• Why Grace Matters, with Stephanie Donoho

    July 26, 2021
     PACIFIC BUSINESS NEWS STORY  

    PBN Dialogue: Why grace matters, with Stephanie Donoho, Kohala Coast Resort Association (Video)

    Since joining the Kohala Coast Resort Association in 2014 as administrative director, Stephanie Donoho has been focused on community and government relations, work that has taken on a special urgency since the Covid-era curtailment of tourism and and the rising concerns about over-tourism as visitor numbers bounce back.

    One of her Covid initiatives that we talk about in this interview is the Kokua for Our Ohana food relief program. This started out as support for the employees and their families, with some 5,000 people affected in the Kohala area alone, but quickly expanded to support folks in all the tourism-related businesses along the Kohala Coast. For her leadership in this project, Donoho was named one of PBN's Pineapple Award honorees earlier this year.

    Because that project used $900,000 in CARES Act funding, one thing keeping Donoho busy right now is the paperwork documenting how the money was spent.

    One of the things we discussed is tension over-tourism, and how much tourism is too much. There are a lot of disconnects in Hawaii, she said, observing that she'll see friends on social media posting that tourists should stay away out of Hawaii, then the next week post their own vacation photos from their Mainland trips. "Recognize you're a visitor, too, and recognize that you might not always do everything the way that people in the places that you are going to would like to have happen," she said.

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