This week, Governor Green canceled his attendance at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C., and future out-of-state travel for the month, stating he wanted to ensure steady leadership during an active investigation into his lieutenant governor, Sylvia Luke. When Green left the state during the Lahaina fire, that same lieutenant governor served as acting governor and issued a message telling all visitors to leave Maui. Beat of Hawaii has documented what that message cost ever since.
This week, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke acknowledged in interviews that she may be the unnamed “influential state legislator” referenced in federal court documents tied to an FBI bribery investigation involving $35,000 in campaign money. The two checks she received were dated the same day as the exchange described in the filing. The money was not reported to the Campaign Spending Commission for four years. The lobbyist who provided the checks has reportedly left the country. Luke denies wrongdoing and has not been charged. The Hawaii Attorney General is investigating.
Seven months after these allegations were purported to have happened, that same person stood at a podium as acting governor and told every visitor on Maui to leave.
Today, Governor Green made clear through his own actions what that history now means. By canceling a long-planned national trip rather than leaving Luke as acting governor again, Green effectively acknowledged that the person who ran Hawaii during the Lahaina crisis cannot be entrusted with that level of responsibility yet again.
For Maui’s visitor economy, the question that arises is unavoidable.
For visitors, August 2023 also became the moment when Maui stopped feeling like a place they were allowed to just be. In the days after the Lahaina fire, the message went out that visitors should leave the island and that non-essential travel to Maui was discouraged. What began as an emergency response meant to clear space and preserve resources quickly widened into something harder to define and even harder to reverse. Even as roads reopened and businesses outside West Maui pleaded for help, visitors were left unsure whether Maui wanted them back at all.
Beat of Hawaii recognized that uncertainty immediately. Longtime readers wrote that they had never felt so clearly told to stay away indefinitely. Some canceled trips they had planned for years. Others said they would wait until Maui explicitly asked visitors to return, not just meekly or economically, but openly. Weeks passed, then months, some say years, and the message never fully corrected.
Maui arrivals plunged, and the impact went far beyond Lahaina. Because the messaging was broad and unspecific, it hit South Maui, Central Maui, and Upcountry nearly as hard, even where roads were open and businesses were pleading for visitors to return. By Christmas, when the island would normally be operating near capacity across multiple resort areas, occupancy collapsed almost everywhere. The damage was clear and showed up in empty hotels, restaurants closing early or not opening at all, reduced work hours, and another lost season for businesses that had already endured years of instability.
The messaging did not come from the Hawaii Tourism Authority or a press spokesperson. It came from the person serving as governor at the moment of maximum uncertainty, when visitors were watching closely for cues about what was appropriate and what was not. With no competing voice and no clear boundaries around geography or timing, the signal landed as definitive. Maui was closed.
Beat of Hawaii saw that interpretation take hold instantly. We were already in Honolulu on Beat of Hawaii reporting when visitors began flooding in from Maui within hours of the message going out. Some were already mid-journey when the guidance changed. Others arrived shaken and confused, unsure whether they were supposed to stay elsewhere in Hawaii, return to Maui later, or leave the state altogether. We heard from people in real time, not days later, who believed they had been told clearly and unequivocally that they no longer belonged on Maui or in Hawaii. For visitors trying to do the right thing, it did not sound like temporary guidance. It sounded like a line had been drawn.
The acting governor’s message went further than the emergency.
At the time of the Lahaina fire, Gov. Josh Green was off-island, and the responsibility for public messaging fell to the acting governor, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke. The emergency proclamation discouraged non-essential air travel to Maui, not to West Maui or the fire zone, but to Maui.
At the press conference, Luke said, this is not a safe place to be. There was no geographic qualifier. No distinction between the disaster zone and the rest of the island. South Maui, Central Maui, and Upcountry were open and functioning, but the message that reached visitors and the world made no such distinction for a very long time.
