Hawaii visitors can expect more changes with three initiatives Governor Josh Green wants to pursue. His goal is to reshape Hawaii’s tourism landscape by reducing short-term rentals, getting the Green Fee enacted, and positioning Hawaii as a prime sports destination. Many wonder in the comments below if this ambitious plan can meet the islands’ needs without compromising its unique appeal.
Hawaii’s housing crisis was amplified by the Lahaina wildfires.
Governor Green has empowered county governments to regulate and phase out short-term rentals, aiming to manage Hawaii’s vacation rental market more effectively and address the critical housing shortage. See our related article on Airbnb’s gentrification impact on Hawaii.
The plan to phase out Maui vacation rentals was years in the making. The devastation of the Maui wildfires exacerbated the urgency of addressing affordable housing. Displaced residents initially found shelter in hotels and short-term rentals, with the state paying competitive rates. This situation led officials to seek permanent housing solutions for residents, with one key part of this strategy focused on limiting short-term rental availability.
For an overview of Maui’s current rental landscape and recent tax adjustments to reduce vacation rentals, see our article on tax increases for Maui vacation rentals. In that, your comments expressed many thoughts, including these:
Tom R.: “Raising taxes on vacation rentals is just going to drive up prices for tourists even more. That’s going to make Hawaii an even more exclusive destination, and I’m not sure that’s the right move.”
Lani W.: “As a Maui resident, I think it’s about time. These rentals have driven up housing costs for everyone. If this helps locals find affordable housing, I’m all for it.”
David K.: “It seems like the taxes are targeting the wrong issue. We need to limit the number of rentals, not just raise taxes. Otherwise, the problem will still be here, just more expensive.”
Anna M.: “I understand the goal, but I’m worried that fewer rentals will hurt the local economy. Restaurants, shops, and other small businesses depend on tourists who stay in vacation rentals, especially in less tourist-heavy areas.”
Developing sports tourism in Hawaii.
Beyond the focus on housing, and despite some reservations, Governor Green envisions Hawaii as a future hub for sports tourism. Strategically poised between Asia and North America, he believes Hawaii offers an ideal location for pre-Olympic events and other major sporting experiences. Green is confident that such events could boost the tourism economy and position Hawaii as an international sports destination.
Discover why Hawaii’s sports tourism industry could become a significant draw in our article on sports tourism as Hawaii’s next big game changer. In that article, many readers shared thoughts on this proposal, expressing mixed reactions:
Drew808: “Hawaii can barely manage its own internal sporting events like surfing and canoe races…We had paddlers forced to walk due to a traffic jam during the HCRA state championships. I can’t see major league events being welcomed when infrastructure can barely handle local events.”
RickM: “My wife and I were caught in traffic for the Honolulu Marathon during a stay at the Outrigger Waikiki. We couldn’t get our rental cars out, affecting our flight plans. This experience has made us rethink staying during such events.”
Don: “It will never work. Hawaii has already lost events like the NFL Pro Bowl, and now local residents get free admission to many events, leaving little revenue potential. The travel and accommodation costs are too high for tourists just to attend a sporting event.”
Mary K.: “While sports tourism sounds exciting, the concern is whether Hawaii can handle increased traffic without compromising what makes the islands special. More visitors could overcrowd the beaches and roads even more.”
Greg: “The Ninth Island [Las Vegas] offers a broad range of affordable accommodations, something Hawaii lacks. Hawaii’s higher costs for travel and lodging make it challenging to attract sports tourists who want a range of reasonably priced options.”
These comments underscore the concerns about the feasibility of hosting large-scale sports events in Hawaii, from infrastructure limitations to the high costs of travel and accommodations.
Funding climate resilience through visitor impact fee.
Hawaii’s natural beauty and tourism appeal have made it a global favorite, but climate resilience is now at the forefront of state initiatives. Governor Green has proposed new funding strategies to fortify the islands’ infrastructure and protect against future environmental challenges. A visitor impact fee, which will return to the legislature for approval, is one approach, along with a potential increase in transient accommodation taxes. These measures are designed to provide Hawaii with the resources to tackle climate-related issues.
