Letter: Hotels and taxes killing isle travel, not airlines

The downturn in tourism to Hawaii can hardly be blamed on airfares. In 1965, my wife and I came to Hawaii on our honeymoon. We stayed at the Reef Hotel, in an oceanfront room of the big tower. That room cost us $18.63 per night, including tax. There was no resort charge in those days. I just checked the price for a similar room on the same dates in 2027 and was quoted $737 per night without taxes.

We paid $222 each for round-trip airfare from San Francisco in 1965 — total $444. If the same percentage increase in hotel costs were applied to airfare, next summer’s airfare would be $8,782.29 each, or $17,564.57 for the two of us.

Hawaii is pricing itself out of the market and it is the hotels and taxes that are doing it, not the airlines!

Bob Gould

No man

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