Resident attitudes toward tourism impacts in Hawaii

Abstract The purpose of this study is to determine resident attitudes to the economic, sociocultural, and ecological impacts of tourism development in Hawaii. In Fall 1982, 636 questionnaires were obtained by a random sample of residents of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai. The findings of the study are: respondents strongly agree that tourism provides many economic and cultural benefits, but are ambivalent about environmental benefits; respondents are reluctant to attribute social and environmental costs to tourism; significant variation among respondents by demographic subgroups with the exception of length of residence and ethnicity is generally low; residents regard environmental protection as being a more important priority than the economic benefits of tourism, but are not willing to lower their standard of living in order to achieve this goal.