfie? You must take the Big Little Lies shuttle from Rio Road.

Tim Huntington took a video on July 4th, 2019 to show the line of cars waiting to approach Bixby — they were lined up going south well past Palo Colorado Canyon or 2.75 miles. You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/346274911

Also, on Saturday, someone hung this banner up, which was removed that same morning by MCSO Jesse Villaseñor, I am told. I do not advocate doing this, although, I must admit it did amuse me.

Finally, for those who think putting in parking lots might be the answer, consider that the parking lot will be full immediately, adding to the congestion and traffic problems, not alleviating them, and then shall we make it bigger or add more? I suggest we take a lesson from Horseshoe Bend, and Page, AZ regarding the problems that creates and some of the potential solutions they have come up with — just like on Kauai, a shuttle is one of the answers, but parking lots themselves may not be, at least near the IG selfie destination:

Horseshoe Bend 4th of July traffic management plan Jun 24, 2019,

From the Lake Powell News Network: https://www.lakepowellnews.com/single-post/2…

This year, the Page Police Department and the City of Page will be implementing traffic changes from July 4 through July 7 to help address and improve public safety.

Here are some of the temporary changes you will encounter at Horseshoe Bend over the 4th of July weekend:

* There will be multiple electronic signs in both directions providing you with up-to-date traffic and parking information

* Making a left turn into Horseshoe Bend from Northbound 89 will not be allowed; access will be blocked. You will have to drive down toward Wal-Mart and go around the roundabout (traffic circle) to make a right-hand turn into the parking lot

* Speeds in the area may be reduced

* Police officers will be directing traffic starting at 7am and continuing until 7pm or later if necessary

* Oversized vehicles such as RVs and vehicles with trailers will not be allowed into the parking lot. Commercial tour buses and shuttles will be allowed access.

No matter the time of year you are not allowed to park along Highway 89, however this does still occur. To prevent this, the Page Police Department and the City of Page will be placing barricades along the shoulders.

For those who would prefer not to deal with the traffic congestion and potential parking problems, alternate ways of seeing Horseshoe Bend are: 

Helicopter flights: https:/…

Fixed-wing airplane flights: https:/…

Horseback rides: http://www.horseshoebendtrailrides.com

Shuttle service from Page, AZ, to a private entrance on Navajo Tribal Land: http://www.horseshoebendtours.com

But before, during, and after all this, as Martha Diehl keeps reminding us, we need real data. “I think we need to have actual numbers esp on peaks & velleys. A continuous count @ both ends & Naci would be a start. Then we can map the choke points in time & space, maybe work on a slate of specific measures to alleviate….”

“The idea is to create a better experience for the residents and the visitors and then lessen the impact on the place,” said Joel Guy, executive director of The Hanalei Initiative, a nonprofit launching the North Shore Shuttle. “I think it’s a pretty unique model that can hopefully be used in other places.”

June 20, 2019, 2:31 AM PDT By Michelle Broder Van Dyke

HĀʻENA, Hawaii — To reach the northeastern corner of the island of Kauai requires driving or biking on a winding two-lane highway flanked by the mountains and the sea, where rocky outposts are interlaced with strips of sandy beach protected by fringe reefs.

A two-mile stretch of Kūhiō Highway reopened this week after being closed since April 2018 because of landslides triggered by record-breaking rainfall. Now, parts of the mountainside are held back with wire mesh that climbs 40 feet in a highway repair project estimated to cost at least $85 million. Three narrow bridges built in 1912 were wiped out and only one has been completely repaired; the other two are partially complete, with makeshift wooden guardrails and cones blocking cars from crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

Without tourists to disturb the wildlife, native plants and animals rebounded, and even the local community grew stronger. The highway leads to Hāʻena State Park, which once drew more than 2,000 visitors a day. Although tourism is the main economic driver in Hawaii, officials are reconsidering its position as host to nearly 10 million tourists a year across the six islands accessible to visitors. To maintain its unique natural and cultural resources, Hawaii is attempting to shift from encouraging to limiting tourists. With the reopening of Kūhiō Highway, new regulations will aim to cut the park’s number of visitors in half, a goal some locals say is not enough.