Beat of Hawaii reported then that the messaging overshot the emergency moment. That was never about the need for clearing West Maui or protecting overall resources in the days after the fire. It was about what happened next. No one followed the proclamation with a message saying South Maui is open, or Upcountry needs you, or here is when and how to come back safely. That pivot simply never came. Businesses outside Lahaina, many of them struggling to survive, found themselves shut down not by fire but by messaging, dependent on visitors who no longer believed that coming back was even appropriate.
Readers said they did not want to be part of the problem.
They did not want to offend or intrude. So they stayed away. Maui emptied out. The collapse in Maui visitor numbers did not end with the immediate aftermath of the fire. Long thereafter, arrivals and spending were still deeply depressed. Estimates at the time put Maui’s visitor spending losses at roughly $13 million per day.
Well into 2025, Maui’s visitor numbers continued to underperform pre-fire levels, even as areas outside West Maui had long been open and actively seeking visitors.
One Beat of Hawaii article last summer about Maui drew more than 700 comments. Many traced the moment they stopped coming back to the days after the fire. Not to the fire itself. To the message. Readers said that once they were told to leave, the relationship changed. They no longer felt confident returning. Maui no longer seemed to want them.
Why this matters to visitors and Maui businesses.
This is not about presuming guilt or relitigating the fire response. It is about how authority and credibility shaped Maui’s relationship with visitors long after the emergency passed.
When Hawaii’s acting governor told millions of visitors and potential visitors that an island is not a place to be, that message carried enormous global weight because of the office behind it. We documented what that authority did to Maui’s visitor economy in real-world consequences that businesses and workers lived with for years.
Now, the person who held that authority is under an FBI bribery investigation entirely unrelated to the fire, and the governor who left her in charge will not do so again. That does not change the necessity of immediate emergency action after the fire. But it reframes the moment for every visitor who was told to leave and never clearly invited back.
Readers have said repeatedly that something broke in that moment and has never been repaired. The economic data supports that. So do the businesses that continue to struggle long after the flames went out.
If someone else had been in charge that week, do you think Maui’s visitor economy would look different today?
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I have been coming to Maui since 1975and have owned an STR since 1978 first at Papakea and than on the Kahana Village in 1983ish. We always eat local some of our favorites are Joeys Kitchen, Aloha Mixed Plate, Star Noodle, the fish market. We don’t shop at Safeway on Maui or at home but prefer the farmer markets for fresh local produce and Lilikoi cream cheese(the best), times market, swap meet, Olowalu General store for the chicharron’s, Tin Roof, Tiffany’s and the Tasty Crust to name a few.
It’s not as friendly as it once was and that starts with the Maui Mayor and other government officials on down to some locals.
I don’t know if someone else in charge would have said the same thing. Top that off with things that ‘locals’ have said. As longtime quiet visitors, after COVID, it did seem like a line had been drawn. Our state had been shut down completely during COVID. And it was a relief to travel to somewhere we had always enjoyed. We were never loud, always bought local for gifts, spent money eating out, slowing down. With reactions post COVID this broke everything. We have yet to go back because we are anticipating the disparaging attitude and words from locals. So, yes, if they want us back, tell us! But as some of your articles have pointed out, the middle class repeat visitor is not wanted. Only the wealthy super spenders are. Someone in government and tourism should ask themselves, do you want highflyers or the repeat steady spenders? The ones that visit the markets, buy from and support the locals.
Let’s be honest. Hawaii locals LOVED it when they had the Best of Both Worlds during Covid. Not only did they get the whole island to themselves, no crowds, no visitors, they were also, in some cases, making More money with the relief funds than they did at their jobs.
You may have not be watching this closely, but I read so much about it, and how people were taking their unemployment benefits and their Cares relief funds over to Costco and hauling out big screen TVs to their cars.
“$2.4 billion in federal unemployment insurance money that provided people $600 a week above state payments and $686 million in pandemic unemployment assistance for self-employed people and gig workers who didn’t qualify for regular unemployment insurance.”
Sure.. come Visit, stay out of the way, leave your money, go home. That’s the attitude that will end up causing more and more of their younger generations to have to leave Hawaii to make a living on the mainland.
