With over 100 engaging comments. What’s ahead in Hawaii travel needs your input too.
224 thoughts on “New Fees, Fines And Systems Coming To Maui and All Hawaii Visitors”
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With over 100 engaging comments. What’s ahead in Hawaii travel needs your input too.
Comments are closed.
I see the idea behind increased use fees to help control excessive tourism. I like the idea that visitors might help pay for bathrooms (which they will use) but can’t shake the discomfort of the elitism it could engender. Is money the answer to everything? Do we only want to invite rich people to visit Maui? Is there some other way to vet the malihini based on decent behavior? Well, I didn’t say I had easy answers…
It is about money. Restrooms don’t grow on trees, and they must be maintained. Residents pay local taxes (property and such) to support infrastructure but they need to find some way to tap into the hordes of non-residents.
Aloha Hal! I agree restrooms don’t grow on trees anywhere in America. My question is should Las Vegas, for example, do the same for visitors from other states?
Mahalo!
For Las Vegas, at some point they may need to consider it. They had, or had, a really high car rental tax. They are a place where people go to spend a lot of money, so there is a thriving economy that gets something from the visitors. At the bottom of the argument, facilities and infrastructure cost money. Somebody has to provide it. We can do the “we all need to support them” and send them, say, mainland tax money. Or, we can let the users pay. It should be an interesting discussion.
Debram: The same people who are getting all the inter island Covid testing $$. Locals don’t pay to get tested but tourists do!
I made my first trip in 1985. Maui is my FAVORITE vacation spot. “IF” all works out I will be there this September/October to meet up with an OLD friend from Canada. Yes I miss the OLD Maui. It was NOT crowded in 1985. I’ve taken family members several years. Super great vacation spot. I love all the islands but Maui is #1 for me. Early on all the flights come through Honolulu. I saw the airplane with the roof missing one year when I landed. I flew a NON STOP Honoulu St. Louis one trip years ago. Spent the entire night on the plane. Now I can fly DFW-OGG non stop.
NO do not enact Visitor Impact Fees!!
During the pandemic the governor of Hawaii made it literally impossible to go to the islands. Then the islands complained that their jobs/livelihood were being taken away because no tourists. Now, that tourism is picking up on the islands, they want to tax the heck out of the tourists who want to come!! You cant have it both ways!
It may be necessary to enact some road access fees (road to hana) and others.
But most likely the boom in travel to Hawaii will lessen back to normal in 6-8 months or so when other countries reopen their borders…
Federal coronavirus money is being used by the County of Kauai to study beach and local parks parking situation for visitors. Why are they not using that money on what it was intended for. I am upset by this when so many other things need to be fixed on the island. Just charge the fee and forget the “study”. Sounds very suspicious and sneaky to me. Who’s getting paid the money to do the study?????
Thank you for the information, it will be useful for our trip there next month!
Rather than simply complain, just what are the Islands supposed to do? The tourists require transportation, food, shelter, energy just the same as the residents. How do you get money from them for necessary infrastructure? The land base is limited, how do you control use so that people, whether resident or visitor, can access beaches and such? Hawaii has a crying need for restoration of many of its lands that visitors want to see/hike/bird/photograph. And so on. The money has to come from somewhere; what ideas are out there? How can the Islands limit the total amount of people on the Islands so that there is something to visit besides vast urban areas?
I’m a local on oahu but many friends and Family live on the mainland. It is already hard enough for them to come visit. I feel this would make it even worse. Plus the money never really goes anywhere but into the pockets of politicians and justs make it that much more expensive for us locals who live here. Definitely against.
Karen L… to fund ridiculous projects like the white elephant rail system! I am in the same situation as you are, friends and family are already saying they won’t be able to visit as often.
Really helpful article re Fine System Coming To Maui. Thanks.
Mahalo!
I don’t blame the islanders for wanting some controls on the number of visitors. They will ultimately have to do something to maintain a nice environment for themselves and their guests.
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Aloha.
Visitor impact fees?
How would the residents of Hawaii feel if they were charged a $400 Visitor impact fee to visit Las Vegas? I know this is a favorite place for Hawaii Residents to visit.
I don’t think this idea will fly!
It’s not cheap to get to Maui for everyone. It depends on where you live and if you’re lucky oR quick enough to get a good deal. It’s starting to sound like they want to close off to tourists. If they make it too difficult, sure you’ll get the diehards that will come no matter what, but you could also end up with more years like 2020. IMO.
Definitely a great idea! Hawaii needs less tourists – less quantity and more quality ($$). The quantity of tourists today damage the environment and the local quality of life. We need to minimize the number of tourists and the only way to do it is to increase the price – via taxes. This added revenue would allow us to make infrastructure improvements, etc. Ideally Hawaii would diversify their industries, to have less reliability on tourism, but if we have tourism at all, they need to pay for it. It’s the cost of paradise! Locals pay high dollar to live here, tourists need to as well.
Completely agree with the fees for tourists only.
Think there should be days where it’s closed to tourists not locals or limit the amount of tourists that go to Hana on a daily basis and same with Hanama Bay. Maybe a lottery of how many can go on a daily basis. On Oahu there’s way to many tourists on the roads it’s causing road rage.
I love Hawaii and have been there several times. I don’t understand the high increase of prices luaus, dinner cruises and everything else. While I love doing these touristy things, I will not pay those outrageous prices. And now you want to charge everyone an extra $100, just for visiting the island?? It’s insane!
Susan F: It is insane! We were on Maui for 5 nites in May and Kauai for 10. Prices for Restaurant food … when you could actually eat in a restaurant were outrageous. Unfortunately, this will become the new normal. Our favorite Restaurant on Kauai, Keoki’s Paradise has closed their bar kitchen and only has 1 menu. Instead of entrees in the bar @ $18 or $19, now you only have a choice of the main menu @ a minimum of $30+. Have two drinks and 2 entrees and a tip and it is more than $100 every time. We love Hawaii and endeavor to go twice a year, once to Maui and once to Kauai, but honestly, I don’t know if we can continue to do it.
Thank you, BOH, for all that you do to keep those of us on the mainland up to date with what’s happening in paradise! It is greatly appreciated.
Cannot wait for our next trip to Kauai & Maui in a few months, but this article and the subsequent comments has me feeling a bit apprehensive. Personally when we visit we show the islands nothing but respect. We live and and we love The Aloha Spirit.
Mahalo!
Dennis
Hi Dennis.
Thank you! Don’t be discouraged. Every place has issues that need to be worked out. You should still be in for a great vacation! And in our minds at least, the more you know, the better off you’ll be.
Aloha
Gotta love that Aloha spirit…. Stab the hand that feeds you. Maybe they should just get it over with and charge us white haoles . I think my next $10,000 vacation will be in Mexico. At least there I’m welcome. How do you say ‘adios’ in Hawaiian?
Aloha BOH Bro’s
Yet another opportunity lost to solve over tourism on the Hawaiian islands.
Like all politicians yours have been talking out both sides of their mouths.
Left side for locals, we want to control and address over tourism. While the right side acknowledges the issue, but has no solution other than continuing to raise taxes and fees on tourist to fill empty government coffers with easy money.
I love this line in the article this as BOH posts weekly about additional flights added by Southwest Airlines:
“Other mitigation efforts apparently include the county working with airlines to reduce flights into Maui voluntarily” Hahahaha.
All I have to say is Hawaiians got a nice break form tourist, but get used to what is happening now cause you’ve lost control of your islands to Big Corp and Big Government.