Project Organization & Scope

The Sustainable Tourism Project was funded with an appropriation from the 2001 State Legislature. The project was administered by DBEDT’s Research and Economic Analysis Division (READ) through in coordination with the Office of State Planning (OP) and the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA).

Major Components

The project was conducted as a series of three separate studies corresponding to (1) the need to develop a framework for understanding and measuring tourism’s economic and environmental impacts,  (2) the need to examine evidence about tourism’s socio-cultural impacts and to use various methods to understand public priorities, concerns and perceived benefits regarding visitor activity, and (3) the need for a information and assessment of tourism’s relationship to the infrastructure and environment.

Three major studies were produced directly through this project, including:

Economic & Environmental Modeling Study conducted by the firm of R.M. Towill Corporation

Socio-Cultural & Public Input Study conducted by the firm of John M. Knox and Associates

Infrastructure & Environmental Overview Study conducted by the firm of Carter Burgess, Inc.

In addtion, the project drew on results of the Natural Resource Assessment Study, conducted separately by PBR Hawaii for the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Geographic Focus

The focus of the project was on both the statewide and county levels. The statewide focus was concerned with understanding how various types of tourism drive the economy of the State as a whole and how this impacts the major economic sectors and factors such as income, jobs, wages and prices. However, the major infrastructure systems and the places where visitor and residential activity occurs are at the local level. Therefore, another major focus of the project was to develop methods to analyze how local areas are impacted by overall economic activity and tourism in particular.  An effort to understand resident’s perspective of the visitor industry through survey means was focused on both the statewide and county levels.