Editing Hawaii (section)

==Tourism==
{{unbalanced|section|date=April 2025}}
{{main|Tourism in Hawaii}}
[[File:Punaluu Beach Park, Big Island, Hawaii.jpg|thumb|[[Punaluʻu Beach]], on the Big Island. [[Tourism in Hawaii|Tourism]] is Hawaii's leading employer]]
Tourism is an important part of the Hawaiian economy as it represents a quarter of the economy. According to the Hawaii Tourism: 2019 Annual Visitor Research Report, a total of 10,386,673 visitors arrived in 2019 which increased 5% from the previous year, with expenditures of almost $18 billion.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Hawai{{okina}}i Tourism Authority |title=2019 Annual Visitor Research Report |url=https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/visitor/visitor-research/2019-annual-visitor.pdf}}</ref> In 2019, tourism provided over 216,000 jobs statewide and contributed more than $2 billion in tax revenue.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Hawai{{okina}}i Tourism Authority |title=Fact Sheet: Benefits of Hawai{{okina}}i's Tourism Economy |url=https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/media/4167/hta-tourism-econ-impact-fact-sheet-december-2019.pdf}}</ref> Due to mild year-round weather, tourist travel is popular throughout the year. Tourists across the globe visited Hawaii in 2019 with over 1 million tourists from the U.S. East, almost 2 million Japanese tourists, and almost 500,000 Canadian tourists.

It was with statehood in 1959 that the Hawaii tourism industry began to grow.<ref name=":6">{{cite journal |last=Miller-Davenport |first=Sarah |date=February 13, 2017 |title=A 'Montage of Minorities': Hawai{{okina}}i Tourism and the Commodification of Racial Tolerance, 1959–1978* |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=817–842 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X16000364 |s2cid=152041916 |issn=0018-246X|doi-access=free }}</ref>

According to Hawaiian scholar [[Haunani-Kay Trask]], tourism in Hawaii has led to the commodification and exploitation of Hawaiian culture resulting in insidious forms of "cultural prostitution". Hawaii has been used to fuel ideas of escapism yet tourism in Hawaii ignores the harm Kanaka and locals experience.<ref name=TraskBL>{{cite journal |last=Trask |first=Haunani-Kay |title=Lovely Hula Lands: Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of Hawaiian Culture |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/bl/article/view/24958 |journal=Border/Lines |year=1991 |issue=23}}</ref> Cultural traditions such as the hula have been made "ornamental&nbsp;... a form of exotica" for tourists as a way for large corporations and land owners to gain profit over the exploitation of Hawaiian people and culture.<ref name=TraskBL/>

Tourism in Hawai{{okina}}i has been considered as an escape from reality resulting in the dismissal of violence faced by Native Hawaiians and locals living on the land. According to scholar [[Winona LaDuke]], native Hawaiians have been forced to gather "shrimp and fish from ponds sitting on resort property".<ref>{{cite book |last=LaDuke |first=Winona |chapter=Hawai{{okina}}i: The Birth of the Land and Its Preservation by the Hands of the People |title=All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life |publisher=South End Press}}</ref> Tourism has also had damaging effects on the environment such as water shortages, overcrowding, sea level rising, elevated sea surface temperatures and micro plastics on beaches.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cooper |first1=Hannah |last2=Chen |first2=Qi |last3=Fletcher |first3=Charles |last4=Barbee |first4=Matthew |title=Assessing Vulnerability Due to Sea-level Rise in Maui, Hawai{{okina}}i Using LiDAR Remote Sensing and GIS |journal=Climatic Change |volume=116 |issue=3–4 |pages=547–563 |date=2013 |bibcode=2013ClCh..116..547C |s2cid=545364 |doi=10.1007/s10584-012-0510-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rodgers |first1=Ku'ulei |last2=Bahr |first2=Keisha |last3=Jokiel |first3=Paul |last4=Richards Donà |first4=Angela |title=Patterns of Bleaching and Mortality following Widespread Warming Events in 2014 and 2015 at the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, Hawai{{okina}}i |journal=PeerJ |volume=5 |pages=e3355 |date=2017 |pmid=28584703 |pmc=5452947 |doi=10.7717/peerj.3355 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rey |first1=Savannah |last2=Franklin |first2=Janet |last3=Rey |first3=Sergio |title=Microplastic Pollution on Island Beaches, Oahu, Hawai{{okina}}i |journal=PLOS ONE |year=2021 |volume=16|issue=2 |pages=e0247224 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0247224 |pmid=33600448 |pmc=7891709 |bibcode=2021PLoSO..1647224R |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism in Hawai{{okina}}i came to a halt, which allowed the land, water, and animals to began to heal. Fish like the baby akule and big ulua have returned after years of not being around the bay. The coral reefs, fish, water growth, and [[Limu (algae)|limu]] (algae) growth was able to flourish without the heavy toll of tourism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Morimoto |first1=Tianna |title=A Time For Healing: Hawai{{okina}}i's Coral Reefs Rebound During COVID-19 |url=https://hitchcockproject.org/hawaii-coral-reefs-healing/ |website=The Hitchcock Project for Visualizing Science|date=September 2020 }}</ref>

There has been pushback against tourism by Native Hawaiians, urging people not to visit the islands. A survey by the Hawaii Tourism Authority indicated over two-thirds of Hawaiians did not want tourists to return to Hawaii. Tourism had "become extractive and hurtful, with tourists coming here and taking, taking, taking, taking, without any reciprocation with locals".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mzezwa |first1=Tariro |title=In Hawaii, Reimagining Tourism for a Post-Pandemic World |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/travel/hawaii-covid-tourism.html |work=The New York Times|date=March 7, 2021 }}</ref>

Hawaii hosts numerous cultural events. The annual [[Merrie Monarch Festival]] is an international Hula competition.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/current/il/merriemonarch05 |title=Merrie Monarch Festival 2005 |newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |access-date=May 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005224410/http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/current/il/merriemonarch05 |archive-date=October 5, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Hawaii International Film Festival]] is the premier film festival for Pacific rim cinema.<ref name="Shane Nelson">{{cite journal |url=http://www.travelweekly.com/Hawaii-Travel/Insights/Hawaii-International-Film-Festival--Kinship-through-cinema/?a=hawaii |title=Hawaii International Film Festival: Kinship through cinema |journal=Travel Weekly |first=Shane |last=Nelson |date=August 8, 2011 |access-date=May 10, 2012 |oclc=60626324 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114045659/http://www.travelweekly.com/Hawaii-Travel/Insights/Hawaii-International-Film-Festival--Kinship-through-cinema/?a=hawaii |archive-date=November 14, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> Honolulu hosts the state's long-running LGBT film festival, the [[Rainbow Film Festival]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hnlnow.com/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=10075&year=2008&month=5 |title=19th Annual Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival at Doris Duke Theatre: Honolulu Hawaii Nightlife Event Guide |publisher=Hnlnow.com |access-date=May 15, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827040400/http://www.hnlnow.com/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=10075&year=2008&month=5 |archive-date=August 27, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/2001/05/29/features/index.html |title=Honolulu Star-Bulletin Features |publisher=Archives.starbulletin.com |date=May 29, 2001 |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705150332/http://archives.starbulletin.com/2001/05/29/features/index.html |archive-date=July 5, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>