Thank you to BH of your reference to Sylvia Luke’s Past performance as acting governor where she completely Botched and Mishandled and did NOT Handle the Maui Lahaina Fire. No other news organization seems to be highlighting this matter in their headlines.. all of them focused solely on her involvement in the bribery scandal.
I could not believe how much political “cover” she was given, that her mis-handling of matters in the immediate aftermath of the fires. That this did not tarnish her image, but now, it’s the Bribery Scandal is what finally brings her down. $10K Bribery or mishandling and ignoring Maui after the fire. Which was the worse offense? In the eyes of Gov. Green? in the eyes of the residents/voters..?
The governor must have supported that statement because he has done nothing to quell the misunderstanding.
Aloha everyone! There eventually has to be some kind of win-win compromise between the residents of Maui and the big players of the hotel and tourism industries in relation to how to equitably utilize the financial and the finite natural resources on Maui. For example, the Lahaina fires did not need to happen but this was a wake up call for Maui residents and government to invest some of the future billions in tourism revenue for fire prevention and protection. Secondly, there needs to be a comprehensive agreement about water policy, future conservation, and management of water resources because this will help develop a sustainable fire prevention policy for the whole island. Thirdly, there needs to be a reset in Maui and visitor relations where Maui and the big tourism industry players invite tourists back to Maui with promotions and huge discounts to support local small businesses and lift up the whole island economy instead of a few big resorts on West Maui.
The governor should talk to the Maui Mayor, city council and planning commission currently closing down vacation rentals pushing returning guests to hotel rooms verses the condo’s they have been staying in for 50 years, commercial area of Lahaina stuck in a never ending process while they go broke. There couldn’t be a worst response to the fire and the recovery from the fire “it’s a clown show”
Ms Luke had a full blown crisis on her hands. 12,000 displaced, countless fatalities, historic Lahaina in ashes. The world heard her words spoken in near panic. Yes she should have chosen her words more carefully.
The fire brought to a head a simmering discontent with political leadership who promised for decades improved conditions for the people it was supposed to help. Among many were basic infrastructure improvement promises that went unkept. Now they’d been let down in the worst possible way. Lost loved ones and a lost way of life. Of course anger would be a natural response. For the last 25 years I’d spent 3-4 months in west Maui every winter. I knew many locals and felt their loss the most any outsider might.
I sincerely hope the Hawaiian people can muster the strength to rebuild and rid themselves of leadership that’s allowed Hawaii to fall to where it is today.
The fact that it was Silvia Luke was irrelevant. We welcomed the message, and were disappointed when it was reversed. Residents in Lahaina, Kula and Olinda are still rebuilding and recovering, and trying to reduce fire danger. Our health care system is in shambles. There are too many tourists here again, many of them with an entitled attitude, and all of this affects how welcoming we are. Overtourism is a problem worldwide, and Maui is no exception.
It’s easy to attack a politician, but in a period of such a massive crisis to make a judgement call to preserve and redirect scarce resources, for example EMS calls, medical resources consumed by transients across the county, to residents who are in need. What she did was making a tough call and communicated it in an easy to understand fashion, without a bunch of ifs ands or buts.
I can’t really blame the Lt. Governor, completely for the lack of tourists returning to Maui. What personally has my family from returning to Maui is the outrageous lodging pricing, over $500 a night for a Marriot Courtyard, not even close to the ocean. Maui, and perhaps the rest of Hawaii, has priced itself to the point where the destination is no longer cost competitive with other destinations. Then throw in the Governor’s attack on tourism with extra fees for attractions for non-residents. We no longer feel like the people we support with our travel dollars want us to visit.
Political incompetence and Corruption
Bribery?
Hawaii has always had the the best politicians money can buy.
It wasn’t just the LT Governor, the Maui mayor didn’t want visitors there either. And the mayor hasn’t invited tourists back either!
