The business and tourist communities should be singing the praise of the Sierra Club for its lawsuit to require the Hawaii Tourism Authority to obey Hawaiian Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 343, the law that requires any government entity that plans
The business and tourist communities should be singing the praise of the Sierra
Club for its lawsuit to require the Hawaii Tourism Authority to obey Hawaiian
Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 343, the law that requires any government entity
that plans an activity that requires the use of State funds to conduct an
environmental assessment.
HRS 343 protects the environment of Hawaii, the
very Goose that lays the Golden Eggs that form the economic basis of the
tourist industry. This is especially relevant for Kaua’i where the rate of
increase of tourist arrivals in the last two years has been significantly
higher than on the other islands.
The reason is not the money spent by
the HVB and KVB to promote tourism or Mayor Kusaka’s jaunts to Tokyo and her
first class flight to Paris. The fact is that there is a new generation of
sophisticated tourists who abhor the kind of artificiality of Waikiki, Lahaina
and Kihei, but much prefer the rural and yet unspoiled environment of Kaua’i,
especially the North Shore.
To allow unfettered promotion of development
and tourism is to kill the Goose, yielding quick profits but forfeiting long
term economic health.
What the Sierra Club is doing is to protect the
Goose so that instead of a few people collecting a bunch of golden eggs all at
once, all of us, including Gregg Gardiner and future generations of tourists
will continue to enjoy the beauty of Kaua’i.
It’s really very simple.
Just don’t kill the Goose!
Raymond L.
Chuan
Hanalei
