From 1 January 2026, Hawaii became the first US state to charge every visitor a dedicated “Green Fee.” It adds 0.75% to the lodging tax — about $3 on a $400 hotel night — and, for the first time, applies to cruise passengers too. The roughly $100 million it is expected to raise each year is earmarked for one thing: protecting the islands — environmental restoration, climate and disaster resilience, and sustainable tourism.
It is a destination asking visitors to help pay for its own survival. Rather than treat tourism income as general revenue, Hawaii is ring-fencing a small fee to repair the very nature people come to see. The signal: places under environmental pressure are turning the visitor into a funder of conservation — making “leave it better” a line on the bill.
So…:
If your customers helped fund the very thing that makes you worth visiting, what would you protect with it?
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