Introduction
The Island of Molokai entails one of the vast islands of Hawaii with beautiful scenes as well as natural resources. The people living on this island conduct a life guided by love and care towards the natural resources, which nourish their families in terms of physical and spiritual attributes. Additionally, the lives of the people in Molokai are guided by the historical legacy of pule, powerful prayer, which they inherited from their elders. The people also believe in honor for their cultural heritage practiced on a daily basis. These aspects contributed towards the true measurement of their wealth through the level of generosity. However, despite the vast natural resources found in the island, the people of Molokai have identified the need to allow visitors both local and foreign to enjoy the beautiful scenarios. They have thus developed plans aimed at perpetuating and sharing the elements through intentions of preserving the lifestyle and culture of Molokai. These developed plans are however governed in terms of how the visitors will be guided towards maintaining the lifestyle of the people. In addition, there is shared concern regarding all the parts of the island as over the past 30 years, local and foreign companies have started acquiring ownership over the Ranch in Molokai. Consequently, conflicts emerged between the Ranch and the community regarding the development proposals.
This paper will focus on discussing the tourist system in Molokai with respect to the demand and supply concepts. It will also discuss the description of socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts of existing tourism activities. Additionally, part of the paper will focus on the strategies that address these impacts and move tourism in Molokai towards a sustainable future that preserves the social, cultural and natural environment.Tourism System with respect to demand and supply
The people of Molokai have developed plans to enhance tourism in the Island through initiatives aimed at ensuring that visitors touring the area appreciate the traditional subsistence lifestyle while at the same time respect the customs and traditions. This will be achieved through ensuring that the tourists moving to Molokai do not exploit the lifestyle as well as the land. The speculation over land will bring about manipulation in terms of assessing the costs incurred in property and eventually increase the prices of land. In order to curb these aspects, the tourism sector in Molokai developed plans targeting the niche markets of people with an interest in the environment and culture of Molokai (Polancy, 220). These efforts target tourists with respect for the unique quality of the land and the people living there. It also involves management of the number of tourists in terms of the right size for the infrastructure in Molokai. Evidently, these plans aim at bringing quality experience to the tourists as well as the residents.
Additionally, the tourism system in the island of Molokai has put in place objectives in order to support the culture and tradition of the people. These objectives include supporting the tourism system on the basis of authenticity in the culture and values of the people of Hawaii. This is coupled with the promotion of the community by employing ownership of the unique assets in the industry. Another important objective that has been developed by the tourism sector entails protecting the people from increased prices of land and taxes (Polancy, 220). This objective is followed closely by protection over the natural resources as well as the wildlife by establishing methods of control and monitoring over the tourism in order to ensure the integrity in the culture. Furthermore, the people in Molokai have created specific marketing plans aimed at protecting the tourism policies in Molokai. The achievement of these aspects occurs through partnering with MVA as well as travel agents in order to ensure adequate distribution of appropriate information (Polancy, 220).
Similarly, the tourism in Molokai has occurred due to lack of expansion in the airport as well as at the harbor infrastructure in order to accommodate large scale tourism agendas such as the ones occurring on the other islands (Polancy, 220). In addition to these aspects, there are objectives in the tourism sector that make use of the existing infrastructure and zones in existence to conduct activities based on conservation of the environment. The tourism sector has also re-opened the Kaluako'i hotel as a hotel and an Educational Complex for Hawaii on the basis of creating a limited luxury tourism complex (Polancy, 220).
Other objectives developed in the tourism system include re-opening of lodges with the aim of utilizing the business-to-business infrastructure to adding accommodation facilities in the area. These objectives are followed closely with the implementation of the Malama Cultural park plan on the basis of offering educational, recreational as well as cultural activities for tourists (Polancy, 331). Evidently, the people of Molokai have focused on supporting the Ironwoods golf course through maintaining affordable fees that will accommodate the local people as well.In addition, the people of Molokai have marvelously enhanced the levels of tourism on the island through re-opening of the Kaluako'i course in order to implement designs and operations aimed at maintaining the plans in place (Polancy, 334). These plans will allow the elimination of fertilizer as well as pesticide from running off into the water bodies and minimize the total use of water. This has been achieved through complete utilization of the gray water obtained from the kalauko'i sewage system. The main aim behind this objective is ensuring fulfillment of the irrigation requirement within the island (Polancy, 334). It may also be achieved through the employment of drought resistant plants within the landscape schemes as well as a reduction of excess turf areas within the region (Polancy, 334). The other major objective developed within the Molokai Island with the aim of boosting the tourism sector includes the application of innovative green technology in perpetuating environmental protection standards. This has been achieved through the recognition of the limited water resources in Molokai and seeking legally binding prohibition on any more subdivision of the large agricultural sections (Polancy, 334).Socio-economic, Cultural and Environmental Impacts of Existing Tourism activities
In the environmental perspective, Molokai entails a pure society with clean beaches open to all the people which consequently brings about reduced instances pf pollution in the air and water. Additionally, the mountains on the island serve as the homes for the native birds and all kinds of animals thus giving the island some credit as one of the purest areas in the world. This is coupled with natural scenic attractions full of sea cliffs as well vast scenarios. However, despite the under-development on the island, there are natural resources that have brought about increased threats in terms of pressure from from commercial exploitation (Johnston et al, 277). The pressure mounted on the people of Molokai emanates from poor use of the land as well inappropriate management of the resources. The island also faces challenges about tourist exploitation where visitors visit and attempt to exploit the region by exploring the natural resources as well as the lands. Consequently, these factors bring about increased losses in terms of the island's purity as well as increase in the prices of land (Johnston et al, 277).
