Summit for Sustainable Travel
in the Hawaiian Islands
April 21, 2009
Harold Richins, PhD
1
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.
2
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.
3
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
“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.”
7
“The cultural and
sustainable
significance of the
Ahupu`aa is the
model for the
Hawai`i visitor
experience.”
8
“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
 Healthy,
 Food
and healthy native ecosystems
happy, and housed residents
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
 Protected
incentives
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
mission
providers with fully sustainable tourism
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, detailed example
 Failed to own change
 Failed
to make true commitment
 Succumbed
 Lack
 Too
to influence of in-authentic promotion
of political willpower
much apathy and pessimism
 Failed
to have sustainable community priority
 Failed
to commit to common agenda
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
1. Quantity rather than quality.
2. Made excuses without action.
3. Allowed conflicts to grow between
tourists and residents.
4. Failure to acknowledge carrying
capacity.
5. Lack of money.
6. Did not put culture to use.
What were the roadblocks to success –
Identified as most important, Cont’d
7. Lack of political will.
8. Too many talkers, not enough doers.
9. Not enough input - output economic
analysis.
10. Tried to make change in some
regulatory paradigm.
11. 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 ecolodging).
 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.
Summit for Sustainable Travel
in the Hawaiian Islands
April 21, 2009
Harold Richins, PhD
Mahalo!
29
30
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
 Didn’t
to ensure influential resident voice
fully commit and address homelessness
 In-effective
 Didn’t
family planning
fully commit to and address social issues
What didn’t work, Cont’d?
 Failure in addressing food, energy and
waste
 Ignored
 Did
signs of future energy problems
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