See the rest of this article here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-year-without-tourists-kauai-s-rugged-coast-reopens-n1019551

“A popular sentiment among born-and-raised locals is that the flood was a divine declaration from Mother Nature that she had had enough.” 

From another article on what it is like since it reopened with some controls over tourist numbers in place:

Kauai’s Newly Reopened Park Is A Case Study In Controlling Tourism

“There are people who have been born and raised there and all they know is crowds of people,” said Curt Cottrell, the administrator of the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of State Parks. “And then … they looked up and saw their community as it once was 70 years ago. Even the fish started looking up and recognizing that there was room now for them to come back and swim.”

For the rest of this wonderful article see: https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/06/kauis-newly-reopened-park-is-a-case-study-in-controlling-tourism/

As Lisa Kleissner says, ”What will our story be?”

I love this idea! Bless the Dutch.

“Tourists visiting the Dutch capital are being invited to marry an Amsterdammer for the day as part of a new initiative to improve relations between locals and visitors.

Nuptials will take place in the city’s vibrant “Latin Quarter” – De Pijp – where happy couples will be kitted out in second-hand wedding clobber. Plastic flowers will add to the ersatz sense of occasion.

And the honeymoon? A day spent skipping around Amsterdam, exploring the hidden nooks that pass most visitors by, sharing ideas and cultures (and possibly other things if the one-day marriage goes well).

The Marry an Amsterdammer initiative, which launches next week, is part of a wider movement to engage more visitors in the Dutch capital proper, steering them away from the tourist trail and hooking them up with local people who are trying to make the city – and the world – a better place….

The Untourist Movement was founded to counter the negativity surrounding tourism in Amsterdam, where 800,000 inhabitants are swamped by around eight million overnight visitors annually.

‘It’s a new way of thinking about tourism that can be helpful in Amsterdam and other cities struggling with this problem,’ explained Simons.”

These are three of the untourist activities:

1. Plastic fishing in canals

2. Feed the Dutch picnic

3. Laughing with Locals

For the rest of this article, see: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/netherlands/amsterdam/articles/a-very-dutch-response-to-overtourism/

 

 

The Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce sent the following letter to our Board of Supervisors asking them to not cut funding to Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau (MCCVB) in the 2019-2020 budget. The majority of the money that goes to MCCVB, that does not go for salaries, goes toward advertising to attract tourists and/or conventions to the area, capitalizing on the selling power of Big Sur.

Big Sur sells itself and, of course, so does Big Little Lies (tongue in cheek here). The expenditure of money for advertising to bring in more tourists, when there is no money for the infrastructure to support increased visitation, is irresponsible and reckless. Given the budget constraints the County of Monterey has, cutting the funding of MCCVB is a wise choice.

MCCVB just spearheaded through the City of Monterey, rather than through the County of Monterey, a Tourist Improvement District (TID) tax last year which resulted in an increased revenue for MCCVB. This TID now comprises 57% of MCCVB’s budget. (I wrote about this last year, see for example: https://bigsurkate.blog/2018/09/12/public-hearing-re-tid-to-fund-mccvb/) Further, I provided a copy of the bureau’s budget for 2018-2019 here: https://Bigsurkate.blog/2018/09/11/tourism-in-moco/ While the TOT collected has been increasing, how can it be determined that this is due to the efforts of MCCVB rather than the popularity of Big Little Lies? Even MCCVB capitalizes on this trend by promoting a “Big Little Moments” Campaign (see: https://www.seemonterey.com/big-little-lies/) which I covered on 5/30/19 here: https://bigsurkate.blog/2019/05/30/tourist-thursday-5-30-19-big-little-moments-campaign/

Consider contacting our Board of Supervisors representative, Mary Adams’s office, and making your voice heard if you have an opinion on this issue. Continuing to push a goal of increased visitation is no longer sustaining nor is it a model to follow. Some things — like the beauty of Big Sur — are more precious than money. Here is the letter in jpg format.

Also, if you are interested, MCCVB and the Monterey Chamber of Commerce asked the City of Monterey to increase its funding to MCCVB at the May 29th meeting. Monterey video tapes all the City Council meetings and has them available here: https://www.monterey.org/City-Hall/The-Monterey-Channel/Council-Meetings-Video-on-Demand 5/29 Council mtg, afternoon session, starting at 1:17:15 (Clyde’s intro to public comments, then the public comments) (Thanks to Mari Lynch of Bicycle Monterey for alerting me to this event.)

