I get the feeling reading TGI’s Monday article, “Kauai well promoted in 2015,” that Sue Kanoho and our elected representatives feel it’s “job well done” with regard to keeping the island stocked with visitor dollars. While I’m grateful for their
I get the feeling reading TGI’s Monday article, “Kauai well promoted in 2015,” that Sue Kanoho and our elected representatives feel it’s “job well done” with regard to keeping the island stocked with visitor dollars. While I’m grateful for their efforts, I’d like to see some specifics about where all those visitor dollars are going — because it’s my sense and experience after 28 years in business here (the last 18 in retail) that they’re not going in fair proportion to many of the small businesses of the island.
I do know that, increasingly, many of those dollars are being spent by folks staying in timeshare units. Visitors head straight to Costco from the airport, where they often stock up on a week’s worth of supplies, thereby not “having to” spend so much at Kauai’s restaurants and eateries. Fully one-third of Costco’s sales are from visitors. Think about that. If you subtract commercial buyers, which account for another third, visitors are spending just as much at Costco as kamaaina.
Now I love Costco (truly) — but their numbers really offer a symptom of the bigger problem: Kauai has too much timeshare. We now have the largest proportion of timeshare units of all the islands. And there seems to be no limit to its proliferation. The Sheraton Kauai (Poipu) is next on the list for conversion of a substantial number of its units. Who’s allowing these decisions to be made? Has public input been sought?
Once the TS folks have been here two, three and more times and done that tour or activity, how often are they going repeat those tours and activities? The same could be said for museums, gift stores, art nights, recreational services and many other attractions. I actually overheard a shopper and timeshare “owner” boasting to friends that she brought all her meals for her family in “boil-a-bags” on the plane — and wouldn’t have to eat out all week.
There needs to be a closer look at the effect timeshare is having on the Kauai economy, beyond the quick “up front” dollars spread around by developers (and largely taken elsewhere by them and their time-pushing salespeople) — not to mention the over-hyped trope that it’s a recession hedge. Presumably we’d prefer a country (eventually) where recessions are not the norm, as well as visitors who’s demographic ensures spending across the wide spectrum of enterprises large and small, instead of the time share model of in-room kitchens, been-there-done-that ennui and thrift that’s sowing the seeds for a Kauai we soon won’t recognize.
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Steve Lauryn is a resident of Poipu.
