Author(s):
Victoria S. Downey* - University of Kansas
Abstract:
Tourism dominates the Hawaiian economy, and the economic stronghold of the tourism industry is Waikiki. Waikiki contains more rental units than anywhere else in the state and in 2002 was responsible for 55.6 percent of hotel rental units statewide. This presentation will focus on the various representations of Waikiki through textual analysis of brochures from hotels in the area. Throughout history representations of the Pacific as a whole were romanticized in part to draw colonial settlers to the area. Waikiki continues to be depicted as both a familiar and exotic entity in mainland United States tourism advertising. Over time, the development of Hawaiian tourism has been possible through this appealing dualism. Through the investigation of this cultural construction, this presentation will explore such representations of Waikiki from a postcolonial perspective and investigate the specific ways these representations are contributing to Waikiki's tourism development. This research will contribute to a larger body of literature which considers the ways postcolonialism and tourism might intersect.
