Correcting Tourism Blind Spots in Payment Models
Correcting Tourism Blind Spots in Payment Models
The Problem
Most national payment-cost models allocate merchant fees using resident population or household spending data. This approach fails in visitor-driven economies like Hawaiʻi, where a significant share of transactions are generated by non-residents but processed by local businesses.
As a result, Hawaiʻi’s merchants appear to face “average” payment costs on paper, despite paying substantially higher absolute fees in practice.
Why Hawaiʻi Is Different
Hawaiʻi’s economy combines:
One of the highest visitor-to-resident ratios in the United States
A retail sector dominated by small, independently owned businesses
Heavy reliance on card-present, short-duration transactions
These factors amplify payment processing costs in ways that national averages do not capture.
The Impact of Excluding Visitor Spending
When visitor transaction volume is excluded:
Merchant fee totals are materially understated
Per-business cost burdens are misrepresented
Policymakers underestimate the economic drag on local businesses
Fee reform proposals are evaluated against incomplete data
This creates a structural blind spot in both state and federal payment-policy discussions.
Our Policy Approach
This initiative calls for payment-cost modeling that reflects Hawaiʻi’s full economic reality. By incorporating visitor-driven transactions, policymakers can evaluate payment fees using data that aligns with how Hawaiʻi’s economy actually functions — not how mainland models assume it does.
Any payment-cost analysis that excludes visitor spending cannot accurately measure Hawaiʻi’s merchant fee burden.
Correcting this blind spot is a prerequisite for effective payment reform in Hawaiʻi. Accurate data enables better policymaking, fairer comparisons, and solutions that reflect the lived experience of local merchants.
This initiative contributes to a broader effort to ensure Hawaiʻi’s payment infrastructure policies are grounded in complete, transaction-level economic reality.
The Problem
Most national payment-cost models allocate merchant fees using resident population or household spending data. This approach fails in visitor-driven economies like Hawaiʻi, where a significant share of transactions are generated by non-residents but processed by local businesses.
As a result, Hawaiʻi’s merchants appear to face “average” payment costs on paper, despite paying substantially higher absolute fees in practice.
Why Hawaiʻi Is Different
Hawaiʻi’s economy combines:
One of the highest visitor-to-resident ratios in the United States
A retail sector dominated by small, independently owned businesses
Heavy reliance on card-present, short-duration transactions
These factors amplify payment processing costs in ways that national averages do not capture.
The Impact of Excluding Visitor Spending
When visitor transaction volume is excluded:
Merchant fee totals are materially understated
Per-business cost burdens are misrepresented
Policymakers underestimate the economic drag on local businesses
Fee reform proposals are evaluated against incomplete data
This creates a structural blind spot in both state and federal payment-policy discussions.
Our Policy Approach
This initiative calls for payment-cost modeling that reflects Hawaiʻi’s full economic reality. By incorporating visitor-driven transactions, policymakers can evaluate payment fees using data that aligns with how Hawaiʻi’s economy actually functions — not how mainland models assume it does.
Any payment-cost analysis that excludes visitor spending cannot accurately measure Hawaiʻi’s merchant fee burden.
Correcting this blind spot is a prerequisite for effective payment reform in Hawaiʻi. Accurate data enables better policymaking, fairer comparisons, and solutions that reflect the lived experience of local merchants.
This initiative contributes to a broader effort to ensure Hawaiʻi’s payment infrastructure policies are grounded in complete, transaction-level economic reality.
Add your business to the coalition record
Joining helps build an evidence-based record of payment costs faced by Hawaiʻi merchants.
Coalition members may be contacted for research validation, aggregated reporting, or policy briefings.
Participation is free. Joining does not commit you to any payment product or political position.
Information is used solely for research, aggregated reporting, and policy analysis.
Add your business to the coalition record
Joining helps build an evidence-based record of payment costs faced by Hawaiʻi merchants.
Coalition members may be contacted for research validation, aggregated reporting, or policy briefings.
Participation is free. Joining does not commit you to any payment product or political position.
Information is used solely for research, aggregated reporting, and policy analysis.
Related Causes
Related Causes
Hawaiʻi merchants face complex, opaque payment fees that are difficult to understand, compare, or challenge. This initiative promotes clear disclosure of effective payment costs so businesses, regulators, and policymakers can see where dollars are actually going—and where reform is needed.
Hawaiʻi merchants face complex, opaque payment fees that are difficult to understand, compare, or challenge. This initiative promotes clear disclosure of effective payment costs so businesses, regulators, and policymakers can see where dollars are actually going—and where reform is needed.
We support practical, evidence-based payment policies that reduce unnecessary costs for Hawaiʻi merchants, improve transparency, and ensure modern payment systems work for small businesses in a visitor-driven economy.
We support practical, evidence-based payment policies that reduce unnecessary costs for Hawaiʻi merchants, improve transparency, and ensure modern payment systems work for small businesses in a visitor-driven economy.
Hawaiʻi merchants face complex, opaque payment fees that are difficult to understand, compare, or challenge. This initiative promotes clear disclosure of effective payment costs so businesses, regulators, and policymakers can see where dollars are actually going—and where reform is needed.
We support practical, evidence-based payment policies that reduce unnecessary costs for Hawaiʻi merchants, improve transparency, and ensure modern payment systems work for small businesses in a visitor-driven economy.