Our article on the Hawaii visitor fee comeback sparked many discussions on this topic:
Mike S.: “The visitor impact fee is a double-edged sword. While I support protecting Hawaii’s environment, I wonder if tourists will be willing to pay the extra cost, especially if it’s not clear how funds are spent.”
Jenny L.: “As a frequent visitor, I would gladly pay a fee if I knew it was going toward sustainability. But, I’d want transparency. Hawaii’s environment is precious, and I hope visitors recognize the privilege of enjoying it.”
Rob C.: “I think this fee could backfire. Hawaii is already an expensive destination. Adding more costs might make tourists rethink their vacation plans, especially with competing destinations that don’t charge these fees.”
Karen W.: “This is long overdue. Tourists use the beaches, parks, and trails, but haven’t been contributing directly to their upkeep. I hope this plan finally passes.”
Please share your thoughts and suggestions regarding Governor Green’s plans.
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Get rid of your elected officials. Have they served the people of Maui? Have they stepped up and made rehoming people easier? Have they made building a house to replaced a burned residence any easier? Did they allow far too many tourist accommodations to be built? Is taxing the tourist with unreasonable fees really going to help your economy. Yes, I’m a visitor and have been coming yearly since 1985. Might be my last year. Added on fees , doubled condo prices, doubled car rental fees, parking fees, hotel fees, etc. Maui will soon be losing most of its tourism. If that’s the case, how many jobs will be lost? My heart breaks for the Lahaina fire victims. After 39 years, we’ve made many friends and know many victims. Such sadness!!!!!
I believe it is the perfect time to encourage the idea of sports being an economy boost here in hawaii. I was actually just thinking the same thing today. And how weird I find a story about that very idea being discusses. I think it’s absolutely perfect and just what we would need to tell you the truth. I used to work with the hula bowl maui and had so much fun with the entire game every year.
” way to go!” For bringing something luke that up because it is truly what we need! It’s just awesome and amazing…please go for it. It’llgreat for the economy!
well as we all can see the Governor is not for all the people, nor really does not understand condo financing/homeownership… a $300K home loan on a condo payment would be $4,650 (includes condo dues) – a $300K loan on a house would be $3,100 a month – but what would a Dr know? apparently nothing
one word – unconstitutinal
Not positives regarding this green fee, sports practice thing, and closing short term rentals. Looking on some different angle could it be like.
We will never return to hawaii. When I am chargerge $25 for a coconut , chargerge a resort fee that no one knows what it is. Pay. Stupid amount of money for any type of groceries and high priced below average reastaurants, I realize I no longer need to travel. You can keep it
Years ago 2007,2008,2009, the dole plantation was charging customers 15-20 dollars for a pineapple. But to leave the island you had to send it in a cardboard box they supplied with a postal fee charged on top of that. The total amounted to about 48-60 bucks to send it to the mainland and they said you would get it in around 10 days. Don’t everyone love to get a fermented pineapple in the mail after returning home from a vacation let alone to have paid 48-60 bucks for it.
I know you will not post this, but here it goes….
Governor Green is the worst governor Hawaii has had,,, keep on charging in tourist that are NOt coming to Hawaii and having beaches and sidewalks full of homeless/ drud addicts/ drug dealers , while is looking the other way, is not ideal….we are being killed with taxes , only the wealthy can afford Hawaii…..
We spend a critical amount of money cleaning up after the fake homeless…tourists are being charged $25.00 for a coconut and this is called paradise?????
How will eliminating 7500 short term rental units aid the housing shortage when many locals can’t affors the basic costs many current STR owners have to pay every month? Our property taxes have gone up from $6000/Yr. in 2019 to $15,000 this year. And the same increase affects every owner of every STR on Maui. The county can do that because the vast majority of owners aren’t residents of Maui. We can’t vote in Maui County elections. We have no say in who runs the county. So we are the ones that fund much of the budget for Maui County. If the units are converted to long term rentals, will the property taxes be lowered? I doubt it. The county needs those funds for their spending.
