Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the trend toward purchasing locally grown food and evaluate if tourists visiting Hawai'i are willing to pay more for locally produced foods that are more ecologically sustainable.Design/methodology/approach: A research questionnaire was developed in order to investigate the attitudes and behaviors of tourists from the continental United States visiting Hawai'i in purchasing locally grown food in Hawai'i. The final sample includes 454 valid survey responses collected via Momentive, a market research services company.Findings: According to the findings of this study, there are economic prospects to expand the use of locally cultivated food into the tourists' experience, as well as a willingness for tourists to support these activities financially. The Contingent Valuation study revealed that tourists from the continental United States were ready to pay a higher price to purchase food that is locally grown, signifying that tourists to Hawai'i are willing to aid the local agriculture business by increasing their restaurant/hotel meal bill, which will help Hawai'i become a more sustainable tourist destination.Research limitations/implications: While tourists from the United States mainland, which is the “an islands” top tourist market, have agreed with paying extra or an additional fee for locally grown food products, this study might not accurately represent the attitudes and behaviors of international tourists visiting Hawai'i. Future research should focus on the international tourist markets which may have different social norms or cultural differences thus could provide a broader spectrum of the current study's findings.Originality/value: The results of this study provided quantitative evidence that tourists from the United States are interested in purchasing locally grown food items in Hawaii in addition to their willingness to pay an additional fee for these locally grown food products at a restaurant or a hotel dining room, thus addressing a gap in the tourism research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to problems and upheaval throughout the higher-education sector, with university campuses ceasing face-to-face instruction and with assessments shifting to an online model for a few years. As a result, the pandemic prompted educators to teach online, utilizing online lectures, narrated power points, audio snippets, podcasts, instant messaging, and interactive videos, whereas traditional universities had primarily relied on in-person courses. Evaluations, which included assignments and multiple-choice questions, were conducted online, forcing lecturers to reconsider how deliverables were set up to prevent students from having easy access to the answers in a textbook or online. Learning from college students’ experiences throughout this time period will assist higher-education stakeholders (administration, faculty, and students) in adapting future online course delivery selections for higher education. In this study, we investigated the experiences of students learning from a distance, as well as aspects of their learning. We provide recommendations for higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly resulted in the largest distance-learning experiment in history.

The increasing complexity of tourism and sustainability offers opportunities and challenges among diverse stakeholder perspectives. The need for sustainable and nature-based approaches exists throughout the growing body of literature from among a number of dimensions and measures. One of the overarching goals of the paper is to examine whether tourists will choose a destination or hotel that is actively working to improve the environment while examining how Hawaii’s tourism is nature-based as well as other measures of sustainability while enjoying a slice of paradise in the Hawaiian Islands. This study explores tourism sustainability concerns in Hawaii, such as the influence of the tourist sector on the environment and will address if Hawaii should be recognized as a sustainable tourism destination. A survey instrument was developed where 454 respondents participated. According to the findings of this research, tourists visiting Hawaii support environmentally sustainable tourism practices leading towards a more sustainable tourist destination.

Self-service technology is rapidly changing the hospitality industry, providing new opportunities for the delivery of services and options for customers. Preparing to implement effective self-service technology delivery programs requires a workforce that can rapidly adapt to change. Understanding factors that influence employee readiness to engage in and support self-directed processes are an important consideration when implementing self-service technology. The results of the linear regression model in this study indicate that generalized self-efficacy and the self-directed learning readiness of employees in the hospitality industry are significantly related variables. While self-efficacy was the most highly correlated variable to the self-directed learning readiness of hospitality employees, future studies should consider other characteristics that may influence self-direction. As self-service technology continues to rapidly expand in all areas of the hospitality industry, opportunities and challenges exist for both employees and customers.

The unprecedented growth of tourism over the last century has led to increasing concerns over the sustainable development of many popular tourism destinations throughout the globe. High concentrations of tourists and residents, especially in urbanized areas, have heightened this concern with the arrival of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Over reliance on tourism has left residents vulnerable to external factors, such as the coronavirus pandemic that has halted tourists from coming to this remote destination. As a result, Hawaii’s overall economy is suffering greatly. A survey was developed and distributed to potential tourists in order to acquire their perceptions regarding tourism and well-being, as well as the COVID-19 outbreak. The focus of this study was to examine practices in tourism that moves beyond solely economics which will allow repositioning in a manner that promotes the well-being of both residents and tourists and to transition this unique tourism destination for sustainable development practices for the future. One of the results from the study reported that the majority of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that testing for COVID-19 should be a travel requirement prior to flying to Hawaii, as well as having an additional COVID-19 test administered upon arrival.

The Honolulu Marathon has a significant economic impact on the state of Hawaii's economy. Some 25,000 runners registered for the 2007 Honolulu Marathon, making it the sixth largest in the world as well as the third largest marathon in the USA, trailing only New York (34,729) and Chicago (32,332). Of the 25,000 Honolulu Marathon runners, over 17,000 were out-of-state runners. This study asked out-of-state participants in the marathon to assess the attractiveness of Honolulu and its marathon compared with that of an ideal marathon. Data used in this study were collected by distributing a research instrument to marathon participants. The instrument consisted of 30 items to represent the destinational attributes for an ideal marathon location city based on an extensive review of the literature on the selection of sport tourism event destinations. Over 473 surveys were collected for this study. Examination and analysis of these results will be very helpful in determining what the marathon runners believe are the ideal attributes of a city to host a marathon. This information will provide marketing guidance to the organizers of the Honolulu Marathon based on a segmented analysis of participants' perceptions of the event as well as give assistance to community and event organizations interested in attracting and marketing similar events.