62 thoughts on “West Maui Reopening with Grim Prospect of Visitors”
Wallace B.
As I’ve been following the stories of “Opening West Maui” and welcoming tourists, I’ve come to the realization that most folks in Maui don’t want tourists, even those encouraging visitors. They only want the money that the tourists bring and would prefer no visitors at all. The anecdotes of current visitors feeling unwelcome at ‘open’ businesses such as Times Supermarket or being told “bring the Aloha, but don’t expect any in return as we are suffering” reinforces this. If they could get their wages or the income without any tourists that would be ideal, but it doesn’t work that way unfortunately, so it leaves visitors conflicted if they are “doing the right thing” by going.
I wanted to come to Maui in November. The hotel prices and airfare have gone crazy. It makes the trip unaffordable at this point for me. I’m sure I’m not the only one that is feeling this pinch. I got all excited when I saw that Southwest had $62-$78 one-way fares. I hopped right on that but the locations departure from the mainland to the various islands and the specific dates that you could fly were totally restrictive.
How can west Maui tourists make plans with this constant shift in dates? We have already changed reservations, flights etc. based upon the Oct. 8 opening date and now we are notified our resort may not open by our November 1 reservation! And Hawaiian airlines is currently only allowing free changes for reservations through October 18th. Who in their right mind would book anything in west Maui until it is fully open? The Mayor should just expect for mass bankruptcies, business closures and unemployment.
I do Not want to sound cruel. This is a horrible situation for the diaster and the 8000 that are basically homeless. There are more than 8,000 rooms on the West Maui area. In order to build tourism $$$, they need to get back to work. SOmeone mentioned on social media, that it was hard for the workers to smile. My gosh, no wonder! Yet, knowing the strength of the Native Hawaiians, I imagine a smile would come to their heart to work and receive income so that they can begin to rebuild. Sitting around and mourning is not healing. Mourning will take however long an individual feels. “phased re-opening”. locals are frustrated visitors are arriving. I wonder if those “locals” are working to begin rebuilding?
We are arriving in Maui October 12, my boyfriend n I are willing to help in anyway we can. We hve been coming to Maui for the last 7 years thru our timeshare. If there is anyway we can help, such as help clean, donate food or buy supplies.
Best regards
Susie M.
My name is Foster… I have been to Maui twice and the other islands 3 times over the years… I will be in Maui in February 2024 for three weeks.. I will be a respectful tourist and I hope to contribute in small to spend so folks can continue to work…
I have always been grateful to come to the most beautiful place on earth and meet so many sincere and nice people
This is 100% self-inflicted. We own property in Kapalua and arrived to check our residence this weekend. It’s beautiful! From Kaanapali to Kapalua, you would never know this tragedy occurred. There does not appear to be any reason why some restaurants are open and others are closed. We dined at the Seahouse last night and they thanked us for helping support them. The large hotels and resorts are closed for unclear reasons. I understand that initially infrastructure was out but this has been resolved and yet, there is this “phased re-opening”. Weird to see the resorts closed but people out playing golf.
Sad to read your words that seem to be filtered though your own personal lens of need. Many displaced people are living in these “…large hotels and resorts.” Some restaurants are owned, operated and staffed by people who lost everything in the fires – is it any surprise that they haven’t been able to re-open?
“Some restaurants are owned, operated and staffed by people who lost everything in the fires” – I understand that, but until visitors return these people will continue to suffer.
We are traveling to Maui on October 5th, and have rented a villa in Kapalua about a year ago to celebrate a family anniversary. After the fires and the initial feedback asking for no visitors to ‘West Maui’, I called the property management company (which was based in Lahaina) to cancel out of respect. They encouraged us to keep our reservation for the property we rented in Kapalua, and said businesses are open, its beautiful etc, etc. So we decided to keep our reservation, and plan to hang out at the beaches there locally, as well as a few of the other activities we had planned that are not located in West Maui. My hesitation(anxiety) about going is purely based on things I see in the media about locals frustrated visitors are arriving.
