The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-13
THE TOURIST TRADE.

The question of why the Hawaiian
tourist trade is falling off suggests to
the Advertiser the following answers:
l. The fashion of travel, which once
set so strongly towards Hawaii and
Japan, has changed. The reasons why
the attractiveness Of Hawaii has been
lessened, are summarized below; the
reasons why Japan, which once gave
us so many stop-over tourists, is less
popular with globe-trotters than it
was are mainly political. Since the
trouble over China began, tourists have
feared that q visit to the Orient might
be the mans of shutting them up in
some besieged country. While Japan
and Russia are at odds. the land of the
Mikado will be comparatively Stunned
by the tourist class-and this, of
course, hurts Hawaii. More people
are now going to Europe; and the OPEN
ing of the American West Indies has
diverted the former routes Of those who
have a taste for the tropics. People
who were wont to seek the Paradise
Of the Pacific now go to the paradises
of the Caribbean sea, whittier they are
conveyed rapidly and cheaply.
i 2. Hawaii has an unmerfted bad
name for epidemics. Tourists are COM
monty health seekers, and people in
terested in sending them to other
places have, at their tongues ends, the
magnif1ed story of our cholera and bu-
bonic plague visitations. It is widely
reported that our laws now exclude
consumptives. Adding to all this the
common fear of leprosy with which
disease the name of Hawaii was in
cessantly identified by the journals that
opposed annexation on the score of
"Leprosy and Loot,"-and there is
quite reason enough, so tourists
think, to keep away.
3. Honolulu has also a name for po-
litical turbulence which the change in
its flag has not yet erased. Next to
an epidemic the tourists fear most
revolutionary mob. Nine out of ten
Eastern men will ask you first: Is Ha-
wall healthy The next query will be:
Is life and property safe?
4. Much of the charm of Honolulu
went with annexation. The pageantry
of the old court attracted people here.
and that is no more. The rebuilding of
the city on more condensed scale
spoiled much of it's beauty. The cor
respondents say these things to their
home papers, and people go elsewhere,
They want the foreign atmosphere
which those islands still retain, but
which is passing from Hawaii mel.
What is to be done? Would 1t pay
to try and get the tourist trade back
again? Will such trade return of it.
self? Certainly the correction of
errors in public opinion would be worth
while, but stern chase after a lie is
the longest chase any one can make
Perhaps 1t would be as we'll to wait
until peace in the Philippines draws
sight-seers that way, and SO catch
them coming and going. Furthermore
it is reasonable to think that, sooner
or later, interest in Japan may be per-
mitted to revive, in which case this
city will collect toll from the through
tourists as OF old.
But above all. Hawaii would profit
most If It ceased to bother about tour
lists and put in Its best ticks to get
white settlers for its vacant and in
viting acres. A tourist stays a month;
a settler lifetime; and the latter
raises his family here.