Here is a history of the Honolulu City Council banning Commercial Activities from the beaches on Oahu. Bill 5 (2011) banned Commercial Activities, on the Weekends, from all of the beaches in Kailua, from Lanikai to Castle Point. http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-122432/6r88z4gm.pdf Bill 11 (2012) banned Commercial Activities, at any time, from all of the beaches in Kailua, from Lanikai to Castle Point. http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-129929/74s-0vld.pdf Bill 8 (2015) banned Commercial Activities, at any time, from all of the beaches in Waimanalo, from Makapu'u to Bellows, with exception of Waimanalo Bay Beach Park, but not allowed on there on the weekends. http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-190537/DOC007%20(81).PDF Bill 93 (2017) put in place a fee for a permit for Commercial Stops at Waimanalo Bay Beach Park. The fee was to be $165 per vehicle, per month. http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-204089/DOC005.PDF however, the Parks Department never issued any permits for this, they said that it was because the City Council never wrote the Rules for the issuance of the permits. Meanwhile the Park Department was drafting new Rules that would be island wide. Those Rules were passed September of 2020. https://www.honolulu.gov/rep/site/dpr/rules/Recreational_Stops_Rules_Effective_9-25-2020.pdf The new Rules, divide the island into 5 districts. The Parks Department is only allowed to issue 5 permits per district. A tour company can't get a permit for more than 1 vehicle per district. Each permit is for a specific vehicle. So with 5 permits per district, and 5 districts, that's only 25 vehicles, island wide that can get a permit for a City Park or Beach Park, however District 5 doesn't have any parks for which you can get a permit, so that's only 20 vehicles island wide that can get permits, and the vehicles are limited to a maximum carrying capacity of 15 passengers. Bill 44 (2020) put in place a fee for licensed motor carriers, which includes tour vehicles, to enter Hanauma Bay. The fees are based on the carrying capacity of the vehicles, and are as follows: 1-7 passenger vehicle - $10.00 8-25 passenger vehicle - $20.00 26 or more passenger vehicle - $40.00 This applies for the Commercial Lot where by city ordinance they are only allowed a maximum of 15 minutes, to take photos from the overlook and use the restroom, and are not allowed to go down to the beach, penalty of $500.00. http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-278023/ORD20-032.pdf During this time, the State and DLNR also raised the fees for tour vehicles to stop at the Pali Lookout, and to go inside of Diamond Head Crater. The fees for the Pali Lookout, based on vehicle carrying capacity are: 1-7 passenger vehicle - $15.00 8-25 passenger vehicle - $30.00 26+ vehicle - $50.00 The fee for Diamond head are: 1-7 passenger vehicle - $25 8-25 passenger vehicle - $50 26+ vehicle - $90 Bill 77 (2020) would have banned permits for Commercial Activities, including Commercial Stops by tour companies, at any time, from Waimanalo Bay Beach Park. This bill did not pass because it was made moot by Bill 34 (2021). https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/document-download?id=7997 Bill 34 (2021) banned commercial activities, at any time, from all of the beaches on the North Shore, from Sunset Point to Kaiaka Point in Waialua, plus Waiale'e beach which is east of Sunset Beach. This bill also re-wrote the language for all of the bills above that affected the beaches in Kailua and Waimanalo which then allowed a permit for Waimanalo Bay Beach, which was renamed Hunanahiho, for vehicles that seat no more than 15 passengers, but not on the weekends. https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/document-download?id=12686 Bill 38 (2021) bans commercial activities from the following parks: Kailua Beach Park Kalama Beach Park Waiale'e Beach Park 'Ehukai Beach Park Pupukea Beach Park Waimea Bay Beach Park Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach Park Kaiaka Bay Beach Park and the undeveloped portions of Hale'iwa Beach Park adjacent to Pua'ena Point Makapu'u Beach Park Kaupo Beach Park Kaiona Beach Park Waimanalo Beach Park Hunananiho (formerly Waimanalo Bay Beach Park) Bellows Feild Beach Park and all city-owned or operated beach rights-of-way and easements from Makapu'u Point to Kaoho Point (Castle Point), and from Sunset Point to Kaiaka Point. This bill was signed into law by the Mayor of Honolulu on 4/5/2022. https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/document-download?id=13631 Bill 48 (2022) https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/document-download?id=16035 banned specifically tour companies, at any time, from Kokololio beach park in Hau'ula. This was due to certain