The message is clear that only the “right” tourists should be visiting. And “right” means free-spending deep pockets, huge restaurant and drink bills, expensive excursions, big tips. Don’t want middle-class tourists and their cost-conscious budgets polluting the Islands.
Unfortunately, it’s more than mere messaging; this is how people truly feel. The “visit, spend, leave” brigade should change it to, “spend big or get out. No poors.”
There are definitely great places to visit that could fit your budget. Hawaii is expensive for sure. Always has been pretty pricy. Prices have skyrocketed everywhere, I’m not surprised that Hawaii has gone up too. Good luck finding that special place.
Hard to compromise with the missing housing situation. And Maui needs tourism badly. The best thing to do would be 50/50 in my opinion. By the end if the year, the situation will definitely improve.
At the pace that Hawaii and Maui in particular moves in response to a disaster a year end improvement is not going to happen. The powers that be put band aids on things that require major surgery. It will be years before Maui’s situation improves. Honolulu politicians will control Maui’s rebirth and it won’t be timely or intelligent. This from a former Maui resident.
I feel terrible for the residents who have lost their homes and even worse some family members.
People are not coming to Maui and to a lesser extent the other Islands… (but as others have said) isn’t this what the governor wanted? I mean, do you or don’t you want people coming to HI?
A phased, incremental reopening of accommodations to tourists. Seems like the best approach to this problem with multiple competing priorities. Compromises must be made by all in order to ensure the long term public good.
They want visitors to come back but i see no mention of prices being adjusted downward or room sales to entice tourists to come back and patronize their hotels and businesses . Heaven forbid … lower ” more reasonable” prices might mean that lower spending “regular people” might try to infiltrate the desired audience of wealthy one percenters.
Yep, this is a huge problem. We are looking for Christmas and New Years lodging and there are hundreds available, but no one wants to lower the prices. Not going to pay $2500/night… Airbnb people say the prices are auto-set and they can’t lower.
It’s making me very sad, we want to go for almost 2 weeks and it’s unaffordable.
Your primary problem is that you seem to have elected idiots to the statehouse in Honolulu. Not only can they not resist grabbing a microphone when they see a camera, but they can’t keep their stories straight.
Your secondary problem is the media mantra of “if it bleeds, it leads.” It was in the newsies interest to make it sound as devastating as possible (not that it wasn’t very, very bad already).
Here’s hoping that the visitors that begin returning in October have both a good time and good weather – because the only thing that will fight the top two problems is for visitor word of mouth to get out and be positive.
You imply that this is “our problem.“ In actuality, it’s a widespread problem not even remotely confined to the state of Hawaii. Politicians, behave like politicians everywhere, and the news media is primarily interested in entertainment value to increase their revenue stream. Anyone paying attention for the last 30 years would see that. Mahalo.
They just constructed a tent city near the Kahului airport for folks that were previously homeless before the fires. They are also well along the way to constructing a tiny homes community also in Kahului called Ohana Hope Village, for Kapuna (the elders) and families. That will house 250+ people on land leased for 2 years. Not nearly enough to house all of the displaced, but it’s a start.
On social media today there’s are several posts with photos reporting that timeshare owners are already arriving at Hyatt Vacation Club at Kā’anapali Beach which is causing quite the stir with stressed out displaced Lahaina residents.
Hyatt claims that the government has knowledge of this and that timeshare owners have permission to be on westside.
There’s quite a bit of confusion and negative posting about this hopefully people keep cool.
Mahalo for this update, BOH. It looks like it will be a very long road to recovery for the affected residents and businesses.
Can you please do a post on what is happening in Lahaina specifically? Has clean up / rebuilding even started or when? Given the logistics of getting building materials, labor and equipment, I’m sure it will be a monumental challenge.
I’ve been out there several times, providing medical relief, and I can assure you that, while there has been some cleanup and towing away of burned motor vehicles, residents are only now just beginning to arrive to sift through the ashes of their homes. There won’t be any rebuilding for months to come. It’s way too early for that.
