1 Summit for Sustainable Travel in the Hawaiian Islands April 21, 2009 Harold Richins, PhD Amber H. O’Neill

2 Purpose/ Objectives To create a successful learning environment that engaged stakeholders of our State’s tourism community which supported: Developing areas of focus that chart a path toward establishing the Hawaiian Islands as a model of sustainable tourism best practices and brings the future to the present.

3 The Design: Participants were facilitated through a rigorous process of exploration, co-design, assessment and decision-making. To fuse planning and action, design and decision-making, and long and short-range goals. Composed of modules and exercises that participants performed in large and small groups.

Visioning the Future What does Hawai`i look like as a result of Sustainable Tourism? Five visions of the future…

“The model for tourism within Hawai`i incorporates, the people, place and environment and includes creating responsible tourists with engaged access to the experience.” 5

“We started by identifying some of the problems that we saw here in Hawai`i, then talking about what we’d like to see, and finally talking about the solutions. Through our conversations, the focus became, Cultural Integrity, and how in the future, it would be the foundation for meeting our sustainable tourism goals.” 6

7 “Integration in systemic balance between visitors, the culture, the environment, and ecosystems which… …connects the visitors to their experience and facilitates continuity between residents and visitors.”

8 “The cultural and sustainable significance of the Ahupu`aa is the model for the Hawai`i visitor experience.”

“We started with Aloha over everything. Our group talked about what it truly is to live Aloha, and it became a unifying concept in everything we came up with. Be the change you wish to see by practicing Aloha. We ended with education because the base of all our ideas and concepts is the successful implementation of education.” 9

What worked …to create the future sustainable Hawaiian tourism destination? KEY OVERVIEW: Transformed the host destination (Hawaii) as an optimum sustainable society, ecosystem and destination

What worked to create the future sustainable Hawaiian tourism destination?   Key aspects (from the STEP Summit):   Abundant and healthy native ecosystems   Healthy, happy, and housed residents   Food and energy independence and zero waste   Positive Hawaiian cultural-based interactions   Operate within sustainable carrying capacity   Be the change you want to see   Fully engaged and committed tourism practices

What worked? Key aspects from the STEP Summit:   Abundant and healthy native ecosystems   Clean water for all   Native plants imperative   Invasive species eradication   Conservation incentives   Protected areas

What worked? Key aspects from the STEP Summit, Cont’d:   Healthy, happy, and housed residents   Active urban and rural renewal   Diversified economy beyond tourism and building   Homes for all   Local property ownership

What worked? Key aspects from the STEP Summit, Cont’d:   Food and energy independence and zero waste   Energy independence and zero footprint   Food independence and local sources   Zero waste tolerance and outcomes

What worked? Key aspects from the STEP Summit, Cont’d:   Positive Hawaiian cultural-based interactions   Education of Hawaiian cultural practices   Emersion of Hawaiian culture into society   Hawaiian cultural activities, events, involvements   Hawaiian cultural tourist experiences

What worked? Key aspects from the STEP Summit, Cont’d:   Operate within sustainable carrying capacity   Understanding and identification of sustainable carrying capacity indicators and bench marks   Development of management practices related to sustainable carrying capacity   Deployment of and adherence to sustainable carrying capacity policies, limits and practices   Population dispersion (not growth)

What worked? Key aspects from the STEP Summit, Cont’d:   Be the change you want to see   Education and sharing of values and understanding of stewardship   Change in major paradigm away from growth and consumption   Community responsibility, empowerment and engagement   Responsible and responsive government

What worked? Key aspects from the STEP Summit, Cont’d:   Fully engaged and committed tourism practices   Contributing and engaged visitors   Full commitment to sustainable tourism principles and practices   Industry providers with fully sustainable tourism mission

What didn’t work …that hindered the future sustainable Hawaiian tourism destination? OVERVIEW: Kept the host destination (Hawaii) from transforming into an optimum sustainable society, ecosystem and destination

What didn’t work? Roadblocks to create the future sustainable Hawaiian tourism destination…   Key aspects (from the STEP Summit):   Failed to operate within sustainable carrying capacity   Failed to own change   Failure due to abuse of “Abundant”   Failure of “Community”   Failure in addressing food, energy and waste   Failed with culture   Failure - External factors not planned for

What didn’t work?   Failed to operate within the sustainable carrying capacity   Failed to identify and commit to carrying capacity   Failed to focus on long-term impacts/outcomes   Failed to communicate vision   Failed to gain consensus and commitment   Failed to put in place effective mngt plans and initiatives   Continued to develop/promote quantity vs. quality

What didn’t work, Cont’d?   Failure due to abuse of “Abundant”   Allowed abuse, corruption and special interests to continue   Failure to give up on consumerism   Failure to regulate and hold accountable areas that need control   Failure to place limits on development and overuse of resources   Failure to diversify

What didn’t work, Cont’d?   Failure of “Community”   Failure to ensure influential resident voice   Didn’t fully commit and address homelessness   In-effective family planning   Didn’t fully commit to and address social issues

What didn’t work, Cont’d?   Failure in addressing food, energy and waste   Ignored signs of future energy problems   Did not commit resources to major issues   Failed to commit to local view of markets

What didn’t work, Cont’d?   Failed with culture   Failed to respect cultural diversity   Failed to allocate priority toward Hawaiian cultural experience   Failed to put culture to use

What didn’t work, Cont’d?   Failure - External factors not planned for   Failure to have adequate contingency plans and initiatives   Failure to understand changing visitor interests

What didn’t work? Roadblocks identified as MOST important… …that hindered the future sustainable Hawaiian tourism destination.

What were the roadblocks to success – Identified as most important Quantity rather than quality Made excuses without action Allowed conflicts to grow between tourists and residents Failure to acknowledge carrying capacity Lack of money Did not put culture to use.

What were the roadblocks to success – Identified as most important, Cont’d Lack of political will Too many talkers, not enough doers Not enough input - output economic analysis Tried to make change in some regulatory paradigm Failed to maximize the use of cutting edge technology to modernize while incorporating traditional wisdom.

How to make The Worst The Best…

Initial Ideas for STEP projects …from the Summit

Initial Ideas for STEP projects (from the Summit)   1 - Involve host culture in figuring out ways to communicate to tourists with more emersion on Hawaiian host culture.   2 - Review regulatory barriers and permits and propose way forward looking at … …volunteer tourism, educational tourism, alternative lodging (including bed-and-breakfast, cultural experience and eco- lodging).   3 - Review and propose effective sustainable curriculum at UH and within UH system.   4 - Explore resource management, carrying capacity and identified baselines related to sustainable tourism.

Initial Ideas for STEP projects, Cont’d   5 - Explore approaches for hands-on experience on mentor internship opportunities in sustainability and tourism.   6 - Promote “preserve the dream” and what that means and how it might be effectively implemented.   7 - Local community responsibility, education, and bridging gap between local community and ecology.   8 - Collaboration with Department of Education to have ecological education in schools.   9 - Web-based resource -highlights current s, identifies common ground.

34 Summit for Sustainable Travel in the Hawaiian Islands April 21, 2009 Harold Richins, PhD Mahalo!

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