Putting The Tax Squeeze On The Tourists

The Hawaii legislature has passed a bill to raise hotel room taxes, but Gov. Linda Lingle is expected to veto it, the Honolulu Advertiser reports.

Not so much in Nevada, where Gov. Jim Gibbons is allowing an increase in the room tax to become law without his signature. On July 1, the room tax rate will increase from 9 percent to 12 percent, as the Las Vegas Sun reported last month.

In Hawaii, the room tax would rise from 7.25 percent to 8.25 percent in July and to 9.25 percent in July 2010 under the bill passed Wednesday. The legislature also passed tax increases on incomes of more than $150,000 a year and on tobacco products.

The issue is the same in Hawaii and Nevada. The economic slump is really slamming states that rely on tourism for tax revenue, and the temptation is to slam tourists back. But the wisdom of raising taxes on a dwindling tax base is questionable at best. Tourists have an option that residents don’t — they can stay away.

Hawaii’s hotel occupancy rates are already way down. They were 12.4 percent lower in February from a year earlier, hitting 75 percent, the lowest point in 18 years, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Occupancy was off only 5.5 percentage points to 83.9 percent during the same period in Las Vegas, but gaming revenues were down 14 percent, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

Raising taxes on visitors is unlikely to increase tourism. But the money has to come from somewhere.

Bradley to Honolulu: $401, Round-Trip

Here’s a prediction. Someday you’re going to be shelling out $800 or $900 for a round-trip ticket to Hawaii and you’re going to remember that you once passed up a $401 round trip — with taxes and fees included — from Bradley to Honolulu.

Unless you go now.

This fare is widely available on Delta and Northwest during the month of May. Check it out on Kayak.com or the Web site of your choice.

Bargain-Basement Hawaii Deals

If you can scrape up the cash and a free week or two before May 19, you can get a fantastic deal on a trip to Hawaii.

It’s possible, right now, to book round-trip air to Hawaii from the East Coast for under $500, all taxes and fees included. From Bradley International, fares are as low as $460 right now.

You can book a room with a balcony at the budget favorite Ambassador Hotel in Waikiki (close to my fave restaurant: Keo’s) for about $100 a night, including taxes, or at the Maile Sky Court, a massive budget hotel tower, for about $85. Or take a crack at Priceline and see if you can do even better.

I don’t know if this fare sale will be extended beyond May 19, or how low hotel prices will stay once the kiddies get out of school. I wouldn’t expect things to get cheaper, but the travel business is tanking so dramatically that it’s hard to make predictions.

But I can guarantee that Hawaii is gorgeous, year round. This includes the vibrant city of Honolulu and its happening, man-made beach at Waikiki. And it doesn’t have to be expensive, especially now. A McDonald’s hamburger under the palms can be bliss.

Hawaii Superferry Shipwrecked By Court Ruling?

The owners of the controversial Hawaii Superferry will suspend operations after the state Supreme Court ruled that it should not have been given permission to start without an environmental review.

The Honolulu Advertiser reports this morning that this shutdown may be permanent. The company will begin laying off workers on Thursday.

Legal challenges forced the high-speed Superferry to cease operations after a rocky start in the summer of 2007. It resumed service between Oahu and Maui in December 2007, but was blocked by a grass-roots campaign when it tried to begin sailing to Kauai. Service to the Big Island had been scheduled to begin in 2009, and then was pushed back to 2010.

Opponents of the Superferry said it endangered marine life, including whales, and created traffic problems on shore. Supporters said it was good for tourism and for the economy in general.

In any event, the only public transportation between the Hawaiian islands is, once again, on airlines.

SNL Skit Riles Hawaiian Tourism Industry

A Saturday Night Live skit portraying underpaid entertainers in Hawaii going off on insensitive tourists has annoyed some officials in Hawaii, where a drop in tourism has seriously damaged the local economy. For the record: Hawaii loves insensitive tourists.

go! and Island Air Announce Codeshare

The emphatically lower-case airline go!, a subsidiary of Mesa Airlines and a survivor of the brutal Hawaiian interisland fare wars, has announced a tentative code-share agreement with Island Air.

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Another Round In Hawaii’s Airline Wars

After losing money for two and a half years in a bitter interisland fare war that killed Aloha Airlines, go! airlines has finally achieved an operating profit, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin.

That leaves go!, a subsidiary of Mesa Airlines, in competition with Hawaiian Airlines for interisland travel. The smaller Island Air and Mokulele Airlines also provide interisland service, but Mokulele is in trouble.

The airline has defaulted on a loan from partner Republic Airways, which may take over its operations, according to the Honolulu Advertiser. About 100 former employees of Aloha work for Mokulele.

Video: The Highway To Hana

A few months ago, the husband and I drove the Highway to Hana on the gorgeous Hawaiian island of Maui. Or, rather, he drove, as you will see in this video:

Angry Judge Questions Plan To Take Over Aloha Name

Speaking of Hawaii, the plan to sell the Aloha airlines name to the company that drove it out of business didn’t get much sympathy from a judge in Honolulu.

Judge Lloyd King questioned the sensitivity of the deal involving Mesa airlines, its go! subsidiary and the former Aloha investor that is offering to sell the company name, according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

“How about all the people whose lives were devastated in this case?” King asked. “Doesn’t that count? Is it just the money?”

About 2,000 Aloha employees lost their jobs when the airline went bankrupt after an agressive fare war waged by Phoenix-based Mesa.

Hawaii Plans Bike Sharing, Obama Tours

I like to check in periodically to see what’s going on in Hawaii because I enjoy tormenting myself, especially when the frost is thick on the Subaru.

Looks like entrepreneurs on Oahu are planning to start a bike-sharing program in June. Swipe a credit card, ride across Honolulu and return the bike to another rack. And be sure to return the bike – the charge is $900 if you don’t.

And some Obama-related tours are starting to spring up in Honolulu, where the president-elect spent most of his youth. The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau has gotten into the act, if a bit belatedly, with a Barack Obama’s Hawaii page on its Web site.

Interesting that the photo at the top of the page is an unflattering one of Obama shoving shave ice into his face. (I mean, it’s not flattering to Obama. The shave ice looks delicious.) And that Hawaii’s Republican governor is being criticized for a perceived snub of Obama.

As always: just sayin’.