Fleeting Bliss - Plan Your Dream Vacation Using Angular Website; Should Airplane Travel to Hawaii for Tourism Be Reduced?

My dream is to travel the world, and this fascination led me to investigate more about tourism and the technologies involved. While browsing through social media and popular vacation planning websites such as TripAdvisor, I began to think about how I would improve the process for other users like me. For my technical project, I decided to research TripAdvisor and build my own website based on how I thought I could improve upon it. I discovered that there were issues with false ratings and a focus on logistics instead of the carefree feeling of browsing that comes with social media. As a result, I created my own web application that allowed users to browse popular travel destinations and be assured of the results because each post was based on my experience.

After focusing my technical project on vacation planning technologies, I wanted to evaluate another technology related to tourism but focus on a different aspect of tourism. My STS paper focuses on airplane travel to Hawaii, which is a different technology but still connected to my technical topic through the overarching theme of tourism and the relationship between technology and society. After hearing multiple news articles and social media posts about Hawaaiin residents complaining about tourism, I began researching the topic. After figuring out that there was a governmental perspective of reducing the number of tourists, I decided to pursue this issue by evaluating the effects this action would have on the Hawaiin residents. The SCOT framework is a methodology to evaluate the relationship between social groups and technology, which in this case is airplane travel. I employed the SCOT framework for analysis because there are various social groups that are related to tourism, and each group would be affected differently. By identifying the main social groups and how they would be affected by reduced airplane travel, I could form an opinion on whether a reduction in visitors would be beneficial for the majority of members involved. The results of this research were that limiting tourist travel on airplanes would be beneficial because it would help remediate environmental issues, help alleviate local dissension towards tourists, and would help prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, there would be drawbacks due to the financial dependency of Hawaii’s economy on tourism. Using this information, governmental officials could help make a plan while helping to accommodate for the financial difficulties that would occur. The government could hopefully reinvent a sustainable form of tourism that takes into account the needs of its constituents. In addition, other readers could use this information to help lobby for their social group and overall have a deeper understanding of the complex balance between their interests and Hawaii’s best interests.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Technical Advisor: Rosanne Vrugtman
STS Advisor: Hannah Rogers
Technical Team Members: Aayush Malde