When holidaymakers picture a Hawaiian island vacation, it may start with a flower garland (“lei”) greeting and being handed a colourful cocktail to enjoy on a pool lounger among lush greenery. But Hawai’i is seeking to reframe its reputation as a playground destination, instead focusing on the feel-good effect of altruism and good deeds, as it moves towards a more sustainable tourism model.
Destination managers at the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority are now heavily promoting a scheme that has been in place for five years, encouraging visitors to support local communities and conservation actions during their stay.
Known as the “Mālama Hawaiʻi” programme, the initiative brings together “opportunities for visitors to pay it forward, like beach clean-ups, native tree planting, and more,” the GoHawai‘i website says, urging guests to “Engage in some of our volunteer opportunities … and in exchange, experience Hawaiʻi on a much deeper and connected level.” The scheme comes amid much soul-searching among stakeholders and lovers of Hawaiʻi after a devastating wildfire in 2023 and years of what some claimed was overdevelopment and a lack of care towards native and resident islanders. Lawmakers have since raised tourist accommodation and cruise taxes to raise funds to tackle the effects of climate change and tourism.
Mālama means “to give back” and the website allows holidaymakers to browse a range of volunteering tasks, filtering them by dates, activity type, and cause, as well as the sort of person who will be undertaking the good deed (e.g. kids or couples) and their own aims (e.g. meeting people or getting exercise). At the time of writing there were 697 activities to choose from on Maui, 341 on Kauaʻi, 203 on Oʻahu, and 152 on Hawaiʻi.
Activities are wide-ranging, and vary from catering to physical labour to office work. They include teaching people, helping animals, restoring trails, and assisting with farms. The programme has been hailed by Caroline Anderson, interim CEO and president of Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, speaking to Travel + Leisure, as a way to make it “easy for visitors to participate in enriching volunteer experiences, many of which you can only find in Hawai‘i.”
While some of the tasks might be unique to the islands, the concept of inviting holidaymakers to contribute their time and energy to sustainable causes is not. Other destinations have also been leading the way with responsible tourism and responding to consumer demand for authentic experiences and community involvement. Copenhagen and Berlin have launched visitor reward schemes for green behaviours and participation in social projects, giving tourists who arrive by train or do litter-picking free museum entries and refreshments at cafés.
Likewise, Travel Tomorrow reported on Fiji’s “Loloma Hour” in 2025—a scheme named for the Fijian word for “generosity through love”, that invites a nationwide commitment by resorts and activity providers to include guests in the sustainability activities they champion. All it involves is asking visitors to give at least one hour of vacation time to caring for the land, the ocean, and “each other.”
