Climate change tax on hotels, cruise ships set to go into effect

Office of Gov. Josh Green

By Ashley Mizuo for Hawaiʻi Public Radio

The state’s Green Fee on hotels and cruise ships to pay for climate resilience projects will go into effect in the new year. A court ruling largely dismissed a lawsuit by the cruise ship industry challenging the policy.

The Green Fee increases the state’s visitor tax by 0.75 percentage points to fund climate resiliency and sustainable tourism projects.

It also levies the tax on cruise ships docking in Hawaiʻi, which previously did not have to pay the state transient accommodations tax, now at 11%.

Click here to read the article and listen to the recording aired by Hawaiʻi Public Radio on Dec. 29