tour companies like Nui Tours that were blatantly breaking the existing rules. The rules that were broken were that you must have a permit to be there for more than a 15 minute stop, that you're not allowed to have more than 1 tour vehicle stop at any park within the same district, and that permits only allow vehicles up to 15 passengers. As you can see in the following video, they were taking multiple 25 passenger vehicles to the same beach park at the same time and literally unloading 100 people onto the beach at the same time. But instead of enforcing the rules against those that violated them, they banned the beach park from all tour companies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyIEBXw56h4 Bill 19 (2023) https://hnldoc.ehawaii.gov/hnldoc/document-download?id=16769 This bill was introduced by Council member Tommy Waters. It was backed by the Director of the Parks Department Laura Theilen. It would have been a good comprimise that made sense, but it was strongly apposed by the residents of Kailua and Waimanalo, and their councel person Ester Kia'aina who was 1 of 2 votes against it at its First Reading. The bill seems to have died after first reading and was never brought up for Second Reading. I testified at the first reading, and as I was walking back to my seat after my 2 minutes were up, Councilmember Kia'aina verbally slammed me with her follow-up remarks. At one point, the Parks Director said that if we keep passing laws against commercial activities, that eventually they will be banned from everywhere. All of the residents in attendance, were like Yeah, Let's do that, Let's ban them from Everywhere! First Reading for this bill was March 15, 2023. This bill intended to make an island wide policy concerning Commercial Activities and Commercial Stops by tour companies at City beach parks. The bill, as introduced, would have done away with the previous ordinances that were passed that one by one made specific beach parks off limits to tour companies and commercial activities. The bill also gets rid of the ability for tour companies to stop at beach parks for up to 15 minutes for a bathroom break or photo stop. The bill would make it illegal for tour companies to stop at any beach, for any length of time, unless they have a permit for that specific beach. The members of the public that testified against the bill on March 15th were concerned that this bill would open up to commercial activities the beaches that they had worked to get a total ban at. The new bill could allow up to 10 tour vehicles per day, but not more than 3 tour vehicles at a time in any beach park, but the public do not want to allow this. They want to keep the total ban, and to keep expanding the places that tours are banned from. These bill affect not only tour companies, but all commercial activities, including wedding photography and event planners, kayaking companies, surfing schools, snorkeling and scuba diving, etc... An archive of the City Council meeting where people testified about this bill can be found here: https://www.honolulucitycouncil.org/meetings This bill ultimately died because the community opposed allowing even a small number of permits into the beach parks for which they had already acheived a total ban of commercial activities. This bill would have given tour companies more places to be permited to go to and be spread out, and would have required a permit for tour companies to stop at any beach park even for 1 minute. But because this bill would have allowed a small number of tour vans back into places that they had already been banned from, the community was sternly against this bill, even saying that they would like to ban tour companies from every beach on the island. These laws that ban tour companies from stpping at these beaches, does not ban tourists from going there on their own in a rental car or a turo car, or Uber or Taxi. So these laws encourage tourists to go to these places on their own with no local guide, in fact it prohibits them from having a local guide at these places. So they don't have anyone to tell them the history of the place or about the culture, or anyone to keep them safe, to tell them not to climb on the heiaus or other sensative cultural sites, not to get too close to the big surf or the wet rocks where the waves are breaking. So the tourists will be going to these places in rental cars, mostly only 2 people per car, instead of in 15 passenger vans or 25 passenger buses, so instead of taking up 1 parking space at these already crowded parking lots, they'll be taking up 7 to 12 parking spaces. Tourists are turning to social media to find out where to go on their own, and some of the places they are talking about are very dangerous. Also, these laws are driving more tour companies underground, giving tours in unmarked vans, with no PUC permit, no