The past three months have seen our island’s tourism economy turned upside down.
While some say it’s time to diversify (great, go diversify) a huge number of Big Island residents will be dependent on tourism for decades to come. Now that the eruption appears to be over — and even if it starts up again — it is time for each of us to reclaim our island’s economy. Every one of us needs to start promoting our island’s unparalleled, safe visitor experience via social media, word of mouth, emails, blogs, websites, and even letters to the editor of mainland newspapers (send them to papers in places you have lived or have family).
We need to act on our own, folks. You may think promoting Big Island isn’t your job; that the Hawaii Tourism Authority, HTA, should do it. They can help. But they can’t do it alone, nor can they do it with the authenticity of you and me. And they have five islands to promote. We only have one. We all know none of the other islands offers what ours does.
My husband and I host many visitors in our Kona residence. In our experience, most visitors come to our island for laid-back, un-resort adventures they can’t find on Maui, Oahu, or in the Caribbean. Big Island visitors want hikes, underwater adventures, heritage, less-crowded beaches, stargazing, coffee farms, and yes, volcanoes.
So here’s what I’m doing, and you’re welcome to copy me and come up with your own ideas. We have nowhere to go but up.
1. Promote the whole island as a volcano experience. Stop boo-hooing that Volcanoes National Park will likely be closed for the foreseeable future. Without the glow and Kilauea Iki trail, and rangers to explain it, I never felt the park offered more volcano than the rest of the island.
I tell visitors the whole island could be Volcanoes National Park (and perhaps it should be). I’ve created a list of volcano/lava experiences that people can enjoy all around this island if they simply shift their thinking and realize that the park boundaries never held a copyright on lava.
Some of my suggestions are the lava tube north of Kona airport and the fascinating variety of lava fields also in that area, as well as the lava fields/hikes along Saddle Road. I help visitors understand our island’s pu’u and suggest the Pu’u Wa’a Wa’a hike. And I remind them that at KOA, their airplane landed on a very young lava field. I tell them the elevations of our two big volcano mountains, both as high as many of the mainland’s granite peaks.
2. Call this the island of adventure. There are countless ways to showcase our unique adventures. The trek to Green Sand Beach counts as adventure, ditto the walk to Makalawena. Snorkeling with honu at Kahaluu or dolphins at Two Step are adventures. Hiking the Maunakea trail is decidedly adventurous, as is (respectfully) playing in the Waipio Valley. For some visitors, the gentle paths at Akaka Falls are an adventure. And of course ATV, manta tours, zipline, skydiving, horse riding, and other organized outfitters offer outstanding, unique adventures.
3. Focus on our unique foodie experiences. The world’s coffee lovers should have Kona and Ka’u farms at the top of their bucket lists — we can help them know that! The coffee farmers can’t promote alone, all of us can post pics of our morning cups of the world’s best coffee on Instagram. Ditto our amazing bananas — our visitors often say they hate bananas until they taste the fruit of the Big Island. If you grow pineapple, dragonfruit, papaya, mango, lilikoi, etc. in your yard, post pictures. Brag about it; tempt people to come and taste it. Post about our excellent, visitor-friendly farmers markets. Talk about Super J’s insanely delicious lau lau, superb malasadas at KTA and Tex Drive in, and loco moco in Hilo, the town that created it.
4. Share our island’s unique cultural treasures. The Big Island has so many touchpoints into history/culture no other island can match: from Pu’uhonua o Honaunau to Hawaii’s first Christian church to the Captain Cook Monument to the birthplace of Kamehameha I to Mark Twain Monkeypod, there are locations that resonate so deeply on so many levels. Post your pics of those places, entice visitors!
5. Live Aloha. Folks who stay with us consistently say that close interaction with island residents— including us — “made” their trip and makes them want to return. Whether you work as a resort housekeeper, run an Airbnb, serve food at a restaurant, stock shelves at Costco, pick coffee beans, or paint stripes on the highway, wave to visitors in their rental cars and allow them in on the roadways. Thank visitors for coming to the Big Island and encourage them to return, and to send their friends.
Will you join me in helping our island recover? I hope so. I propose we adopt the hashtag #VisitBigIsland so we can easily see each other’s efforts, share, and get ideas. Start right now.
Randall Shirley is a travel journalist and editor who lives in Kona.
