The tourist reservation system for the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in East Honolulu is set for a major overhaul under a plan that would see a third of the daily tickets set aside for a professional tour operator to manage under contract with the city.

That would mean that 500 of the non-resident 1,400 visitors per day could be bused to the popular snorkeling destination on a schedule Wednesday through Sunday, leaving 900 slots available to book online. Hawaiʻi residents get to bypass the reservation system.

The plan, director of the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation Laura Thielen said Tuesday, balances the need to maintain visitor numbers at the level set during the coronavirus pandemic, while generating the revenue needed to maintain the the scenic bay and marine reserve. 

“People need to face the reality that the cost of operating these places, and certainly the cost of construction and maintaining them is just increasing,” Thielen told Civil Beat. “We’re going to need more money.”

Under the proposed contract the admission fees of $25 per person and a percentage of the package price the tour operator would charge would end up in the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve Fund.

The change to the ticketing system is among several under way at the popular snorkeling destination after a settlement agreement a year ago saw $5.2 million restored to the fund meant to pay for improvements, a visitor education program and scientific research at the preserve.

Troubled History

Hanauma Bay was declared a protected marine life conservation area in 1967 but has long faced concerns about the need to protect its unique ecosystem as tourists flooded the area, often with disregard for the threat to its coral reefs.

That changed after the pandemic when authorities implemented a reservation system and a daily quota.

The preallocation of a portion of the tickets would address some of the findings of a 2023 audit of the Hanauma Bay reservation system. The city auditor found that the online system had successfully helped limit visitor numbers but it also was prone to technical issues that could result in lost revenue.

The new plan would provide some income stability because the operators would have to purchase the tickets regardless of whether they were sold as part of a tour package, Thielen said. However, it also will leave 500 fewer tickets available for individual reservations on the permitted days. 

Department spokesman Nate Serota said Tuesday that the department had received several proposals from contractors that were being reviewed internally but no selection of operator has been made and there was no firm start date.

Several commercial carriers currently run transportation packages to the bay from Waikīkī hotels and pay a parking fee, but their packages don’t include the cost of entrance to the park. Those buses would still be permitted to operate under the pilot plan.

The Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve generated more than an estimated $7.5 million in the fiscal year ending in June, including entrance, equipment rental and other concessions, city budget documents show.

But the most recent city statement of revenues and surplus for the fund shows a drop of about $1.5 million in revenue for the 2025 fiscal year from the year prior. Revenues for the 2026 fiscal year were projected to be flat the spreadsheet shows, and concessions revenues will drop by around $150,000.

The agreement signed last May saw the city restore money that auditors found had been siphoned off from the Hanauma Bay fund over decades to pay for activity at other parks, in violation of county ordinance.

That issue trailed across multiple city administrations from the moment the Hanauma Bay Preserve Fund was established in 1996, but the management of the preserve is now tentatively heading in the right direction, according to Lisa Bishop, president of the nonprofit Friends of Hanauma Bay.

The group was instrumental in calling for accountability over the use of the funds, getting them restored and acting as the main liaison between community users and the county. Bishop said Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi had committed to resolving the issue soon after taking office, and he had finally delivered. 

Money from the agreement is already appearing in budget requests from Thielen’s office to the Honolulu City Council. The council’s budget committee voted Monday to approve the inclusion of $1.9 million from the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve Fund in the county’s 2026 operating budget to pay for five backlogged improvements. 

Those renovations include replacing audio-visual equipment at the Hanauma Bay education center, nonstructural repairs to faux rock surfaces on buildings and walkways, installing new doors at the visitor center and roll-up gates at the main comfort station and concession stands, and purchasing new utility carts.

It’s the second tranche of money released from the special fund. Bishop said $500,000 was released last fiscal year to fund repairs to the preserve’s parking lot.

Infrastructure And Education

The current state of infrastructure at Hanauma Bay reflects more than 15 years of non-investment by the city, Bishop said. The dilapidated state of the visitor facilities is not only at odds with its status as a nature preserve but means that a range of more serious problems had developed, she said. 

For example, Bishop said restrooms at the “Witches Brew” end of the bay need to be repurposed because sea water was leaking into the pipes.

“I think it’s time to take a look at the whole layout of the infrastructure there,” she said.

Thielen said Tuesday her department is also looking to overhaul the public education program at the bay, which has been developed and delivered by the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College program for the past 35 years. 

The department had temporarily extended the education contract with UH Sea Grant that expired last month but was going to issue a request for proposals for a new education provider, Thielen said. 

She said the department is looking to update the information and the science in the program to include the cultural and geological significance of the preserve.

“There’s a lot of places you’ll go to where you can tell the exhibits are more recent,” Thielen said, “maybe they’re a little more interactive or use QR codes to access different things.” The program could also include an expanded online presence. 

Bishop said the UH Sea Grant educational program “hasn’t really kept up with the needs of the bay or visitors and it’s absolutely stagnant.” 

The director of UH Sea Grant Darren Lerner said via email that his team would bid for the revised education contract and looks forward to “the opportunity to compete for this program and to build on our past success.”

Bishop said Friends of Hanauma Bay was broadly supportive of the plan to provide some of the daily non-resident tickets through a contracted operator, with a couple sticking points.

“People need to face the reality that the cost of operating these places, and certainly the cost of construction and maintaining them is just increasing.”

Parks Director Laura H. Thielen

One was how the education program would be delivered to the visitors who book with the operators. Currently visitors are funneled through the education center before they can hit the water. Requirements include an orientation video that stresses the need to use reef-safe sunscreen and to avoid walking on the coral.

“We’re not too sure that the city should outsource the educational outreach for those customers,” Bishop said. “If they outsource it, then they lose control of the message. And the educational outreach is very important for visitors to Hanauma Bay.”

And if a program was delivered to visitors before they arrived at the bay that would essentially give them “head of the line” privileges that would disadvantage people who had made their own reservations, she said. 

The settlement agreement also has revived discussions about access to Hanauma Bay. Both Bishop and Thielen said Tuesday that they were aiming toward a master plan or guiding document for the long-term management of the preserve. 

“We all agree we want to have more Hawaiʻi people going there, and we want more youth,” Thielen said. “And so, my dream would be on the two days a week that we’re closed, we start bringing some kids over.”

That could include using the bay for supervised Summer Fun events and creating other visitor experiences including supervised camping on upper parts of the preserve. “But we don’t want to turn this into a Disneyland,” she said.

Thielen said she was conscious of the need to document the correct use of the fund and issued a memo to staff in December outlining the accounting practices and cost allocations laid out in the settlement agreement to avoid the future misuse of preserve funds.  

Bishop said she’s optimistic.

“Ultimately the administration has the money. And if they don’t want to spend it, they don’t want to spend it. I genuinely think that Laura wants to spend it,” she said.