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 Sustainable Tourism Study
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August 27, 2002 |
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by: DEBT
 The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) today launched a new website for its two-year Sustainable Tourism Study. The website's home page URL is: www.hawaiitourismstudy.com.
"The study will analyze the ways in which tourism and its growth affects Hawaii's infrastructure, environment, economy, and culture," said DBEDT Director Seiji Naya. "The new website is an integral part of the study - providing a means to obtain public input about tourism's impacts. We are encouraging the public to participate in the overall project through this website and through future public meetings," Naya said.
The Sustainable Tourism Study arose out of concerns in government and the industry that there was no effective way to measure and forecast the impact of tourism growth on expensive infrastructure systems (such as water & transportation). Also, environmental groups and government agencies have become increasingly concerned about how tourism growth may be affecting the natural environment and their lack of tools to measure that impact. The study is designed to develop the means of measuring tourism's impacts on these areas of concern.
"One of the important goals of the project is to create new planning tools that can give us an 'early warning system' about when and where future tourism growth is likely to cause serious problems," Naya said.
The project has three components. The first is an inventory and analysis of Hawaii's infrastructure and selected environmental assets, which is being conducted by the firm Carter and Burgess, Inc. The second component will create a computer model of the State's economy and potential environmental effects of economic growth. The R. M. Towill Corporation and Progressive Analytics, Inc are developing this component. The third part of the study is a Socio-Cultural and Public Input component under the direction of John M. Knox & Associates, Inc.
The website provides a detailed picture of the activities for each of the three components of the study, culminating with a final project report in December 2003. The website will be updated frequently through April 2004.
Currently, the focus of the website is on describing the project, and inviting initial public comment. The public can send e-mails with suggestions about website improvements or future study activities, and they can also ask to be put on a notification list for future meetings and alerts about new website postings.
As technical studies are completed, they will be posted on the website where members of the public or interested groups can review them and answer short surveys about their reaction to the studies.
In addition to the website, public input will be gathered through two rounds of public meetings on all islands - one in November 2002 and the other in the summer of 2003 - plus a statewide survey of residents in late 2003. Exact dates and places for the November meetings will be posted on the website as they are finalized.
In addition to the contractors already noted, the team includes subcontractors Harvey A. Shapiro, who designed the website; Peter Adler and Kem Lowry (public meetings); Market Trends Pacific, Inc. (surveys and outreach); and Drs. Karl Kim and Denise Konan of Progressive Analytics, Inc. who will develop the computer models. For more information, contact Dr. Pearl Imada Iboshi at (808) 586-2470.
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