- Presented by Dolan Eversole, University of Hawai’i Sea Grant College Program
- This webinar took place on July 15, 2021. The recording is available here. Slides also are available (6.8MB PDF).
- Links shared during the webinar include:
More Information:
Windward Oahu Tourism Assessment:
This effort is a contribution to the Windward Oʻahu Tourism Assessment, a collaborative effort of the City and County of Honolulu and the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program. The Windward Oʻahu Tourism Assessment is designed to determine the social, economic, and natural resource visitor impacts on Windward Oʻahu; evaluate and prioritize potential options to address priority issues; implement additional assessments for selected communities island-wide; and provide comprehensive outreach and education for impacted communities. Tourism has both positive and negative economic, sociocultural, and environmental impacts in any destination, necessitating measurement of the perceived net impacts of tourism on the destination. In this study, such perceptions were measured by asking respondents to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “Tourism has brought more benefits than problems.”
Hawaii Destination Management Action Plans:
The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA), in partnership with the counties and local stakeholders, have developed community-based Destination Management Action Plans (DMAPs) that aim to rebuild, redefine and reset the direction of tourism over a three-year period. The focus is on stabilization, recovery, and rebuilding to the desired visitor industry for each island. The actions put forth in the DMAPs are guided by an island-based Steering Committee for each island, and include a collaborative process which encourages participation and vital input from the community, visitor industry and other sectors. The DMAPs identify areas of need as well as actionable solutions for enhancing the residents’ quality of life and improving the visitor experience across the islands.
About the Speaker:
Dolan Eversole currently serves as the Waikīkī Beach management coordinator through the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program, in partnership with the Waikīkī Beach Special Improvement District Association. Eversole served as the NOAA Coastal Storms Program, Pacific Islands Regional Coordinator from 2010 to 2015, covering all the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Island (USAPI) territories including American Samoa, Guam, CNMI, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. The Coastal Storms Program (CSP) provides outreach and coordination support to the region by supporting vulnerability assessments, and by identifying technological and socioeconomic solutions to reduce their vulnerability through measures that improve adaptation and community resilience.