Storm Clouds over Paradise

By Charles Alexander

Rising airfares and crime hurt Hawaii's best business

For decades millions of Americans have escaped from steamy freeways and fussy bosses by flying off to the exotic white sands and coral reefs of Hawaii. As fast as the Hawaiians could build high-rise hotels and outrigger canoes, the tide of tourists rose to fill them. Visitors last year spent a stunning $2.6 billion, or 28% of the state's total income.

But this year the aloha spirit is suddenly subdued. Tourism is down for the first time since 1949. After growing at an annual average of 15% for the past 15 years, the number of visitors so far in 1980 is off 1.5%. And new figures indicate that the downturn is gathering force. In October, 8.4% fewer tourists visited Hawaii than in the same month last year. The number from the U.S. and Canada slumped 10.8%, while that from Asia was up a small 1.2%. Group travel, which used to constitute about half of all tourism, this year is 19.9% below the level of 1979.

Traffic on Hawaiian Air Lines and Aloha Airlines, which carry sightseers between the islands, is down 10% this year. The two carriers have launched sweepstakes with prizes like new cars to lure local residents into seats vacated by tourists. Inter-Island Resorts, the oldest hotel chain in Hawaii, lost $1.25 million in the third quarter, compared with a profit of $769,000 during the same period last year. On the island of Maui, which had been developing rapidly, business is off 3.4%. The hotel occupancy rate in October was only 60%.

The U.S. recession is partly to blame for tourist troubles in Hawaii, but the primary problem is the high cost of airfares. In the past 18 months, the price of a tourist-class round-trip ticket between Honolulu and San Francisco, some 2,400 miles away, has soared 75%, to $504. The remoteness that had always been Hawaii's allure is now its burden. Laments Edward Sullivan, managing director of the Hyatt

Regency on Waikiki Beach: "You can't get in your car and drive here."

The damaging airfare boosts come at a time when Hawaii's image as paradise in the Pacific is already suffering. The islands are now facing such mainland problems as crime and tacky development. In the past two years, robberies have jumped 23% and murders 67%. Often the victims are tourists. Among the more serious incidents reported: a gang rape of a 24-year-old Finnish woman by eleven Hawaiian youths, and a sniper attack that left four injured in the heart of Waikiki. More common are purse snatchings, muggings and car lootings. Much of the violence has been attributed to the descendants of the islands' original Polynesian inhabitants, an underemployed and poorly educated class. Kept at the bottom of the economic ladder by waves of more prosperous American and Japanese immigrants, many members of this group feel exploited and resentful.

Tourists looking for a quiet vacation are becoming nervous about a Hawaiian retreat. Says Paul Abramson, who owns a Manhattan travel agency and recently visited Waikiki: "Tourist guides warned that we should go out at night only in pairs and that ladies should hold on to their handbags. I think a lot of people come home afraid." Complains Peggy Ontai, who sells conch shells at a roadside stand on Oahu: "This crime has to stop. Tourists are too frightened to drive around the island and get out of their cars." Travel agents report that greater numbers of vacationers are opting for Mexico instead.

Hawaii's mystique is also being marred by its overrapid growth. Kalakaua Avenue, the once pristine ocean-front promenade of Waikiki, is now littered with streetside stalls selling chintzy Filipino woodcarvings, paper leis, shell necklaces and aloha shirts. Hookers hang out in front of the hotels, and members of the Hare Krishna movement solicit hand outs. According to Don Bremmer, executive vice president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, Hare Krishnas tell visiting Japanese: "You bombed Pearl Harbor. Now pay for it."

Hawaiians realize that their economic growth depends on making tourists feel more secure. Impromptu citizens' groups have lobbied for greater police protection and harsher sentences for criminals. Elderly residents have marched in the streets with banners reading WIPE OUT CRIME IN OUR LIFETIME. Voters this fall elected candidates who promised sweeping changes. After twelve years in office, Mayor Frank Fasi was defeated by Eileen Anderson, an energetic reformer.

Says she: "I intend to improve the physical and social environment on Waikiki and take action against the prostitutes and sidewalk vendors selling junk. Tourism will always be No. 1 here. We just don't have any choice about that."

Law-and-order Candidate Charles Marsland easily won the post of Honolulu prosecuting attorney by vowing to crack down on hoodlums. A sample of his campaign rhetoric: "What was once the paradise of the Pacific is now a jungle prowled by thieves, pimps, prostitutes, robbers, rapists and murderers." United Air Lines and other carriers serving Hawaii have pledged to help law enforcement by flying victims of violence back to the islands free so that they can testify in trials.

Even if Hawaii can clamp down on crime, the islands will remain helplessly vulnerable to the soaring cost of jet fuel, which is the main cause of the rising air fares. Local officials fear that Hawaii may become a resort only for the very wealthy. Says Paul DeDomenico, president of Hawaiian Holiday Macadamia Nut Co.: "Some people say that tourism in Hawaii depends on the rich. That's wrong. It depends on the middle class.

If they can't afford to fly here, we're in big trouble."

-- By Charles Alexander. Reported by Paul Witteman/Honolulu

With reporting by Paul Witteman

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.