Imagine Hawaii as only some of us do before our first visit. In this time of everyday climate headlines, you will grasp how leisure travel connects to climate action. Hawaiian music, hula, arts and cultural practices can change how even as visitors we find answers sought in a rapidly changing world.
• Hawaii is the only state in the American union that officially speaks two languages — Hawaiian and English. (Alaska also includes 20 co-equal Native Alaskan languages,) You will understand how a language that uses only 12 letters with all words ending in vowels reflects organic values.
• The oldest of Hawaiian chants describe the islands, the spirits that inhabit them, the forces of nature that shaped them, and how all forces are inextricably connected by a mandate to mālama, to care for our environment and for one another.
• Hawaii is the only state geographically spread across unbridged islands that you can reach only by ship or plane from the other 49 — no train, bus or long-distance trail access.
• It’s our only state annexed by the peaceful overthrow of an established and benign monarchy, or at least benign in its last 100 years after centuries of intrigue and internal wars among its many ruling families. Until the turn of the 19th century, multiple monarchs ruled sections of the largest island, itself named Hawaii, a/k/a the Big Island, at the same time. The state is about the size of Connecticut, 4,500 square miles and growing daily from Kilauea Volcano on its east side.
• Hawaii is America’s westernmost porch on the global South.
• It’s where America joined the deadliest war in history in 1941.
• It’s where America’s 44th President — our first of color, Barack Obama — was born and raised.
• Hawaii Is our only state that actively seeks unprecedented added sovereignty.
This exceptional history will do more than any advertising blitz will to reposition all of Hawaii on the travel map as only Maui now can. Visitors who learn about the state’s hard-to-imagine exoticism and easy accessibility when starting their travel planning will enable Hawaii to stand alone among not only beach destinations but equally among cultural capitals. Its mountains, active volcanoes, ravines, tropical forests and waterfalls are also stunningly beautiful.
Repositioned for its singular lōkahi — having one heart and one mind — its authenticity will advance its claim for added sovereignty in a way compatible with statehood.
To achieve this, hotel companies will have to give up their greenwashed misrepresentations not because Bloomberg calls them out for intentionally obfuscating their Net Zero claims. But clearly, such claims fail to include the greenhouse gas emissions caused by suppliers they hire for their new buildings or renovations.
As travelers, once we decide on the kind of vacation we want — beach resort, adventure, tied to a historic or other well defined neighborhood — we give most of our thought to putting a roof over our heads. Hotel companies compete with each other far more by exaggerated decor and overblown imagery than any other kind of commercial building. Companies vie over the newest technology, the latest top to bottom renovations, and the repurposing of ancient convents for modern travelers.
The push for climate action will come instead from ordinary people on our own and by the urging of greening destinations. Hawaii is about to join Singapore, Guyana, Belize, The Netherlands, Norway and Rwanda, among others.
Additionally, Google among for-profits and nonprofits now monetizes its platform by publishing peer-reviewed lists of companies that advise travelers about which hotels and other travel services pass an unvarnished green test — a battering ram against travel industry intransigence.
As climate change intensifies
We can expect Miami to pull together land use management that ends the lethal outcomes from decades of ignoring non-native grasses to dry the slopes above Lahaina as if “match sticks” waiting for the spark of a fallen power line. The analogy, introduced by an un-named activist in The Washington Post, appears in its recent report that exposes how one after another political administration ignored the warnings of science in favor of letting major developers sprawl imported lifestyles that favor the isolating privacy of subdivisions and malls over the nurturing of authentic community.
This is already changing.
A leading analyst of insurance underwriting for the hospitality trade, Joe Addison of MarshMcLennan, says that while underwriting standards will become more stringent in the near term, hotel owners and investors can offset losses by siting their projects for exposures to different weather patterns and winds.
“Opportunity exists for a greater understanding of how those weather patterns will/can affect potential outcomes and/or wildfire potential,” Addison says. “Simply put, a significant difference of wildfire exposure exists between the leeward and windward side of each island” and includes various microclimates.
How visitors to Maui and elsewhere can up their climate action
- Don’t “rubberneck” around the affected communities, says Kainoa Horcajo, a cultural consultant and organizer with the mutual aid organization Maui Rapid Response. “Come with respect, humility and reverence for our Maui community, especially West Maui.” As one visitor said after a rainy morning helping restore native plants at the Puu Kukui Watershed Preserve, “I felt connected to the island in a way that I had yet to feel before.”
- • “There is a lot of cultural and emotional sensitivity at this time,” says Jeana Naluai, a Native Hawaiian who runs a spa in Maui’s Upcountry that specializes in traditional Hawaiian Lomi Lomi techniques. Naluai, who runs Ho’omana Spa, suggests that tourists use the Kuhikuji database to find Native Hawaiian-owned businesses.
• Edwin “Ekolu” Lindsey III is president of the nonprofit Maui Cultural Lands. Every Saturday, the public is welcome to join Maui Cultural Lands and take care of the Honokowai Valley on Maui through planting native plants with the goal of educating people on why these resources should be protected. Many who join are tourists, and Lindsey says they come from all around the world.
• Book Hawaii hotels with cultural advisors who will help you learn about Hawaiian culture in a respectful way. At hotels without cultural advisors, encourage the property to present authorities on Hawaiian culture and history for hourlong presentations. Also bring this up with booking agents.
• Alternately or in addition, if you’re visiting Oahu, the Polynesian Cultural Center in Honolulu offers a hands-on do-as-I-do-not-as-I-say experience.
• Check out Honolulu Civil Beat, a local nonprofit journalism outlet, to learn some of the issues Hawaii is currently facing, such as a housing crisis. These resources help break down the misconception that Hawaii is just an idyllic paradise.
• Leave locations of remote discoveries off your social media posts. Geotagging can go viral and drive masses where people should visit alone or in small groups.
• Book excursions with locally-owned businesses to see how local farmers cultivate the land and feed the state, like ones hosted by Island Cruzin Hawaii. Or on your own, choose businesses listed by Hawaii’s Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce and Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association, partnered together to create a directory Kuhikuhi.com that lists Native Hawaiian-owned businesses from tours to food.
- Have a conversation with a local artisan who shapes koa wood by hand rather than just grabbing something off a shelf in a store.
- Although smoking weed has informal acceptance, don’t be flagrant about it.
NOTES
https://www.gohawaii.com/hawaiian-culture
https://www.yahoo.com/news/visit-spend-home-people-maui-100021540.html
https://support.google.com/travel/answer/10976106?hl=en
https://www.insider.com/how-to-be-responsible-respectful-tourist-hawaii-photos-2022-7#before-your-trip-spend-time-researching-hawaii-and-not-just-the-best-beaches-learn-about-hawaiian-culture-history-and-values-2; https://travel2change.org/
https://www.insider.com/how-to-be-responsible-respectful-tourist-hawaii-photos-2022-7#instead-of-spending-all-your-vacation-by-the-beach-consider-giving-back-to-hawaii-through-volunteer-opportunities-7; https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2022/09/17/hawaii-respectful-tourism-vacation/8027557001/