I sadly have not been back to Maui – even now in 2026 it is not clear if Maui really wants us back – those of us who specifically came for Lahaina and West Maui.
So we have gone to Oahu and Hawaii, and this spring, Croatia and their coast. Not Maui. If Maui citizens are not clear about wanting tourists back, we are not going to be those annoying them with our visit. It saddens me greatly, but our travels and yes dollars go elsewhere until we hear a clear call of interest in vacationer return.
We were going to come but reports were that the people of Laihiana were complaining about tourist having fun while they were grieving. We live on Big Island and didn’t want to get stink eye so we opted to stay home to not get involved in the controversy
Absolutely think things would have been different. Might still be if certain people are not reelected.
Have been coming for 40 years and have always treated the people with kindness and friendship and have received the same
.I have never felt unwelcome.
You’re right. Just like California you have the same one party rule as us. And , yes the ding bats here keep voting for the worst people ever. I literally pray to God we get a decent Governor this time around. California is a Big Hot Mess !! I just cant bring myself to leave.. born and raised here.. We live in a beautiful beach community. We’ll stay to our money runs out !
First of all the Governor doesn’t have the authority to tell visitors to leave unless it’s an evacuation order And he is telling everyone to leave. Secondly the only way I would have even thought about leaving was if they were immediately prepared to pay me the $$ I was going to lose. Their wasn’t a natural disaster going on, she just felt it was inconvenient for us visitors to be there!
The way the Lt Gov said dont come sounded like the whole island was burning. It also goes to show how many tourists do not know there is more to Maui other than Lahaina.
One other thing about Luke’s ill thought out and ill-timed statement, it came just as Maui and all the Islands, were attempting to start to recover from COVID, thus deeping the economic crisis. The crisis seems to continue as illustrated by the passage of Maui’s Bill 9 which in terms of visitors widens the gap between the wealthy, the middle clasds and the poor. The message Bill 9, the hotel relief bill, silently sends is “If you don’t have money, don’t come and if you do come, leave and not return. Tourism is down but tourism and spending amongst the affluent is up. Maui and all the Islands are natural beauty and should be enjoyed and experienced by all classes. But since COVID the need to cater to the affluent has been an uninterrupted progress. Luke’s comment just ripped the band-aid off the reality.
The buck stops at the governor’s office ! Green’s lack of courage to say and do the right thing exponentially continued an already volatile situation. Living on the West side in Lahaina , I can attest to the myriad of needs that we’re not addressed in the days and weeks after the fires, as well the devastation it has left across the whole island of Maui, which is unacceptable= A lack of solid leadership.
As if Green is any better.
Hawaii’s elected officials just seem to be lacking. This fiasco is just another in a long line of poor moves. Unfortunately, next elections the same type of incompetence will be voted in. It just never seems to end.
I believe that Lt. Governor Sylvia Luke’s order directed at Maui tourists to leave also reverberated to tourists who were visiting other Hawaiian islands, not just Maui. It also signaled to tourists everywhere that Hawaii was not a welcome place for tourists. Even Governor Green has stated that he wants half as many tourists and wants them to spend twice as much to make up for the lack of total tourist dollars spent. What that says to me is that Hawaii wants your money but not the tourists who spend it. Maybe the new Hawaii Visitor’s Bureau should have a new advertising slogan: “Hawaii. Don’t visit. Just send us your money!” The actions and words of Hawaii’s Governor and Lt. Governor will ultimately lead to many people who rely on tourism for economic survival to become unemployed.
There are many tourist-worthy places that welcome tourism, but Hawaii, in my opinion, isn’t one of those places.
Totally agree. The Governor only wants money but not people. He has added a new tax on tourist. Maui mayor isn’t much better.
Being off-island doesn’t mean incommunicado. He was still the Governor.
That’s what happens when you have those nutjobs in gvt positions. Hawaii has suffered and continue to suffer from bad management, bad planning, bad foresight, political bias, powerful single interest lobbying, weak, unskilled and corrupt politicians and the total lack of ability to serve the best interest of the state and its constituents.
