Libertarian View
PROSTITUTION AND THE VISITOR INDUSTRY
Some people have questioned the remarks I made in a recent column
about the lack of support for the idea that prostitution was harming
Hawaii's visitor industry. This is an issue I haven't been much involved
in since the late nineties so it is possible some actual research
has been done in the interim. Anyone aware of such research may feel
free to cue me in on it. In this article I will address the evidence
that I have seen.
All the negative evidence on prostitution as it relates to the visitor
industry seems to have come from complaints from individual visitors.
Advocates have said many times that there are a lot of complaints,
but no actual attempt to quantify them has ever been made. Nor are
the complaints evaluated and categorized. One letter written in 1994
by a couple from Nebraska indicating they would never return to Hawaii
because they were offended by seeing so many prostitutes in Waikiki
was referred to over and over again until one got the impression this
was really the only letter ever written on the subject.
There is a very large problem in relying on complaints to indicate
the opinion of a group. Negative people speak up. Positive ones do
not. A good generic example would be a theater owner who's run a new
movie. As the line of movie goers files out of the theater one or
two come up to him and passionately complain about the picture. Based
on their complaints he terminates the picture's run early. Across
town a rival theater owner gives ratings cards to everyone leaving
the theater. He receives responses form over 100 people of which 85
had a favorable reaction to the movie. He extends the run in his theater.
Which theater owner did a better job of decision making?
My own experience with visitor complaints came from when I worked
in Waikiki in the late 1970's. There were plenty of prostitutes, but
I never received a complaint about them from any visitor. Most complaints
were about prices. There were also a large number of complaints from
older mainland visitors about the large Japanese presence in Waikiki.
They did not like coming to Hawaii and seeing Japanese visitors all
over the place and a visitor industry happy to cater to them. Should
we have reacted to those complaints? After all here were visitors
saying they don't want to see some other group of people on our streets.
More specific examples of government by complainers can be found routinely
in Hawaii. Our van-cam fiasco was supported by a handful of residents
who were fearful and angry at other drivers. Only when the majority
realized what was being done to them did the legislature understand
that the handful of complainers did not represent the community as
a whole.
The only random samplings of visitor opinion on Waikiki prostitutes
I have seen were done by KHET in a prologue to one of their Dialog
programs back in 1996 and a story in the Honolulu Advertiser of similar
vintage. In both cases results indicated most visitors out on Kuhio
and Kalakaua where prostitutes were soliciting customers were in no
way offended by them. In fact a large number seemed interested and
intrigued by the working women, stating that the prostitutes added
something positive to the environment. Reporters had to work hard
to find negative comments. Positive reactions outnumbered negative
ones by four or five to one. These are not scientific studies, but
there is no random sampling to contradict them.
Another way of evaluating prostitution's effects on the visitor industry
would be to see if tourism declined when prostitution increased. This
method hasn't revealed much of anything. Prostitution increased along
with the increase in tourism until the late 1970's. Visitor counts
continued to increase while prostitution leveled off. In the 1990's
tourism slumped and prostitution declined. At the height of the public
frenzy over Waikiki prostitution in the mid to late '90's there were
actually only about half as many women involved as there had been
five years earlier.
About four years ago I discussed the possibility of having the University
of Hawaii do actual research into the economic impact of prostitution
on the visitor industry with then Senate Judiciary Chair Matt Matsunaga.
He actually considered moving ahead with this, but when I saw him
questioned on TV he said it might be worth doing although he was sure
the research would show that prostitution was bad for Waikiki. Well
no research was done.
Surveys have been conducted on the opinions of residents. One I saw
by a State Representative showed that most of the Waikiki voters who
mailed back his questionnaire saw prostitution in Waikiki as a negative
and wanted something done. The problem with this is that independent
polling done by reform groups found most Hawaii residents opposed
to criminal prostitution laws. Due to the way questions were written
and sampling problems neither one of these surveys could be considered
remotely conclusive. Nor could they be counted on as accurate to opinions
today six or seven years later. However, they do point to an interesting
divergence between public attitudes about prostitutes and criminal
prostitution laws. I found this divergence early on when I interviewed
the two point people for cleaning up prostitution in Waikiki in 1995.
Both the spokesperson for the City's Waikiki improvement efforts and
the woman from the private Waikiki Improvement Association indicated
personal opposition to using imprisonment of prostitutes as a way
of addressing their issues. Both felt compelled to support increased
penalties on the grounds that such methods were the only options elected
officials were willing to consider. Ideas that I had that would actually
address most of their concerns without attacking people would never
get a hearing by our government leaders.
It seems to me the real problem with prostitution is bad government.
Prostitution is a business that flourishes in Waikiki because there
are thousands of men there interested in purchasing the services provided.
Prostitution is part of the visitor industry. That's the reality.
Whatever legitimate issues residents may have can best be addressed
when that reality is recognized and prostitution is allowed legal
means to survive.
For further information email:
Tracy Ryan at tracyar@hawaiiantel.net