As I’ve been following the stories of “Opening West Maui” and welcoming tourists, I’ve come to the realization that most folks in Maui don’t want tourists, even those encouraging visitors. They only want the money that the tourists bring and would prefer no visitors at all. The anecdotes of current visitors feeling unwelcome at ‘open’ businesses such as Times Supermarket or being told “bring the Aloha, but don’t expect any in return as we are suffering” reinforces this. If they could get their wages or the income without any tourists that would be ideal, but it doesn’t work that way unfortunately, so it leaves visitors conflicted if they are “doing the right thing” by going.
I wanted to come to Maui in November. The hotel prices and airfare have gone crazy. It makes the trip unaffordable at this point for me. I’m sure I’m not the only one that is feeling this pinch. I got all excited when I saw that Southwest had $62-$78 one-way fares. I hopped right on that but the locations departure from the mainland to the various islands and the specific dates that you could fly were totally restrictive.
How can west Maui tourists make plans with this constant shift in dates? We have already changed reservations, flights etc. based upon the Oct. 8 opening date and now we are notified our resort may not open by our November 1 reservation! And Hawaiian airlines is currently only allowing free changes for reservations through October 18th. Who in their right mind would book anything in west Maui until it is fully open? The Mayor should just expect for mass bankruptcies, business closures and unemployment.
I do Not want to sound cruel. This is a horrible situation for the diaster and the 8000 that are basically homeless. There are more than 8,000 rooms on the West Maui area. In order to build tourism $$$, they need to get back to work. SOmeone mentioned on social media, that it was hard for the workers to smile. My gosh, no wonder! Yet, knowing the strength of the Native Hawaiians, I imagine a smile would come to their heart to work and receive income so that they can begin to rebuild. Sitting around and mourning is not healing. Mourning will take however long an individual feels. “phased re-opening”. locals are frustrated visitors are arriving. I wonder if those “locals” are working to begin rebuilding?
We are arriving in Maui October 12, my boyfriend n I are willing to help in anyway we can. We hve been coming to Maui for the last 7 years thru our timeshare. If there is anyway we can help, such as help clean, donate food or buy supplies.
Best regards
Susie M.
My name is Foster… I have been to Maui twice and the other islands 3 times over the years… I will be in Maui in February 2024 for three weeks.. I will be a respectful tourist and I hope to contribute in small to spend so folks can continue to work…
I have always been grateful to come to the most beautiful place on earth and meet so many sincere and nice people
This is 100% self-inflicted. We own property in Kapalua and arrived to check our residence this weekend. It’s beautiful! From Kaanapali to Kapalua, you would never know this tragedy occurred. There does not appear to be any reason why some restaurants are open and others are closed. We dined at the Seahouse last night and they thanked us for helping support them. The large hotels and resorts are closed for unclear reasons. I understand that initially infrastructure was out but this has been resolved and yet, there is this “phased re-opening”. Weird to see the resorts closed but people out playing golf.
Sad to read your words that seem to be filtered though your own personal lens of need. Many displaced people are living in these “…large hotels and resorts.” Some restaurants are owned, operated and staffed by people who lost everything in the fires – is it any surprise that they haven’t been able to re-open?
“Some restaurants are owned, operated and staffed by people who lost everything in the fires” – I understand that, but until visitors return these people will continue to suffer.
We are traveling to Maui on October 5th, and have rented a villa in Kapalua about a year ago to celebrate a family anniversary. After the fires and the initial feedback asking for no visitors to ‘West Maui’, I called the property management company (which was based in Lahaina) to cancel out of respect. They encouraged us to keep our reservation for the property we rented in Kapalua, and said businesses are open, its beautiful etc, etc. So we decided to keep our reservation, and plan to hang out at the beaches there locally, as well as a few of the other activities we had planned that are not located in West Maui. My hesitation(anxiety) about going is purely based on things I see in the media about locals frustrated visitors are arriving.
The message is clear that only the “right” tourists should be visiting. And “right” means free-spending deep pockets, huge restaurant and drink bills, expensive excursions, big tips. Don’t want middle-class tourists and their cost-conscious budgets polluting the Islands.
Unfortunately, it’s more than mere messaging; this is how people truly feel. The “visit, spend, leave” brigade should change it to, “spend big or get out. No poors.”
