OK, we may get flak for this, but here goes…
When I lived in Hong Kong, we were touring schools for my kids. I vividly remember an admissions officer saying, with a straight face, “We only want the right kind of children.” I probably should’ve smiled politely and moved on. But I couldn’t help myself. I told him, “All children are the right kind of children,” and asked, “What exactly does a ‘wrong’ six-year-old look like?”
Shockingly, we didn’t get in.
But that phrase – “the right kind of child”- has stuck with me. And while it’s not quite the same, I get that same pit-in-the-stomach feeling every time someone in tourism talks about attracting “the right kind of tourist”, or whatever the buzzword of the month is: mindful, high-spending, low-impact, values-aligned, pre-screened by karma.
It’s one of those lines that sounds smart on a panel and looks good in a PowerPoint, but crumbles the second you try to define it. The truth is, we don’t get to custom-order tourists from a catalog. And when we start categorizing people like inventory, we’ve missed the point.
Instead of gatekeeping, we should be focused on managing the experience: educating visitors, investing in infrastructure, reinforcing local values, and supporting the communities that host them. That’s not about filtering people, it’s about raising the bar for how we host, and how we ask to be treated in return.
I get the intent behind phrases like “mindful” or “high-value” visitor; there’s real pressure to ease strain and protect what makes Hawaiʻi special. But when we start sorting people by worthiness, even subtly, we lose the plot.
Because just like with kids, maybe it’s not about finding the “right kind” of tourist, but creating the right kind of environment.
P.S. An article in SFGATE just last week highlighted how rising travel costs are already reshaping who visits Hawaiʻi. Maybe that’s a good thing, fewer people, more spending. But it does raise a question: at what point does price start to shape not just how many people come, but who feels welcome?
