Hawaii’s transformation from a remote Polynesian kingdom to the world’s most iconic tropical destination did not happen overnight. It was engineered — by shipping magnates, real estate developers, Olympic athletes, and wartime circumstances — across nearly 250 years. The story involves ancient fishponds buried under hotel lobbies, sand shipped from California, a Swedish orphan who built a shipping empire, and a surfer who became the most famous Hawaiian who ever lived.
This timeline traces how the Hawaiian Islands became a destination that now draws over 10 million visitors annually and generates more than $20 billion in revenue.
The Kingdom Era (1778-1893)
1778: First Western Contact
British Captain James Cook arrives at Waimea, Kauai on January 18, 1778, becoming the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. He names them the Sandwich Islands after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. Cook’s crew introduces Western goods and, devastatingly, Western diseases.
1794: Kamehameha the Great at Waikiki
After unifying most of the Hawaiian Islands, Kamehameha the Great establishes his seat of government in Waikiki. The area is a thriving agricultural community — taro fields, fishponds, and wetlands sustained by fresh water flowing from the Ko’olau mountains. Waikiki at this time looks nothing like the beach resort it would become.
1820: Missionaries Arrive
The first 14 American Protestant missionaries land on March 30, 1820. Over the following decades, they discourage many traditional Hawaiian practices, including surfing — which they consider idle and immoral. The ancient sport, once practiced by kings, begins to fade.
1820s-1860s: The Whaling Era
New Bedford whaling ships use Hawaii as a mid-Pacific waypoint. In 1844, 326 whalers stop at Lahaina, Maui alone. Lahaina becomes the whaling capital of the Pacific, creating the first sustained contact between Hawaii and visiting sailors — an early, rough form of tourism.
1846: Hawaii’s First Hotel
Benjamin Pitman builds a one-room grass shelter on the rim of Kilauea Caldera on the Big Island — the Volcano House, Hawaii’s oldest hotel. Adventurous travelers have been trekking to see the volcano’s fires, and they need somewhere to sleep. It is not luxury. It is barely shelter. But it is the beginning.
1866: Mark Twain Visits
Samuel Clemens spends four months in Hawaii as a correspondent for the Sacramento Union, writing 25 letters that bring Hawaii to mainstream American attention for the first time. He stays at Volcano House and writes vividly about Kilauea’s lava lake.
1882: Captain William Matson
Swedish immigrant William Matson sails his three-masted schooner Emma Claudina from San Francisco to Hilo, carrying supplies for sugar plantations. The return cargo is sugar. It is a freight business — but Matson Navigation will eventually build the infrastructure of Hawaiian tourism.
1893: Sans Souci and Robert Louis Stevenson
George Lycurgus opens the Sans Souci hotel in Waikiki. Robert Louis Stevenson, gravely ill, stays for five weeks and leaves a famous endorsement in the guest register — one of the earliest celebrity hotel testimonials.
The Birth of Tourism (1893-1927)
1893: The Overthrow
American businessmen backed by U.S. Marines overthrow Queen Lili’uokalani. The Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed in 1894. Annexation by the United States follows in 1898. These political changes open the islands to American investment and, eventually, mass tourism.
1901: The Moana Hotel Opens
On March 11, Waikiki’s first luxury hotel opens — 75 rooms with telephones and private baths, the first electric elevator in the Territory of Hawaii, designed by architect Oliver G. Traphagen. “The First Lady of Waikiki” establishes the beachfront hotel model that defines Hawaiian tourism to this day. First-night rate: $1.50.
1903: Hawaii Promotion Committee
Hawaii creates its first formal tourism promotion body — the precursor to the Hawaii Visitors Bureau. Organized tourism marketing begins.
1906-1928: Draining Waikiki
Lucius Pinkham declares Waikiki’s wetlands a public health hazard and begins the political process to drain them. Walter Dillingham’s Hawaiian Dredging Company builds the Ala Wai Canal between 1921 and 1928, draining 625 to 687 acres of taro fields, fishponds, and wetlands. The land beneath modern Waikiki’s hotels was, a century ago, a network of fishponds and farms.
1907-1915: Surfing Goes Global
George Freeth demonstrates surfing at Redondo Beach, California in 1907 — hired by railway magnate Henry Huntington as a marketing tool. Duke Kahanamoku takes surfing to the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, wins gold, and introduces the sport to Australia at Freshwater Beach, Sydney in December 1914. Surfing culture and Hawaii become inseparable in the global imagination.
1910-1927: Visitor Numbers Grow
Tourism numbers climb from roughly 5,000 visitors in 1910 to 17,500 in 1927. All arrive by ship. All stay for extended periods — the voyage itself takes nearly five days each way.
The Golden Age (1927-1941)
1927: The Grand Scheme Launches
Matson Navigation and Castle & Cooke launch their three-part luxury tourism plan: the SS Malolo (fastest ship in the Pacific), the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (the “Pink Palace,” designed by the architects of Grand Central Terminal, cost $4 million), and Waialae Country Club. All open in 1927. Matson now owns the ships, the hotels, and the experience — vertical integration before the term existed.
