Hawaii appears to be on the verge of imposing a $50 per year fee for visitors who want to use Hawaii’s state-owned parks, beaches, forests and hiking trails. A bill to impose the fee is moving through the legislature and is supported by Governor Josh Green.
Green, who campaigned on imposing a ‘climate impact fee’ to raise $600 million a year, told The Points Guy website that “We saw so clearly the impacts of 10 million annual visitors on our islands that in addition to my proposal, there are several being discussed at the legislature. The bottom line is that we need to generate as much revenue as we can from travelers, to help mitigate those impacts.”
The funds from the fee, whose form has not been finally determined, would go to efforts to limit the impact of crowding and to protect areas that have been over-used or inundated with tourists. An earlier proposal to tax everyone coming into Hawaii has been dropped.
