Negative impacts of tourism

Tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries, with the travel and tourism industry set to reach an all-time high of $11.1 trillion in 2024. However, for the locals who live in popular tourist destinations, the tourist industry dictates their lives, often for the worse. It strains local resources, raises the costs of living and housing, contributes to the destruction of natural landscapes, causes cultural erosion, and perpetuates systems of inequality.

The tourist industry might rake in revenue, but for places such as Hawaii, it is the local elite and transnational corporations who benefit and not the natives. Kyle Kajihiro, a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, says “tourism normalizes and conceals the current dystopian reality experienced by many Kānaka Maoli and the poor immigrant communities in Hawaii.” To house tourists, the islands are forced to build infrastructure, which damages the natural landscape and pushes locals out of the housing market. This has caused many native Hawaiians to leave, further deteriorating their language and traditions, which is shared across many cultures commodified under tourism.

As a tourist, you can help minimize the impacts of global tourism by supporting local attractions that emphasize cultural and environmental responsibility. Debbie Misajon, the creator of the Coconut Traveler, says, “It might be trite, but spend your money locally.” Other activists argue that native Hawaiians should determine how their culture is shared and consumed. Kajihiro says, tourists should “rethink travel as entering someone else’s home,” and “as a visitor, you have the burden to learn, act responsibly, not be a burden and respect your hosts.”

Want to learn more?

• Read Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place
• Read Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai'i
• Listen to “Scholars Work On Anti-Colonial Travel Guidebook To Hawaii”