Besties Travel: Hawaii's Allure Draws LGBTQ Visitors
by Matthew S. Bajko, Assistant Editor, Bay Area Reporter, Wednesday July 31, 2024:
Perennial favorite Hawaii continues to garner top honors as Bay Area Reporter readers' favorite domestic getaway. And with travel to the Pacific island chain down this year compared to 2023, it is easy to find deals on flights and accommodations for fall travel.
According to the state's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, visitation to the Aloha State has been on a decline this year and well below that seen pre-COVID. In a May report, tourism officials disclosed that visitors had declined by 4.1% during the first five months of 2024 compared to the year prior. The 3,908,307 total arrivals also marked a 7.5% decrease from those seen in 2019 during the same timeframe.
Nonetheless, the stats do show gains from those seen five years ago. Total monthly visitor spending, at $1.41 billion, marked a 14.6% increase from that seen in May 2019.
"Though the U.S. market is weakening, arrivals in May 2024 were still 4.5 percent higher than the same month in 2019," noted James Kunane Tokioka, the department's director.
For those interested in learning about Hawaiian LGBTQ history, the Lei Pua ʻAla Queer History Trail continues to add sites to its list of important places for visitors to explore. During Pride Month local leaders in Honolulu unveiled a historic marker for the Glade Show Club that was once housed at 152 N. Hotel Street in the city's Chinatown.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the venue provided a safe space for transgender and drag performers and served as a de facto home for the city's LGBTQ+ Mahu community. It is now the inaugural stop for the LGBTQ history trail, which includes historic sites on the islands of O'ahu, Kaua'I, and Hawai'i.
"For too long our communities' stories have been hidden, our contributions overlooked, our resilience taken for granted," noted project directors Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer, adding that more places are to be added to the trail's list of stops. "We're looking forward to our team's continuing work on the Lei Pua ʻAla Queer Histories of Hawai'i project to make sure that our struggles and victories are not forgotten or erased from public memory."
The Hawai'i Tourism Authority has a dedicated page for LGBTQ-specific travel information on its website.