Hawaii Charges Entrance Fee for Tourists

written by 10116 Woo Se Yeon

Hawaii is considering a tourism fee for visitors to preserve its environment.

Under this new legislation that is considered, tourists older than 15 will have to buy an annual license to visit Hawaii’s forests, parks, trails, or other natural regions.

The fee will be used for restoring Hawaii’s unique nature, such as coral reefs, dolphins, turtles, and forest trees.

Currently, some debates are going on about this legislation. 

Those people who agree say that this entrance fee will solve the over-tourism in Hawaii, encountering more than nine million tourists per year.

This over-tourism led to damaging Hawaii’s ecosystem. While dragging back the yacht that was grounded in the marine life conservation district, colonies of corals got destroyed. Also, recently 33 swimmers were caught pursuing spinner dolphins, interrupting the dolphin’s sleep necessary for their survival.

Therefore, using the fees to sustain the environment is considerable.

On the other hand, the opposing side argues that not every tourist is damaging nature. Rather, fewer people are actually harming the environment, and they deserve the right to enjoy the beautiful nature of Hawaii.

Also, according to the report by The Nature Conservancy, it annually costs $886 million to preserve Hawaii’s natural environment. However, only $535 million of it is spent by the federal government and the state of Hawaii. Therefore, some argue that the government is shifting all the responsibility to tourists.