To them it's a nonissue and one major supplier in the Chicago area says Hawaii's tourist business will gain from it.
One of the biggest wholesalers of mainland-Hawaii tour packages, Westlake Village, Calif.-
based Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, said the step toward allowing same-sex couples to marry won't make a difference.
"People are going to travel to Hawaii for reasons other than marriage," said Ken Phillips, a spokesman for Pleasant Hawaiian.
"We don't at this point see any significant impact one way or another," Phillips said.
Executives at his company have talked the issue over and don't agree with critics who say that gays and lesbians heading to Hawaii to get married will make the islands unpalatable to heterosexual vacationers.
"We don't see that as a factor," Phillips said.
Neither does Richard Kelley, chairman of Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, which operates more hotel rooms in Waikiki than anyone else.
"I don't see it as making a great deal of difference," Kelley said. He also said he doesn't expect many more gay and lesbian tourists coming to Hawaii 'than usual.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Kevin Change ruled that the state ban on same-sex marriages violates the Hawaii constitution. Yesterday, he stayed the ruling until the case is heard in state Supreme Court.
President Clinton in late September signed into law a marriage preservation act that allows states to make their own laws on the subject but also allows states to decline to recognize homosexual marriages that took place in other states.
"That really put a whole different complexion on it," Kelley said. People won't be able to come to the islands to get married and go home and have their marriages recognized, he said.
If anything publicity over this week's Hawaii court decision, brings attention to Hawaii as a tolerant place, said Paul Unger, vice president of marketing at Go Go Worldwide Vacations.
"It's definitely favorable," said Unger, whose New Jersey-based company has special Hawaii tours for gays and lesbians along with its standard Hawaii business.
"All you have to do is see what happened to Disney when Disney decided to grant certain benefits to companions. The religious right came along and promoted a boycott (of Disney) but the whole thing was absurd. It was totally ineffective," Unger said.
"If they decide to crusade against Hawaii for the same reason, it will be totally ineffective," he predicted.
Paul Casey, president of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, was not available for comment but Gail Chew, HVCB vice president of communications, said Casey has taken no position on the issue.
Keith Vieira, vice president and director of marketing at ITT Sheraton Hawaii, said, "We view it as having positives and negatives."
"We go after honeymooners. Potentially we would have some of that business. (But) we're not that niche-targeted," Vieira said.
He said he doesn't think people will stay away from Hawaii if it allows same-sex marriages.
"Hawaii has always been a relatively liberal state and open minded," Vieira said.