Obama Star Tours Can't Compete With Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor

by polylogue | December 22, 2008 at 08:03 pm

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While some Hawaiians are trying to capitalize on their native son's rise to the presidency, President-elect Barack Obama sites in Honolulu are not drawing the crowds that come to Aloha State to visit Waikiki Beach or Pearl Harbor.

Some entrepreneurs have launched Obama bus tours that show tourists the President-elect's former school, his childhood apartment building and the Baskin-Robbins where he worked. However, business, for now, is slow. According to an article in Politico, for some of these tours, there is only enough interest for a few tours a week. The Baskin-Robbins tried to capitalize on its Obama factor with a new flavor of ice cream -- Swirl of Change, but according to the article, the flavor has not caught on.

Since Hawaii is already a tourist destination world-renowned for its beaches, sunshine, volcanos and Pearl Harbor, the Obama sites are not the draw they would be somewhere else. For example, a mini-industry has arisen in Crawford, Texas celebrating all-things President George W. Bush.

But the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau has begun trying to add Obama to its marketing strategy. It has now created a website listing Obama's favorite beaches and restaurants.

In fact, if the seven weeks after the election are any testament, there will be no Crawford-ization of Oahu, the island where Obama grew up and returns for vacation. Entire livelihoods were built on President George W. Bush vacationing at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, with stores selling trinkets and press hang-outs flourishing.

On Oahu, Obama is a niche market.

Air conditioned mini-buses full of tourists wind around the narrow streets of Makiki, his old Honolulu neighborhood. They breeze past the school Obama attended and the apartment building where his grandparents raised him. Some guides let tourists hop off to snap photographs in the lobby of the hospital where Obama was born.

But business is slow. Tour operator Mitch Berger has been running a $40 Obama tour for about a month — but he’s only had enough interest to run three eight-person tours a week, despite thousands of tourists who flock here every day.