Aloha Hawaii! In the April School holidays, 18 Geography students headed off to Hawaii to experience tourism first-hand. The focus was to look at how tourism has developed in Hawaii to make it such a popular tourist destination today, with over 10 million visitors a year. We visited three islands to see how different each island is. On the island of Kauai we saw some spectacular scenery and a more laid-back approach to tourism. On Mau’i we ventured to the top of Haleakala volcano and learnt about the various sugar and pineapple
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plantations that were once the backbone of the Hawaiian economy and the reason why Hawaii is so multi-cultural today. On Oahu we saw what mass tourism is like at Waikiki as well as visiting key tourist attractions such as Diamond Head, Pearl Harbour, Sunset Beach, Iolani Palace and a traditional Hawaiian Luau. Quite a few of the students had been to Hawaii before with their families, but they found themselves experiencing the islands in a different way. Jacinda Andrews (TIC Geography)