Who can afford a rental price of $7500 per month? Where else do you see affordable long term rentals on oceanfront property? Who can afford $800 K to $3 Million dollar sales price for waterfront condos on a service industry salary? The numbers don’t add up and the county can’t explain the details.
If you can’t make money off your property then you won’t keep it. Frees up a lot of real estate.
I totally agree. I have always said the state is killing the golden goose. I think the goose is finally dead. Restaurants are closing. Local people are leaving the islands because they can’t afford to live there. Tourists are going elsewhere because Hawaii is too expensive. What a mess the government of Hawaii has made.
I see that short term rents Helped family’s from the fires
Without them there would have been more family’s living on the street of Maui or a lot of hotel would have been packed with the family’s n nowhere for tourist for rent!
As a long time visitor to Hawaii (25 years and on avg. $12k / visit). I will never….I repeat ….never pay a fee to visit another state. I’m not a tourist -I am a US citizen and frequent visitor. Hawaii is our 50th state… act like it. The Hawaiian Islands are a very beautiful place above and below the waterline, but not better than many other states in our great country for a variety of reasons. If you don’t believe that you should travel before you bite the hand that feeds you.
This is nothing more than a Liberal money grab. Keep going and see what the power hungry Uber wealthy do next to Hawaii ….. Casinos. There are so many other ways I can spend my disposable wealth and sadly Hawaii is nothing like what it was 30 years ago. Good luck with your Tax and Spend policies. It will not end well.
Jim I couldn’t agree with you more. I am also a US citizen proudly born and raised. I have Never felt so frustrated with the negativity of Maui. Maybe the ninth Island also called the” Mainland” should start returning the favor. All my years traveling the Islands and then moving to Maui I never once met a rude, vulgar, unappreciative tourist wish I could say the same about some of the locals. Best of luck Maui spending my money elsewhere
My two or three cents worth. I have travelled to Hawaii specifically to race the Kauai Marathon, so I have some idea of sports tourism. If “sports tourism” means Super Bowls, Bowl Games, major soccer tournaments, and the like (eg Las Vegas) then I suspect it will not work out very well. A Super Bowl requires a week or more of accommodation for large numbers of people; can one reasonably block out that many rooms on Oahu? Those huge events are just trading one group of tourii for another. If, on the other hand, Hawaii does “sports tourism” as smaller events, like the triathlon and marathons, then one can attract smaller groups around the Islands. Also, Hawaii offers unique deep sea fishing and interesting hunting that I know folks who specifically travel to do. In these cases, it is small local boats, guides, accommodation, and eateries that benefit. SCUBA and snorkel can also be designed as destination activities.
Hawaii is dead. Too many ignoramuses in power. RIP. Dumping 7,000 STRs on Maui won’t fix the housing shortage while it kills the visitor level and the economy. Out of control insurance for the condo associations just doubled HOAs. Those alone, before rents, will continue to price any locals out of them. Clueless.
The results have been stupendous here on Maui. Resturaunts closing as well as other tourist related businesses and tourism down bigly! Mayor Bissen will act shocked when the county has a shortfall. No worry though because the Feds will save him this year.
Sorry to say this but Hawaiians are not the smartest people on the planet. They’ll constantly elect morons to run their state into the ground and then blame tourists, who are your only revenue stream, for damaging your environment. Last time I check tourists don’t bring their oven and dump them in parks. Wake up Hawaiians.
100% “The housing shortage is due to all these Short Term Rentals” – That have been here for 50 years. LOL. Look in the mirror and change your foolish policies to accommodate growth and affordable housing!
These idealogues say you can’t build your way out of the crisis. It’s laughable. Try studying some history and economics.
Issue permits within 30 to 90 days….Not two years. Get rid of incompetent and inefficient planners. Pay a real wage to workers and you might be surprised how fast one can solve problems.
Dump the current corrupt politicians ASAP. Elect people that will do PPP’s. Public Private Partnerships will attract investors instead of discouraging them which the current corruption HI and Maui politicians are doing.