1927-1930s: Building the Beach
Waikiki doesn’t have much of a natural sandy beach. The Territorial Legislature authorizes reconstruction, and sand is shipped by barge from Manhattan Beach, California. Eleven groins are built to hold the imported sand in place. The beach tourists walk on today was literally constructed.
1932: The White Ships
The SS Lurline, most famous of Matson’s “White Ships,” is christened. Along with the Mariposa, Monterey, and Malolo/Matsonia, these four liners define luxury Pacific travel for three decades. “Boat Day” at Honolulu — with the Royal Hawaiian Band, lei sellers, hula dancers, and children diving for coins — becomes one of the great spectacles of American tourism.
1935: Hawaii Calls
Webley Edwards creates Hawaii Calls, a live radio show broadcast from under the banyan tree at the Moana Hotel. At its peak, the show airs on 750 radio stations worldwide. For 40 years, it shapes the world’s image of Hawaiian music and culture more than any other single media product.
1920s-1930s: The Beach Boys
The Waikiki Beach Boys — surf instructors, canoe operators, musicians, and entertainers — work the beach in front of the Moana and Royal Hawaiian hotels. They teach Nelson Rockefeller, Douglas Fairbanks, and Shirley Temple to surf. They are Hawaii’s first tourism ambassadors.
War and Transformation (1941-1959)
1941: Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 Americans and plunging the United States into World War II. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel becomes an R&R center for Navy submariners — over 200,000 servicemen pass through during the war. Concertina wire blocks civilian beach access.
1942-1945: Military Hawaii
Hawaii is under martial law. Tourism effectively ceases. But hundreds of thousands of American servicemen experience the islands for the first time, many vowing to return as tourists after the war. All four Matson passenger liners serve as troopships — 119 voyages, 1.5 million miles, 736,000 troops transported.
1936-1950s: Aviation Arrives
Pan American Airways carries the first paying airline passengers across the Pacific via Honolulu in 1936. Air travel is initially expensive and rare — it doesn’t immediately threaten the steamship lines. But the clock is ticking.
The Modern Era (1959-Present)
1959: The Year Everything Changed
Two events in the same year transform Hawaiian tourism forever. On August 21, Hawaii becomes the 50th U.S. state. Three days later, Pan Am inaugurates jet service to the islands. Boeing 707s can cross the Pacific in hours instead of days. Tourist arrivals that year: 243,000.
Matson sells all four Waikiki hotels to Sheraton for $17.6 million, ending 32 years in the hotel business. In 1960 alone, over 2,000 hotel rooms are added in Waikiki — a 45 percent increase. Tourism replaces sugar and pineapple combined as Hawaii’s largest civilian income source.
1960s-1970s: Mass Tourism
Visitor numbers explode. By 1966, passenger traffic has doubled. By 1969, 1.5 million visitors arrive annually. By 1980, nearly four million. The intimate Beach Boy era of long-stay wealthy visitors gives way to high-volume package tourism. Waikiki’s skyline fills with high-rise hotels.
2019: Peak Tourism
Hawaii welcomes 10.4 million visitors, generating approximately $18 billion in spending. Overtourism becomes a serious concern — residents protest the environmental and cultural costs of mass tourism.
2020: The Pandemic Pause
COVID-19 travel restrictions reduce visitor arrivals by over 73 percent. For the first time in decades, residents experience Hawaii without mass tourism. The pause forces a conversation about what sustainable tourism should look like.
2023: The Lahaina Fire
On August 8-9, 2023, wildfire destroys much of historic Lahaina, Maui, killing over 100 people. The Pioneer Inn — Maui’s oldest hotel, operating since 1901 — is lost. The disaster forces a reckoning with Hawaii’s dependence on tourism and the vulnerability of its historic sites.
Today: $20 Billion and Counting
Tourism remains Hawaii’s largest industry. Waikiki Beach continues to erode, requiring multimillion-dollar sand replenishment every five to 10 years, with a $60 million long-term stabilization plan. Sea level rise threatens to submerge much of Waikiki within this century.
The challenge facing Hawaii today is whether tourism can become sustainable — whether an industry born from draining wetlands, importing sand, and building on ancient fishponds can find a way to honor the land and culture that made it valuable in the first place.
Explore the Full Story
This timeline is the hub of our Hawaii Tourism History series. Each chapter goes deeper:
- Is Waikiki Beach Man-Made? — The extraordinary engineering behind Hawaii’s most famous beach
- The Oldest Hotels in Hawaii — From Volcano House (1846) to the Royal Hawaiian (1927)
- The White Ships Era — How Matson Navigation built Hawaiian tourism
- Duke Kahanamoku and the Waikiki Beach Boys — How surfing built Hawaiian tourism
Plan Your Own Hawaii History Trip
Many of the historic hotels mentioned in this timeline are still operating today. You can stay at the same Moana Hotel where Hawaii Calls broadcast for 40 years, sleep on the rim of Kilauea at Volcano House, or walk the halls of the Pink Palace that Matson built. Explore our guides by island:
- Oahu Hotels — including Waikiki’s historic properties
- Maui Hotels — luxury resorts on the Valley Isle
- Kauai Hotels — romantic stays on the Garden Isle
- Big Island Hotels — including Volcano House