Talk Story
Kamaaina prices lower
the price of paradiseSETTING prices based on supply and demand is basic economics.
After flying all the way to Hawaii, a visitor has a high demand for hotel rooms, golf courses, interisland airplane tickets, submarine rides and water parks, while our supply of rooms, tee times and seats is limited.
Accordingly, Hawaii businesses set prices tourists pay high enough to maximize their revenues and make good returns on their investments, despite the annual peaks and valleys of visitor arrivals.
Competition keeps some prices in check, but seasonal demand can still drive them sky high. After all, there are only so many rental cars on Kauai.
Tourism's ebb and flow leaves operators with a lot of slack during the slow months. Hotel rooms, tee times and airplane seats are perishable commodities. The extra cost of having someone use them compared to leaving them empty isn't much -- you still need to pay the housekeeper, mow the fairway and fly the plane.
That's why we have kamaaina rates.
MOST OF us who live in Hawaii aren't willing to pay $300 a night for a hotel stay, $100 for a round of golf or $154 for a round-trip ticket to Hilo. Local demand at those prices is low, but it perks up considerably when we get kamaaina rates. We snap up ocean-view rooms at $150 a weekend, $45 golf outings and $50 interisland air coupons.
Kamaaina deals are so good it makes you wonder if they're legit. After all, how can the Ala Wai charge me $10 for a round of golf while my brother from Nashville gets socked for $40?
Recently, the beef was over non-residents having to pay $3 to enter Hanauma Bay, while locals walk in free (everybody pays a dollar to park). U.S. District Judge Alan Kay is still mulling that one over, having ruled that the fees are permissible but that the city must show a rational basis for charging tourists and not residents.
You can't legally be discriminated against on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, ancestry or disability. However, discrimination based on age or residency is legal, according to William Hoshijo of the state Civil Rights Commission.
That's how nightclubs get away with occasionally setting an arbitrary age limit for admission -- say 23 -- and why I get a 5 percent senior discount on Tuesdays at the local mall. It also justifies kamaaina rates, which we often overlook when we bemoan the price of living in paradise.
SPEAKING of the "Price of Paradise," starting this Sunday the Star-Bulletin will dust off the concept and the name and launch a new series under that title.
The Price of Paradise began in 1992 as a book of essays by that name compiled by Randy Roth of the University of Hawaii Law School. Later, it morphed into a long-running series of Sunday newspaper articles, a radio show and a second book.
The mission of POP, as it became known, was to offer lively and informed dialog about public issues, particularly those having to do with our pocketbooks.
The dialog begins with contrasting opinion pieces by local experts. From there, we'll open things up to letters and e-mails from readers and eventually, we hope, to other media.
This Sunday, POP will fume over the price of gasoline in Hawaii. Why is it so high? Will a price cap do anything about it?
Jack Suyderhoud, a University of Hawaii economist, and Fereidun Fesharaki, an energy expert at the East-West Center, will debunk our widely held assumptions about gasoline prices and what to do about them. Look for the Price of Paradise in Sunday's Insight section.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.