Foreign Pillars of Hawai’i Tourism are Teetering

Tour groups aim to lure first-time Japanese visitors through engaging environmental or socially responsible activities.

Hawai’i’s tourism juggernaut has long been kept afloat by foreign visitors from Japan and Canada, besides U.S. mainland tourists. Now, in a confluence of events outside the state’s control, visitor numbers from those two countries are in a simultaneous, and worrisome, decline.   

Tourism is the state’s biggest industry and accounts for about 20 percent of the Islands’ economic activity. 

For Japanese tourists, the U.S. dollar’s high exchange rate against the yen has boosted the cost of a Hawaii vacation. The yen has been in a broad weakening trend against the U.S. dollar since 2021, caused by a mix of U.S. tariff threats, divergent monetary policies between the two countries’ central banks, as well as years of wage and price stagnation.  

While a weak yen has helped Japan’s export-led industries, it also has made travel to Hawai’i a budget-busting prospect for many Japanese families.   

As if that weren’t enough, President Donald Trump caused a self-inflicted wound on U.S. tourism even before officially taking office. Thousands of Canadian citizens are boycotting U.S. travel after he repeatedly insulted their national pride, threatening to subjugate our northern neighbor as a 51st state. 

Even if the threat of annexing Canada was only a rhetorical flourish in a larger tariff-negotiating ploy, Canadians interpreted Trump’s posturing as an unforgivable slight: Voting with their pocketbooks, many are now avoiding travel to the U.S. entirely, including the previous popular destination among the frost-bitten throngs — our tropical 50th state. 

Those twin threats have left Hawai`i’s hotels, restaurants, airlines, tour guides and travel services — and all the trickle-down businesses and employees that benefit from tourist spending — scrambling to adapt to the lull during the summer.  

Peak winter tourism months ahead could be even bleaker. 

In the articles that follow, Hawaii Business Magazine takes a closer look at the causes and impacts of tourism declines from Japan and Canada and highlights local efforts to lure reluctant travelers so businesses can weather the approaching storm.