Did Governor Green and the troubled Hawaii Tourism Authority miss the mark. If so, exactly what is needed?
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143 thoughts on “Perplexing West Maui “Closed” Edict Upsets Residents And Visitors”
Did Governor Green and the troubled Hawaii Tourism Authority miss the mark. If so, exactly what is needed?
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
The govenor wants to keep West Maui closed even longer:
“Green said his own preference would be to reopen West Maui to kamaaina visitors on Oct. 1, and to other visitors on Nov. 15 or Dec. 1, depending on the availability of hotel rooms.
One of the many major tasks that lie ahead is the need to move about 6,000 people out of Maui hotel rooms and into longer term rentals in the next two to four weeks, Green said.”
Can someone explain why “October 17” was picked?
It is not the start or end of a week, it’s a Tuesday
It is not the middle of a month, it is the 17th
It is not X weeks after “August 31”, it is 47 days
Just don’t understand why that date was picked (and my stay is within that random date range)
WE have booked a condo in Kahana for 6 people from October 9 – 16, 2023 just a week before the October 17 reopening deadline for visitors.
Should we still come. We are only concerned that Hwy 30 is closed.
Please keep us updated.
Hi Renate.
We’ll definitely share anything more we learn.
Aloha.
Hello, I am seeking advice on my travel plans. At the moment I have an Air Bnb booked sept 28th – oct 1 in Kapalua. The host is saying it is ok to come visit, however due to the governors oct 17th proclamation we are unsure what to do. We would love to come visit and support the local economy while being respectful to those impacted by the disaster. We looked into switching to a different area of Maui, but we are not able to be fully refunded for our stay so we would prefer to stay in place if possible. I have conflicted morals towards this and hear both sides of the story but we are just unsure what to do at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Hi Sam.
It’s s personal decision and if you read the comments (there are a ton of them) you’ll see the differing points of view. Also check and see if the things that you’re interested in will be open or not on West Maui.
Aloha.
I think what people are referring to is the October 17 in the Governor’s proclamation for Maui which expires on October 17 but that is by law as proclamations expire every 60 days but it can renewed. I am pretty sure the proclamation will be renewed for another 60 days and so and so on.
The Governor needs to reconsider his timetable of October 17th. We all are deeply affected by the devastation in Lahaina but part of a rebirth is initial survival. Employees and the many Businesses in West Maui will collapse if the Governor does not reconsider his timeframe and significantly reduce it and come out with a clear message that West Maui north of Lahaina is open for business and we welcome respectful visitors. Politicians are made and broken by they way they handle disasters and I am afraid the Governors’ decisions to date will significantly and negatively impact his political future.
Let people make up their own minds. Your edict has closed places like Napillishores because the board of directors said follow the edict!!!! So wrong
Sadly, the Hawaiin state government picks the wrong side of every issue. Zero land managment, poor infrastructure, other long term risks ignored and now peanlize business owners in West Maui.
Tourists didn’t start or cause this fire. But we can see and read the tourist hate, telling us to “keep out” and “stay away,” and much, much worse.
We’ve treated all with significant respect when visiting HI and Maui, including many of the places that were destroyed. But, we hear you — you don’t want tourists. Fine with us, we’ll stay away, forever if necessary or requested. World’s a big place, plenty to see. We’ve already cancelled a 2024 trip. Many millions of others have heard you, they too see and feel the resentment, and likewise will do as requested and stay far, far away.
Jack, you are victim of believing a vocal minority that has little to do with reality. Tourism has been booming in Hawaii and it’s not hard to find someone having a great time here. People generally don’t “complain “ about having a great time….. By and large peoples opinions define what kind of person they are and less so those they are judging. Angry in your face finger pointers can easily attract a negative response from someone….they then seem to need to justify why they are a victim on social media.
All Hawaii has ever done is try to manage the explosion in tourism here, the people I’m talking about have taken to social media and misrepresented that as being told tourists are not wanted.
Except the “vocal minority” you refer to happens to include those who run the Hawaii Tourism Board.
