Recently, the State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism commissioned a Visitor Satisfaction and Activity Survey. Surprisingly, a growing number say they won’t come back. Why? Visitors say Hawaii is too expensive in 2022.
The State of Hawaii regularly prepares these Visitor Satisfaction and Activity Surveys (VSATs) to gauge how competitive Hawaii is doing. Seems a bit contradictory for a state grappling with over-tourism, no? Yet, despite this, the surveys provide valuable information beyond whether or not visitors thought their vacation to Hawaii was worth it or not.
Visitors Say Hawaii is Too Expensive in 2022
Seriously. The statement “visitors say Hawaii is too expensive in 2022” shouldn’t surprise anyone. Hawaii is expensive. It always has been. And it’s not only expensive to visitors, but it’s also expensive for those of us that call Hawaii home too. In fact, this was a leading reason why visitors didn’t want to return last year too. Only, nowadays, this point has become even more painful. But, this can’t be helped. After all, gas in Hawaii is over $5 per gallon, a gallon of milk is over $6 at Costco and over $8 at a grocery store, a dozen eggs are around $6, etc. Never mind we have some of the highest electricity prices in the nation too.
Mind you, these figures are for Oahu only. Go to any other island and they go up even more. That’s why a visit to Maui is so painful – well, that and their state-leading real estate prices.
Naturally, all of these expenses trickle down. Stack on rent/lease expenses, especially in high-priced visitor-heavy regions, and it’s easy to see why everything cost so damn much in Hawaii.
Of course, hotel operators willfully gouging people isn’t helping either. Have you seen hotel prices in Hawaii lately? They’re absolutely insane! Even by our standards! No wonder visitors say Hawaii is too expensive in 2022!
Deeper Dive
That visitors say Hawaii is too expensive in 2022 isn’t surprising, or even that interesting. What is, however, is the underlying data. For one, despite complaints about cost, overall satisfaction remains high. In fact, 87.7% of visitors from the U.S. West Coast rate their visit as excellent, 89.2% from the U.S. East gave the same rating, while 8.6.% of Canadians also gave a rating of excellent. Delving deeper, travelers under the age of 35 and first-time visitors in general, were more satisfied. Lower-income travelers (those earning less than $100,000/year) were also more satisfied.
Naturally, this means that wealthier visitors, those between the ages of 50 and 64, and returning visitors were, generally, less satisfied. And that’s a problem since, to address Hawaii’s overtourism issue, officials need to attract wealthier visitors. But how do you do that if one of the top five complaints is that Hawaii is too crowded? Overtourism, it appears, is helping to drag down, well, tourism. Interestingly, though, lower-income visitors were also the least likely to make a return visit – likely due to the cost. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the second highest reason to not return for U.S. East visitors is that the flight is too long. Maybe don’t take a 14-hour direct flight to Hawaii?
Also included in the report are top visitor activities in Hawaii. Unsurprisingly, The most popular activities tend to be cheaper or no-cost ones. For example, visiting North Shore beaches was the top activity for Oahu. In fact, outdoor activities were the most popular activities in general amongst visits – especially hiking and visiting state or national parks. Inexpensive dining options also reigned supreme, while visitors mostly stuck to supermarkets for general shopping while in the islands.
Final Thoughts
The points I mentioned above just scratch the surface of the data collected by the survey. If you wish to see the full results, you can find them here. But, eh, I don’t think most of you need to look at the data. You guys already know how crazy things are here. Just imagine having to pay the prices os residents do every day. Insane!