Hawaii has become the first US state to charge visitors a dedicated climate levy, with the Hawaii Green Fee now written into law and collected through an increase in the state’s transient accommodations tax (TAT).
For UK companies sending staff to Honolulu, Maui or the Big Island for conferences, incentive programmes or client meetings, the practical result is a higher headline rate on every night booked. The charge is applied automatically at checkout by the accommodation provider, so travellers do not need to pay anything separately or reclaim it later.
The legislation was signed by Governor Josh Green and creates a ring-fenced funding stream for environmental stewardship, climate resilience work and sustainable tourism across the islands. It follows sustained pressure on Hawaii’s natural resources from rising visitor numbers and more frequent climate-related disasters. The Maui wildfires of 2023 sharpened calls for a long-term resilience strategy and led to the creation of the Climate Advisory Team (CAT) in 2024. One of the team’s central recommendations was a stable, visitor-funded mechanism to pay for climate mitigation and disaster preparedness.
How the Hawaii Green Fee works
From 2026, the statewide transient accommodations tax rises by 0.75 percentage points, taking the base rate from 10.25 per cent to 11 per cent. Counties may levy their own surcharge of up to 3 per cent, which can push the total tax on a hotel stay as high as 14 per cent depending on where the traveller is booked. Add Hawaii’s general excise tax (GET), which runs between 4 per cent and 4.5 per cent, and the combined tax burden on visitor accommodation can approach 19 per cent.
The fee covers all transient accommodation rentals of under 180 days, so hotel rooms, vacation rentals and timeshares are all in scope. Cruise ship stays formed part of the original measure, but implementation for cruise passengers has been paused following legal challenges from the industry.
Operators collect the money at checkout and remit it to the state. Because the increase sits inside the TAT rate rather than appearing as its own line item, finance teams reconciling expense claims will see it absorbed into the accommodation tax total rather than itemised separately.
What the revenue will fund
The state expects the measure to raise around $100 million a year, earmarked for hazard mitigation, restoration of natural resources, sustainable tourism programmes and long-term climate adaptation planning.
“We must build resiliency now, and the Green Fee will provide the necessary financing to ensure resources are available for our future,” Governor Green said when signing the bill. He has described the fee as a “historic investment” in safeguarding the islands’ ecological and cultural future.
State officials argue that visitors should contribute to protecting the natural assets they travel to see, easing the financial load carried by residents.
What it means for UK travel budgets
The increase is modest on a single trip, but it matters at programme level. Travel managers working to fixed nightly caps may find Hawaii properties tipping over policy thresholds once the full tax stack is applied, particularly in counties that adopt the maximum surcharge. Anyone building 2026 budgets should model accommodation spend on the gross rate rather than the advertised room rate, and check whether booking tools display tax-inclusive pricing by default.
The wider signal is arguably more significant. High-traffic destinations are increasingly tying visitor spending directly to environmental protection, from Venice’s day-visitor fee to the destinations that have already imposed a tourist tax. UK travellers face the same direction of travel closer to home. Edinburgh has introduced the UK’s first city-wide visitor levy, and with English mayors in line for similar powers, business travel leaders have called for corporate stays to be exempted.
For firms running meetings, incentives and corporate travel programmes in Hawaii, the trade-off is a small cost rise in exchange for investment in the infrastructure and natural assets those events depend on. As the first measure of its kind at state level in the US, it is likely to be studied closely by other destinations weighing similar charges.