With all of the confusion, anger, accusations, recriminations, incorrect information, and some just plain lunacy we’re seeing here for a tragic but (thankfully) geographically limited regional catastrophe, I shudder at what the aftermath of a truly major national scope catastrophe would be like… God help us all…
Best wishes to all those affected by this.
We have a trip scheduled in the beginning of October to Nanea in Kaanapali and will lose all of our points if we don’t travel this year. It’s great that the hotels and airlines will allow cancellation, however that does not apply to the timeshare properties. We are looking for guidance as to if it will be appropriate to travel. It’s very frustrating to be told to visit another part of the island when that is not possible.
We had a reservation for Nanea 8/27-9/3 which was cancelled by the resort. We cannot go September through December so I am calling them Monday to let us transfer our 148,000 points to next year. I don’t think we should be penalized for this, even though we rebooked for January but the points utilized are for 2024.
If you have a room and a rental car , you should come, enjoy napili, kaanapali, honokowai and obviously kihei, wailea, paia, wailuku, kahalui, makawao, hana….. too many locals outta work now.
Our family has 3 room reservations late November at the Westin Nanea. We are owners.
Should we reschedule?
Heck no… november is perfect… maui needs respectful , helpful, friendly visitors, majority of local jobs depend on it
We have reservations at Kaanapali Beach Club Nov. 4 -18 2023.
We have been there many times and have seen most. We would like to keep our reservations but sounded like we wouldn’t be treated very good id we came. Your thoughts?
Workers at beach club and maui in general will be friendly and appreciative, just be respectful and understanding, enjoy yourself and enjoy the culture
While Kaanapali is technically open, some resorts where fire refugees are being housed have had barricades across the entrances, presumably to keep tourists from entering. Understandable. Thoughtful. For what it is worth, the Kaanapali condo we frequent (and had late September stay scheduled) at first asked guests to keep (paid for, no refund) reservations implying the West Maui locals need the economic help. Now, in keeping with the Governor’s request, we are being rescheduled for after October 17 which is fine by us. We have no idea what we will find when we get there, whenever that is, but we hope to fill a need not just by being there to aid the local economy, but to volunteer on-the-ground relief where we can.
Eighty percent of Hawaii’s income and taxes are from tourists. After two years of Covid lock down, a lot of businesses failed. Many people lost thier jobs and income. The state did not get its usual tax dollars.
The State and power companies are responsible for the fires and the ridiculously pitiful efforts in Maui and Lahinia!
When will the voters there wake up? The voters are literally being killed by the own politicians.
We are yearly visitors to West Maui. I think a continued difficulty seems to be the mixed messages from the resorts/companies themselves.
We were booked with Aston to arrive the first week of September. Before the new guidelines, it seemed Kaanapali was planned to be opening up Sept 1 or soon after. A few days after the new guidelines discouraging travel through Oct 17, I contacted Aston and was clearly told that new reservations were not being taken, but that existing reservations would be honored starting Sept 5. Then yesterday, I checked in with them again and was told that all reservations through September 30 had been cancelled because Kaanapali Shores was housing the displaced and volunteers. It was also noted that there is no internet or cable tv, and intermittent power outages. I never received cancellation notice and none of this is explained in their online updates, which make it sound like you can cancel “if you wish” but that nothing has been auto-cancelled.
Friends of ours are booked at the same resort through KBM and KBM is making it seem like everything is totally fine, to travel to Kaanapali as planned, and is not offering any refunds. Debates are happening on the KBM Facebook page and bad reviews are being left on Yelp.
I can’t imagine feeling morally right “vacationing” inside a resort where else staying in that same resort has lost everything. This seems incredibly insensitive to me.
I am an owner at Kaanapali Shores with my unit in the Aston rental program. We just received an email stating that Kaanapali Shores has entered into a contract with the Red Cross to house those that have lost homes and first responders through October 31, 2023. I see all Aston West Maui properties have closed out availability until Nov 1, 2023.