Another important aspect that occurs as a result of the exploitation conducted by tourists includes erosion on the lands especially in Maunaloa where the lands have been left bare. On the other hand, tourism in Molokai has introduced expansion over various sectors of infrastructure. These sectors include transportation where tourism has initiated increased modes of transport to the sceneries thus increasing the prices of oil as well as other fuels (Johnston et al, 279). These aspects have introduced pollution in the region. In addition, there is increased exploitation in the culture as values of the people as tourists have introduced their culture into the region thus leading to changes in the way the people carry out their activities (Johnston et al, 279). In the socio-economic perspective, tourism in Molokai has change the culture and values of the people through the introduction of alternative methods of transportation and farming and not to mention subsistence activities.
Over the years, the people of Molokai have relied on subsistence activities such as hunting and gathering, fishing, farming, just to mention but a few. However, tourism has changed the way of doing things as most people are forced to develop other methods of existence as their sources of food have been invaded by commercial entities for preservation of tourist activities (Johnston et al, 291). Research in Molokai has indicated that about 28 percent of the food in Molokai is obtained through subsistence activities. However, these discoveries have significantly been affected through increased tourist activities in the region. Consequently, due to tourism, access to food resources, as well as, major provision of water and other aspects have been limited in the name of safeguarding for research or tourist attraction purposes (Johnston et al, 291).Strategies that address these impacts
The development and promotion of a sustainable future in the preservation of social, cultural and natural environment in Molokai requires strategies aimed at safeguarding the culture, natural resources as well as the tradition of the people (Assante et al, 631). In this case, the necessary strategies include appropriate measures that ensure appropriate sharing of the culture without commercial purposes. This will be achieved through development of tourism in terms of an intimate scale for quality experiences both for the community as well as the tourists (Assante et al, 631). Additionally, it will also require adequate exposure of the rural lifestyle and the local community through enriching the experience to the tourists (Assante et al, 631). These factors should be coupled with ample encouragement of personal and interactive models of communication as well as education to the tourists through programs offered while on tour. Similarly, the governing bodies in Molokai should ensure ample education is offered to the tourists through the use of social interactions that ensure adequate supply of information regarding the people and culture of Molokai (Assante et al, 631). The supply of information should also entail quality communication of the type of tourists allowed in the island. Furthermore, those tourists with commercial intentions should be advised on the penalties implemented by the local people (Assante et al, 631).
Consequently, the people of Molokai Island should focus on promoting their culture and values through education facilities such as courses and programs offered in the local institutions on these aspects. These should be coupled with involving the community on conserving the environment where areas such as employment of drought resistant plants in the dry areas as well as the reduction of excess turfs in the region (Assante et al, 634). In order to limit the number of visitors in the island, the governing bodies should effective regulate expansion in the infrastructure sector. This should occur in the airport and harbor regions in order to accommodate only a limited number of tourists at a time. In addition, there should be application of innovative green technologies aimed at perpetuating environmental protection standards. The water resources in the island should also be adequately recognized through seeking legal rights that prohibit further subdivision of agricultural sectors (Assante et al, 634). Additionally, the people of Molokai should target markets in terms of tourists who would respect their culture and traditions. In this way, the people would get to learn of the healing experiences utilized. This should be coupled with involvement of the community members through programs that promote the culture and traditional values. These programs should be held annually where tourists may feel privileged to visit Molokai and learn their cultural way of doing things. In addition, the governing bodies should support initiatives of creating the state as well as laws through reflection and preservation of the unique nature of Molokai (Assante et al, 634).
There are a number of additional strategies that need to be implemented in order to make tourism in Molokai a sustainable future that preserves the social, cultural and natural environment. These strategies include encouraging policy makers to embrace utilization of agricultural lands that contribute to sufficient supply of food. This should also entail utilizing alternative methods of transport or even energy in order to safeguard the environment (Assante et al, 634).
Works Cited
Assante, L. M., H. I. Wen, and K. J. Lottig. "Conceptualization of Modeling Resident Attitudes on the Environmental Impacts of Tourism: A Case Study of Oahu, Hawaii." (2012): Web. <10.1080/21568316.2011.631354>.
Hawaiʻi Visitors & Convention Bureau. Hawai'i: The islands of Aloha. Hawaii: Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, 2002. Print.
Johnston, D., J. Becker, C. Gregg, B. Houghton, D. Paton, G. Leonard, and R. Garside. "Developing warning and disaster response capacity in the tourism sector in coastal Washington, USA." Disaster Prevention and Management (2007): n. pag. Web. <10.1108/09653560710739531>.
Polancy, T. So you want to live in Hawaiʻi: A guide to settling and succeeding in the islands. Kihei, Hawaiʻi: Barefoot Pub, 2005. Print.