commercial insurance, and not paying taxes. These illegal tours are taking tourists to these places that legit tour companies have been banned from. Tour companies are also banned from all State Parks. Those laws have been in place even before the City laws started in 2012. Some of the State Parks that tour companies are banned from include: Kahana Bay, Malaekahana Beach, Ka'ena Point, both on the North Shore, and the West side (Yokahama Bay) Laie State Wayside, Ka'iwi (Makapu'u lighthouse trail/Alan Davis Beach), and Pu'u Ualakaa (Tantalus), Tour companies are also banned from 2 of the 4 City managed botanical gardens, Koko Crater Botanical Garden and Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden. So tour companies are banned from practically every public place. Most of the places that are left for tour companies to stop at are businesses with their own private property parking lots like Dole Pineapple Plantation Tropical Farms Macadamnia Nut Outlet, Matsumoto Shaved Ice, etc... For the remaining City Beach Parks that tour companies or commercial activities are not yet banned from, you need a permit from the Parks Department if you want to be there for more than 15 minutes. However, with the new Rules that were passed in 2020, they divided the island into 5 districts, and will issue only 5 permits per district, and only 1 permit per district per company, and that permit is specific to the vehicle. One of these 5 districts has no beach parks, so that leaves 4 districts for which you can get permits, specific to a vehicle, but no more than 1 vehicle per company in each district, and it's specific to the beach park. That means that even if you have a permit, in the course of an 8 hour, 120 mile circle island tour, your van would only be allowed to stop at 1 beach park. For the beach parks for which you are not banned, you are allowed 15 minutes to use the restroom etc, but if you want to stay for more than 15 minutes, you need a permit, but you only get 1 permit, specific to a district, vehicle, and park. So if your company has 5 tour vans, one vehicle gets a permit for District 1 in the Honolulu area, Waikiki to Hawaii Kai, one vehicle gets a permit for District 2, Ala Moana to Pearl Harbor, one vehicle gets a permit for District 3, Ewa Beach to Makaha, one vehicle gets a permit for Distric 4, Waimanalo to Mokuleia, Distict 5, Waipio Pennensula has no beach parks, and each of those vans can only stop at 1 beach park for more than 15 minutes, but they have to be in seperate districts, a tour company can't have 2 vans in the same district stopping at a beach park for more than 15 minutes. So one of the vans has to go all the way to the West side, one in Ala Moana, one in Hawaii Kai, and one, well it's banned from practically all of the beach parks on the East and North shore, so there's practically no place where they can legally stop, except Kualoa Beach Park, and the 5th van, there's no beach parks in District 5, and any vans beyond the 5th get no permit. And strangely these permits are only for beach parks. Tour companies or commercial activities cannot get a permit for a regular City Park, only for City Beach Parks, so no inland parks. Here are those rules that were passed in 2020. Go to the last 2 pages to see the districts. https://www.honolulu.gov/rep/site/dpr/rules/Recreational_Stops_Rules_Effective_9-25-2020.pdf I emailed Councilman Tommy Waters, and The Parks Department for a list of the parks for which tour companies can get a permit for. Several months later they sent me this list. Note that a lot of these parks are not desireable as a stop on a tour, for example, Wailupe Beach Park, it's a rocky shoreline with some grass, so what would a tourist want to do there. But here's the list of places for which we can get a permit. District 1: Wailupe Beach Park Kulu'ou'ou Beach Park Sandy Beach Park Wai'alae Beach Park Kawaikui Beach Park Maunalua Bay Beach Park District 2: Ala Moana Regional Park Kewalo Basin Park Ke'ehi Lagoon Beach Park District 3: One'ula Beach Park Barbers Point Beach Park Tracks Beach Park Ulehawa Beach Park Ma'ili Beach Park Pokai Bay Beach Park Makaha Beach Park Pu'uloa Beach Park Kalaeloa Beach Park Kahe Point Beach Park Blacks Rocks Beach Park Surfer's Beach Beach Park Lualualei Beach Park Waianae District Park Kea'au Beach Park District 4: Kaneohe Beach Park Kualoa Regional Park Swanzy Beach Park Hau'ula Beach Park La'ielohelohe Beach Park Aweoweo Beach Park Kahaluu Regional Park Ka'a'awa Beach Park Punalu'u Beach Park Kokololio Beach Park (Now Banned) Haleiwa Beach Park Mokule'ia Beach Park In the Spring of 2024, the news reported that residents were asking City Council to ban commercial activities from the beaches in the area of the Kahala Hotel, because the wedding industry started going there after they had been banned from everywhere else.