Peter Greenberg News: “When A Destination is Too Popular: The Problem With Overtourism”

When A Destination is Too Popular: The Problem With Overtourism

Travel and tourism accounts for 10.2 percent of the world’s GDP. That’s the equivalent of 7.6 trillion dollars, and one in every ten jobs on the planet is related to the tourism industry. So it’s easy to understand why every nation wants a piece of the pie—especially when those numbers are expected to continue to grow. But what happens when it becomes too much of a good thing? In this segment from season four of The Travel Detective, Peter Greenberg explores the growing problem of overtourism.

Continue reading “Peter Greenberg News: “When A Destination is Too Popular: The Problem With Overtourism””

Civil Beat: “Economists: Financial Challenges Are Looming For Hawaii”

Economists: Financial Challenges Are Looming For Hawaii

Hawaii needs to build a lot more homes and tourists need to spend a lot more money to keep the economy growing in the coming years.

That was the message to lawmakers from some of the state’s top economists during a daylong briefing Tuesday at the Capitol.

With the Legislature set to convene Jan. 17, members of the House and Senate money committees, chaired by Rep. Sylvia Luke and Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, called on Eugene Tian, the state economist; Carl Bonham of the University of Hawaii’s Economic Research Organization; Laurel Johnston, Gov. David Ige’s acting budget director; and others to paint them a picture of Hawaii’s financial future and discuss budget priorities.

“There are a lot of short-term ups, but it looks like we should be prepared for some long-term downs,” Dela Cruz said after the briefing. “There’s no doubt that if we don’t take some action the budget will be much, much tighter in future years.” Continue reading “Civil Beat: “Economists: Financial Challenges Are Looming For Hawaii””