Do they actually Pay people to think of these things??? Really??? Affordable tourism is The Bedrock of Hawaii’s Travel industry. The “Golden Nene”… Kill it, you (quite literally) kill the state’s economy. No if ands or buts…
Best Regards
Hawaii already has the highest transient accommodation tax – I can’t imagine that raising will really help anyone.
What do you mean tourists aren’t contributing enough to the local sustainability? Besides paying pro-rata the largest property tax (timeshare) on the island we also regularly contribute to the Maui Food Bank and a local youth organization. Some tourists do contribute!
Honolulu and Oahu are not Las Vegas, nor could they ever be successful with Sports Tourism. Southern Nevada has lot of space to grow and Hawaii islands are thimbles floating in a great ocean. LV has taken seven+ decades to achieve it’s success while some here are looking overnight success! Lv has tens of millions within driving distance while HI requires air travel. Sports tourism is by and for the elite, not for those of us that must butter our own bread .
None of these proposals will help Hawaii. Annual visitors are already deserting Hawaii by the 1,000s for other destinations due to exceedingly high costs. It is real and across the board. If taxes, fees & surcharges were completely separated from every package, the resulting sum (almost 30%) would offend every visitor and potential visitor. Adding a Green Fee will piss off every visitor, who already know they are paying more for lodging, vehicles, golf & dining than Hawaii’s residents. How will the fee be collected, and from whom? Reducing vacation rentals, while understandable in terms of full-time resident needs, will be another obstacle to attracting longer duration visitors. And it will be defeated in the courts. Lastly, this sports tourism moniker is a joke. Hawaii has lost the Pro Bowl, the Lakers, and the PGA Grand Slam and they are not coming back. The real problem is a lack of quality facilities, and no good ideas about the future.
Those suggesting this approach are avoiding the obvious. To prosper, the state has to offer good paying jobs. None of these suggestions do that. Industries that offer these kinds of jobs need reliable infrastructure, low taxes and a business friendly environment. No one of those are remotely being considered.
There are a number of good models to follow. But HI’s current elected “leaders “ have a clew as to what to do. So sad.
Hawaii’s Triple Bet!? Why do something when you already know that you are going to lose!? You almost have to wonder if the Guv’nur gets together with the Hawaii tourism people and just throw ideas against the wall to see what sticks and then groan as they see one idea after another just side right off of the wall because their ideas just plain stink! I found the Guv’nur’s idea of passing off the housing issue to the county mayors extremely gutless and it certainly is supposed to give him political cover as their attempts at taking over people’s private property end up in legal battles that will cost each county huge sums of tax dollars that they really don’t have while Green sits back and proclaims that it’s not his fault as one of the masterminds of the CoVid scamdemic lock downs strikes again!
Limiting short-term rentals sounds good, and perhaps briefs well on powerpoint charts. However, it is not the silver bullet. Expanding residential zones and removing land construction constraints should be included in future discussions.
Restrictions on accommodations, added fees, raised taxes and outrageous prices, while giving locals discounts and freebies—this is supposed to entice us to Hawaii? What planet is Green on?
The idea that we will attract more tourists or simply richer tourists that will make up for a greater number of less rich tourists is such backwards economic thinking it could only come from a politician.
The #1 reason less people are coming to Hawaii is the cost. Up 50%+ since 2019. And the arrogance to think people won’t trade HI for Mexico, the Caribbean or other tropical spots has already been proven wrong. That’s happening right now.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a thriving business that in no way depends on HI and I love that the surf spots are less crowded on Maui (where I live semi-retired at age 44). But having no skin in the game and a background in business and economics I can say unequivocally that IMHO this is a terrible idea for those that Do depend on tourism. But of course the politicians will pander to their base and things will continue to get worse. And so it goes.
>>> His goal is to reshape Hawaii’s tourism landscape by reducing short-term rentals, getting the Green Fee enacted, and positioning Hawaii as a prime sports destination.
B of H, this sentence is accurate.
