The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1912-07-26
Promotion Work for Hawaii
BY WALTER q. SMITH.

ton committee, has been having
creditablo growth. Lately methods
have been worked out to make it grow
faster and provide more housing aud
entertainment for 1T. 1t is felt tnat by
exploiting a populous field nearby,
many more people may be persuaded to
come here, and that the canal and the
worlds fair are sure to thrust tourists
upon us and that we ought TO do our
part soon in building Tor the special
need.
Chiefly by means of promotion litera
ture we have attracted, during the win
ter, nearly as many strangers as we
could care for, and even now, in mid
summer, tourists are coming in every
loat. Honolulu on its structural side Is
king ready for more of them. New
hotel projects are looming and small
houses are being put up to serve the
needs of those who want TO economze.
For reasons which | shall give later on,
| believe that we shall soon hear call
Tor caravansery like the one project
cd for Punehbowl, with Hilo and vol
cano anneXes, and like those which at
Los Angeles, San Diego, Coronado,
Pasadena and Santa Barbara, have rs
sisted so much in the growth of popula-
ltion within the sunshine belts of Cali
fornia. Assuredly we shall need one or
more big tourist hotels before the canal
"opens.
What tourists mean to California is
represented by enormous figures. In
some years Southern California has a
tourist income equal to or greater than
our whole sugar revenue, gigantic as it
is. One year when we had 1876, 100000
from sugar, Southern California
claimed to have had $5O,000,000 from
tourists. Twice tourists have rescued
that region from hard times.
Directly to some indirectly to the
rest of us, sugar supports us all; but of
the direct income from tourists nearly
all of it stays here and finds its way
promptly into the everyday pocket.
There is an awakening ON Fort street
every time body of tourists arrives,
: but large sugar transactions may occur
without raising the normal level of re-
tail trade. Everybody benefits Mt once
and in a way he can see and feel by
tourist ready.money patronage-new
, money, not old money changing hands.
More living rooms are sought, more
baggage is carried, more hacks and
autos are employed, more deposits are
made in the banks, more fares are paid
on the Rapid Transit cars and to the
Oahu railroad and the Inter Island
, steamers, more newspapers are taken,
more curios and photographs are col
lected, lighter wear in drygoods, shoes
and millinery is desired, more furniture
| is bought, restaurants, cafes, hotels and
) boarding houses are better patronized,
| more lights are burned, there is brisk
Q er business in creature comforts and so
5 on through the whole range of retail
4 and wholesale trade. Everybody gets
share. Even the churches find more
: change on the collection plates, and
a luaus flourish. Then, rising to higher
r levels of business a certain proportion
s of tourists, as is proved by the stats
r tics of Southern California, invest in
$ land, homes, and all market securities
and thus add their permanent quotas to
r the common prosperity. There comes
s a larger solvent population.
G Hitherto we have looked mainly fol
}. tourists from or via California, but
n there is another field which could be
b added to that and from which many
n tourists now come, and by which, if We
n had ferry steamer running for this
trade, VIC should greatly profit every
y winter. California cannot be left Out
J. of our calculations, hut after all it is
t d competing tourist POINT in all sea
/, sons. People coming here have to ruI
f the gauntlet of California blandish
S ments. But it is different with the Pa
G cifc Northwest, the place 7 refer to, OF
e both sides of the line. The localities
: there are not specifically winter resorts
,, and the well-to-do people along thu
/. Sound and in the regions around it
d who are very numerous class, like Z
d have a warmer place to go for part o
r the year. They regard California as
. competitor for summer tourists, rail
roads, steamship lines and investmen
capital, and are bit jealous of he
- growth. They wish they had som
= playground more their own for tn
~ frosty and rainy season. We can NEE
!. that need Here is n resort all read,
= and people from the Northwest IN,
= Western Canada are beginning to fin,
:, it ont The promotion committee is 60
:, ing to make n special campaign theG
- so that more may follow; and / tax
!, it for granted that the committee an
- our people would be glad to meet ia
= Northwesterncrs halfway in providin
n for ferry steamer TO start the direc
:; interchange of tourists and products
The Northwesterner need Hawaii TO
winter use and we could use their COO
- and beautiful land summers when W
= need n change of climate and also avail
~ ourselves of another route east. Their
" would be big travel by a direct steam
" or Judging from what has alread
g. started in roundabout way-fo
. about Is per cent. as Mr.. Wood says
~ of our tourists last winter came fror
Canada and fha narfoan Nnrf tUaoi