Sylvia Luke is a “good” politician. She will never bite the hand thay feeds her (specail interests, lobbyists).
The Lieutenant Governor should be fired and fined for her illegal actions during her political activities!
Unfortunately, Maui has made it clear they do not want or need visitors except for the extremely wealthy. Message received, loud and clear. January was our last trip and we have cancelled our future bookings. We kept waiting for things to improve and change and become welcoming again, but instead it is continuing in the opposite direction. So other places will get our money now. We stayed for the month of January and tried to frequent local businesses. I wish them the best, but the political climate is not conducive to Maui’s well being.
Why was this not ever related previously, it’s almost like Governor Green is looking for a ‘Scapegoat’, now into 3 years on his watch! The U.S. Governor’s Conference, he can’t leave for, but multiple trips to Japan in 2025, were not a problem? This also recall’s the chain of command, that had one Obama follower in State Government, refuse Power to west Maui during all of this! What is happening with the Funds raised after the Lahaina Fire of August 2023, the rumor mill has no one can account for the $100’s of Millions? One Party Rule leaves much to be desired, and sadly the Paradise of Hawaii looks to be in the same shape as California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, New York and New Mexico!
Don’t forget Connecticut. Another 1 party kingdom. Unfriendly to businesses, high taxes, electricity bills that will bankrupt you.
Trust me. You like to pick on ___ states, but ___ states are definitely No better. Rampant corruption.
Trying to make excuses for the situation on the islands is a bad look. Either own the problem and fix it (I.e. -vote locally for better, more competent representatives) or cast blame and resort to whataboutism to deflect from the situation created by who you voted for in the last state and county elections. Your finger pointing promotes more of the same problems and does nothing to help correct the corruption.
Obviously, Ms. Luke did not even write a draft before she spoke. This was a serious matter and she should have chosen her words more wisely. The administration is awash with speech writers and consultants. Ms. Luke had many resources available to her.
Her words will echo for years!
No doubt that Sylvia Luke is incompetent and probably corrupt. Hawaii seems to breed politicians of that persuasion.
I don’t recall specifically where the messaging came from, but I haven’t been back specifically because of that messaging. I’ve been to Kauai, Big Island and Oahu instead, trips that would’ve otherwise been to Maui.
I don’t know when I’ll go back, but I do miss Maui. It spoke to me on a spiritual level, it was my forever island. Hopefully it still will be.
For now, I’ll be going back to Oahu in April. I am currently not sure what my trip after that will be. But it’ll be in the state of Hawaii for sure.
Rick T,
I hope the public realizes that when a politician located on Oahu warned the public not to go to Maui it was pretty self-serving. That’s good for Oahu, not Maui.
A small number of loud “activists” on Maui also discouraged visitors from coming here even though most of the island was unaffected by the fire.
Most residents are happy to welcome visitors back now.
I have mixed feelings about it since I enjoyed having less people on the roads, but my income is not dependent on a job here.
If the governor doesn’t feel comfortable leaving her in charge now, that’s a bigger statement than anything. Leadership trust matters and Hawaii’s got a problem.
I don’t think most visitors even know who the lieutenant governor is. What they remember is being told to leave. That part stuck for years.
I’m not sure that the residents even know who the lieutenant governor is.
So we went anyway that fall. Everyone we met kept thanking us for coming. The disconnect between what we heard nationally and what locals told us in person was extreme.
Green canceling his trip is what makes this different. That’s just not normal for him. Thinking she may finally be gone.
As someone who owns a small shop in Kahului, I can tell you the messaging hurt more than people even realize. We were open. We desperately needed visitors. Instead, it felt like the entire island was labeled off limits. And it just went on and on after that.
I remember that press conference like it was yesterday. We had a condo booked in Kihei a few months later. Within hours we were scrambling to cancel because we didn’t want to be that unwanted visitor. It wasn’t the fire that changed our plans. It was that message.
Sylvia Luke needs to resign.