As if we don’t have enough tourists in Big Sur, MCCVB came out with a new “Moments” ad campaign yesterday: (https://www.seemonterey.com/big-little-lies/

I lucked upon this site this past weekend, and wanted to bring it here, even though I am taking most of the week off to spend time with some girl friends that I cherish and only get to see once or twice a year, but this is important.

“SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. (PRWEB) MAY 18, 2019

Prontopia’s vision for responsible travel and sustainable cities centers on a community model of people helping people. The company’s innovative app provides on-demand help to travelers in walkable cities, when and where they need it. Prontopia’s innovative platform offers an unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness about the local problems of overtourism and support grassroots solutions among travelers and residents.

In honor of World Oceans Day on June 8, California travel tech startup Prontopia will join forces with local non-profit organizations and other partners in hospitality to coordinate teams of volunteers to clean the Venice lagoon, the banks of the Arno in Florence, the Tiber river in Rome, and the beaches of Santa Barbara, California in a “Plastic Free” awareness event.

According to the Institute of Marine Science – National Council of Research, “Recent studies have highlighted that there is a massive spread of trash in all world seas, especially of plastic, which is 70% of it.” Generating awareness of ocean conservation in high-traffic tourist areas like Venice, Italy, is of paramount importance to implementing sustainable solutions. Prontopia is working together with the nascent organization Plastic Free Venice Lagoon as well as citizen groups and environmental organizations in each city to create an event that brings together residents, travelers, and international organizations in recognition of the need for positive action toward systemic change to combat the negative effects of overtourism and its consequences, such as pollution in waterways.

“A cleaner community is a happier community and we should all take pride in the places we live.” Davide Poletto, General Coordinator of the event “Plastic Free Venice Lagoon,” notes that the, “Venice lagoon, for its conformation, nature and specially for the high impact human activities coming from massive tourism and in its continuous growth, is specifically exposed to the diffusion of plastic trash and relative micro-plastics.”

The Prontopia app provides a safe and simple way for travelers to get in-person help easily with getting around the city. This model also provides the company with valuable feet-on-the-street networks for sharing information from among the locals about their viewpoints on what is needed for better quality of life in Venice, Florence, and Rome in the management of high-volume tourist traffic. The diffusion of plastic trash in these cities poses a risk to both the local environment, and the escalating global problem. The goal of the event is to show the power of unity in numbers in social action, across multiple cities at the same time.

In Prontopia’s California headquarter city of Santa Barbara, Prontopia and strategic partner Maps.com in consultation with clean water watchdog organization Channel Keepers (https://www.sbck.org) are mobilizing local team members to not only clean the creeks and beaches, but also to contribute to Channel Keepers’ research by documenting the trash that volunteers collect to help with their mission to monitor water systems and engage citizens in implementing solutions to water pollution. Channel Keepers is a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a coalition of 200 grassroots groups on six continents collectively patrolling and protecting over 1.5 million square miles of watersheds and defending local communities’ right to clean water. John Glanville, CEO of Maps.com emphasizes that, “Data collection and access to maps is an essential part of protecting habitat, understanding climate change, and adapting green alternatives for your community, for your home, and while traveling the globe.”

In Venice, Florence, and Rome, Prontopia engages with local organizations and businesses in proactive change efforts to ensure the city remains a living city for residents, creating measurable solutions to the problems of overtourism. “We knew that by providing these local connections in the service, we would have a golden opportunity to also provide a model for corporate responsibility,” said Prontopia founder and CEO, Shannon Kenny. “When travelers connect to locals in a way in which they are oriented toward respect – extending a hand to say ‘Welcome to the city, I live here,’ – that is the first step toward global citizenship, and caring about the place.”

For the rest of the article see: https://www.prweb.com/releases/travel_tech_startup_prontopia_puts_its_platform_to_good_use_with_world_oceans_day_cleanup_of_oceans_and_rivers_in_venice_rome_florence_and_california/prweb16317057.htm