A growing number of Hawai'i residents believe the state is being run more for tourists than locals, according to a survey commissioned by the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.

The survey, released yesterday, found that 62 percent of residents polled agreed that "this island is being run for tourists at the expense of local people." That's up from 55 percent last year and 48 percent in 2002. Areas with the highest level of agreement were Maui, Kaua'i and West Hawai'i.

Still, nearly three out of four people statewide believe tourism brings more benefits than problems, the survey said.

"I think that residents are still experiencing the impact of crowded, congested, two-lane roads leading to visitor destinations, the overdevelopment on finite land space and feeling that the infrastructure isn't adequate," said T. Lulani Arquette, executive director of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association.

Rex Johnson, Hawai'i Tourism Authority president and CEO, said the board will discuss the survey further at its next meeting in February.

"We'll drill deeper down in the study and try to find out why people answer it this way or that way, and hopefully that will give us some hints," he said. "The point of knowing how our residents feel about tourism is to see if, as an industry, we can do things better. ... I've said many times that if we lose our residents to the visitor industry, we lose this special thing we call aloha. We can't afford to do that."

State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said the growth in development may be a factor, but said future research should investigate reasons behind any negative resident sentiments.

"I can tell you that when Governor (Lingle) and this administration came in, she made it very clear that we as state government are doing things for the residents, and by doing it for the residents the visitors will benefit," she said.

The survey, by Market Trends Pacific Inc. and John M. Knox & Associates, Inc., was conducted in September through early November and polled 1,609 residents statewide. The report, titled "2006 Survey of Resident Sentiments on Tourism in Hawaii," has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Pollster John Knox said future surveys may try to delve into why most residents feel the island is run for tourists at the expense of local people. He said it reflects perceptions about how policymakers manage the Islands rather than attitudes toward visitors.

"What we know from the survey is this sense of frustration about the cost of housing, about traffic overload, about quality-of-life issues," he said. "As the good economy goes on, economic issues seem a little less pressing. ... For most of us, economic things are pretty important, but when we sense that they are being filled ... then other things kind of pop up on our radar screen, or at least become more prominent."

But, "while people are more sensitive to the problems, they still make the evaluation that the benefits outweigh the problems," Knox said.

Other highlights from the survey include: