Tourism, Marketing and Indigenous Natives: Pokémon Game goes to Hawaii

By Dr. Jonathan Cooley

Announcement Link: https://twitter.com/i/status/1690638813020958720 

With continuing interest in ethical international marketing, a recent article attracted my attention…What do you think about the arguments presented?

What would you tell your company to do?

Note: These are excerpts from a recent article on ign.com XBox Developer – Why the Pokémon World Championships Going to Hawaii Is Proving to be a Controversial Choice

(https://www.ign.com/articles/pokemon-world-championships-hawaii )

“Fresh off its most recent turn in Japan, The Pokémon World Championships is returning to Hawaii. It’s proving to be a controversial choice in some quarters.

Earlier this month, wildfires swept across Maui and other parts of the state…

Against the backdrop of this tragedy, a Pokémon Company spokesperson donned Hawaiian shirt and stood on a beach alongside a Pikachu to announce that the 2024 event would be taking place in Honolulu.

The Pokémon Company followed this announcement by donating $200,000 to the Hawaii Wildfire Relief Fund. In a statement announcing the donation, the company said,

‘Our hearts go out to all those who have been impacted by the devastating wildfires in Hawai’i.’

A highly-upvoted post by Kari Keone, a Hawaiin native, summed up the mixed feelings raised by the announcement. 

‘There are people right now who want to do right by Hawai’i, people who were not interested or paying attention before, and I am insanely grateful for that,” Keone wrote in a lengthy thread. “Tourism doesn’t help natives, period. To give you an idea — there is only one locally owned hotel on the entire island of Oahu. There are 233 hotels on Oahu.’

[end of quotation]

Commentary:

During the COVID pandemic in 2022, I was in Morocco for several months teaching at a University. My weekends included visits to typical tourist destinations such as Casablanca, Agadir, Essaouira, or Marakesh. The streets, cafes, rihads, and  tourist sites were nearly empty. Not only were the merchants impacted, all the supporting services were devastated.

No one was delivering goods and supplies, cooking, cleaning rooms, or servicing and transporting the normal tourist crowds. Guides had no customers.

It was estimated that Marakesh alone lost 80% of all revenues during this period. Marakesh runs on tourism – and perhaps many other venues as well.

And much of Morocco is locally owned except perhaps the major hotels. Many merchants and workers are native Berbers from the outlying villages and mountains.

I choose to continue to visit places and do search for locally owned or operated services, but that is not always possible.

What do you think? Is it exploitative? Are Keone’s thoughts appropriate to bring these issues to light?

Is it conditional?

What would you do?