There are definitely great places to visit that could fit your budget. Hawaii is expensive for sure. Always has been pretty pricy. Prices have skyrocketed everywhere, I’m not surprised that Hawaii has gone up too. Good luck finding that special place.
If you want people to visit, especially for the holidays, then lower your lodging prices.
Hard to compromise with the missing housing situation. And Maui needs tourism badly. The best thing to do would be 50/50 in my opinion. By the end if the year, the situation will definitely improve.
At the pace that Hawaii and Maui in particular moves in response to a disaster a year end improvement is not going to happen. The powers that be put band aids on things that require major surgery. It will be years before Maui’s situation improves. Honolulu politicians will control Maui’s rebirth and it won’t be timely or intelligent. This from a former Maui resident.
I feel terrible for the residents who have lost their homes and even worse some family members.
People are not coming to Maui and to a lesser extent the other Islands… (but as others have said) isn’t this what the governor wanted? I mean, do you or don’t you want people coming to HI?
A phased, incremental reopening of accommodations to tourists. Seems like the best approach to this problem with multiple competing priorities. Compromises must be made by all in order to ensure the long term public good.
They want visitors to come back but i see no mention of prices being adjusted downward or room sales to entice tourists to come back and patronize their hotels and businesses . Heaven forbid … lower ” more reasonable” prices might mean that lower spending “regular people” might try to infiltrate the desired audience of wealthy one percenters.
Yep, this is a huge problem. We are looking for Christmas and New Years lodging and there are hundreds available, but no one wants to lower the prices. Not going to pay $2500/night… Airbnb people say the prices are auto-set and they can’t lower.
It’s making me very sad, we want to go for almost 2 weeks and it’s unaffordable.
Your primary problem is that you seem to have elected idiots to the statehouse in Honolulu. Not only can they not resist grabbing a microphone when they see a camera, but they can’t keep their stories straight.
Your secondary problem is the media mantra of “if it bleeds, it leads.” It was in the newsies interest to make it sound as devastating as possible (not that it wasn’t very, very bad already).
Here’s hoping that the visitors that begin returning in October have both a good time and good weather – because the only thing that will fight the top two problems is for visitor word of mouth to get out and be positive.
You imply that this is “our problem.“ In actuality, it’s a widespread problem not even remotely confined to the state of Hawaii. Politicians, behave like politicians everywhere, and the news media is primarily interested in entertainment value to increase their revenue stream. Anyone paying attention for the last 30 years would see that. Mahalo.
Just because it’s a problem everywhere doesn’t mean it isn’t your primary problem there.
I learned not to trust the media years ago…
Get a cruise ship here and move folks around. We need to think outside the box here for housing.
They just constructed a tent city near the Kahului airport for folks that were previously homeless before the fires. They are also well along the way to constructing a tiny homes community also in Kahului called Ohana Hope Village, for Kapuna (the elders) and families. That will house 250+ people on land leased for 2 years. Not nearly enough to house all of the displaced, but it’s a start.
Ever since the devastating disaster in Lahaina, the messaging and information being relayed has been nothing short of ‘total confusion.’
Aloha BOH Bro’s
On social media today there’s are several posts with photos reporting that timeshare owners are already arriving at Hyatt Vacation Club at Kā’anapali Beach which is causing quite the stir with stressed out displaced Lahaina residents.
Hyatt claims that the government has knowledge of this and that timeshare owners have permission to be on westside.
There’s quite a bit of confusion and negative posting about this hopefully people keep cool.
Mahalo for this update, BOH. It looks like it will be a very long road to recovery for the affected residents and businesses.
Can you please do a post on what is happening in Lahaina specifically? Has clean up / rebuilding even started or when? Given the logistics of getting building materials, labor and equipment, I’m sure it will be a monumental challenge.
I’ve been out there several times, providing medical relief, and I can assure you that, while there has been some cleanup and towing away of burned motor vehicles, residents are only now just beginning to arrive to sift through the ashes of their homes. There won’t be any rebuilding for months to come. It’s way too early for that.