The Hawaiian Islands have always been the premier vacation destination spot of the United States.  With 2007 being the busiest year  of tourism the Hawaiian Islands has ever seen, tourism has steadily decreased since then.  Tourism is down close to ten percent since then.

On the negative side, this has hurt all businesses that rely on tourism.  If you look throughout the major cities you will find many small businesses shut down and many employees looking for work.

On the positive side, vacation rentals have become a better alternative for those people that still want to come to the Hawaiian Islands, but are still on a budget.  With vacation rentals you can cut the cost of your room, you can cook in, as well as still conduct business as though it is your home.

This week many airlines drastically reduced their rates to the Hawaiian Islands and tourism is starting to look fairly strong for May, which is typically a slow season.  Looking forward, the later part of 2009 tourism will probably still struggle, but hopefully by 2010 it will start to pick up to bring us back to the way 2007 was.