Impact of Hawaii's Smoke-free Law on Tourism

Audience: Smoke-free air law proponents and policymakers; community action group and coalition leaders and members; restaurant and bar owners. 

Methods: Data regarding the number of tourist arrivals, length of tourist stay, average daily spending and average monthly spending was obtained from Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism website for overall tourists, and those specifically from Japan. Descriptive statistics were reported before and after the law and linear regression was used to assess the relationship between the implementation of the law and changes in indicators of tourism while adjusting for underlying economic factors. 

Key Points: There is no evidence that the smoke-free law significantly harmed the tourism industry of Hawaii as a whole. Other economic factors and natural disasters are important considerations when analyzing the independent effect of the smoke-free policy.  Regression analyses that controlled for underlying economic trends revealed that arrivals to Hawaii have increased since the implementation of the law and that declines in arrivals and tourist spending are associated with economic trends, such as increasing unemployment percentage in the United States. Among Japanese tourists, increases in the Nikkei stock index volume were associated with increased arrivals to Hawaii, and the March 2011 Tsunami was associated with a decline in visitor arrivals.

Educational Experience: Graphs, charts, tables, informative text and conversation will allow the audience to understand the association between changes in indicators of tourism and the Hawaii smoke-free law.

Benefits: This is a new and innovative approach to analyzing the effect of a smoke-free law.