Everyone else: read it three times to yourself. Understand how ridiculous, contradictory, and mind-numbingly stupid, it all is. Let’s break it down.
Eliminate the only cost-effective accommodation for families, leading to gigantic hotel and restaurant bills. Then impose onerous fees on tourists, which they will utterly despise.
Expected result: average sports fans will take a weeklong vacation. They will endure atrocious traffic, airports and very long flights. These fans will pay a fortune in airline fees and accommodations. They will agree to all this to pay even more in ticket fees and expenses to attend a “major sporting experience” in a remote, uber-expensive island chain in the Pacific.
Good luck.
Typical hotel actions to eliminate local rentals so they can raise their prices even more. I go to Hawaii for the ocean not sports events. My first trip to Maui was in 1997. I paid $850 for flight from San Francisco, seven hotel nights in Lahaina and car rental. Today that would cost 6 or 7 times as much..
Another example of bad leadership. Please look for real people with solid grounded ideas for all the population of Hawaii. D E.I. D for dumb. E. Forget looking at skin color. I got I have American privilege for all citizens who are blessed to live in this free country.
I guess a couple of sporting events (if you can get any) will cover the loss of tourist tax dollars. Good luck Green.
I don’t mind paying the Green Fee, but hope it is really used use for environment impact, not more Government Waste
What about charging a Green Fee to the local residents? It is not the tourists that are dumping their old cars, refrigerators, stoves, ovens, etc on the side of the roads and in cane fields. That causes so much oil, transmission fluid, refringent, insulation, plastics, and more that is decomposing into the environment. Any day you can find hundreds of cars, fridges, stoves, etc all over the islands. This is causing more harm to the environment than what the tourists are contributing too. Share the responsibility to all.
Thank you for putting this out there! We visit every year and can’t understand why they allow this to continue…if locals don’t respect the land, how can they expect tourists to do it?!?
I really don’t understand how people can say that tourists don’t contribute to protecting Hawaii’s environment or the upkeep of the facilities and infrastructure. That is all paid for with taxes and fees. Please do yourself a favour and see how much of the county revenue is generated from the tourism industry.
All STR’s in areas zoned Residential or Ag need to be banned and removed across the entire State of Hawaii.
They should only be allowed in areas zoned Resort.
No exceptions.
There are no zonings called “Residential” or “Resort” on Maui, so what you are suggesting can’t happen. Maybe the government will be create those zonings 10 years from now after all the lawsuits have been settled.
Spoken like a real hotel junkie, or a hotel owner.
No exceptions? What about real farmers who have a farm stay accommodation to help support their farm?
Around the world agro-tourism is helping small farmers survive.
I’m definitely getting tired of the small minded, short term thinking by Hawaiian politicians. Hawai’i needs to be run like a business. All the eggs in the tourism basket isn’t working. For the love of God, have Green to explain to us why were not allowing at least sports gambling, or online gambling that can generate millions without concern about bad actors or crime. It’s online. We ship billions to Las Vegas, while in the same breath pretending that gambling is taboo here at home. It’s ridiculous and ignorant. Wake up Hawai’i.
Why did you break something that not broken is my first question?
No none of this will work!!
Think about it, lets charge visitors more to come to Hawaii?! Seriously?? Between visitor fees and less accommodations, it will be more expensive.
The sports tourism idea, not going to work or bring enough people for local businesses to survive! On my island no one is hiring because of the drop in tourists.
The Hawaiian government needs to wake up and stop pandering to certain interests in order to stay elected. You guys have killed the golden goose!
I guess the governor is doing his best to run the tourism industry into the ground. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but he’s a complete idiot.
Andy! You are spot on….charge owners more…Not the hotels of course and the tourists And then think they will come…and big events are what He wants? When you don’t want Bad tourists??? When they can’t get where they have to be to compete or watch cuz of an accident on the Poly….???someone should tell him…nothing is thought through…just spit out whatever comes to your empty head is not how to bring up the island from the bottom.
“”I don’t know what he’s thinking”
Neither does he.