A DIVIDED WEST MAUI REOPENS - ʻYOUʻRE VISITING A REALLY, REALLY FRAGILE PLACEʻ
West Maui officially reopened to tourists Sunday, two months after a firestorm incinerated the town of Lahaina and killed at least 98 people. Not everyone is ready to welcome visitors with flower leis and open arms.
When Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced last month that West Maui would fully reopen on Oct. 8—two months to the day after the August fire—the backlash was immediate. Last Tuesday, dozens of protesters rallied outside the state Capitol in Honolulu and delivered a box of signed petitions to Green’s office asking him to delay the reopening.
“People in Lahaina have gone through a lot,” said State Rep. Elle Cochran, a first-term legislator and former county councilwoman who represents the area. “To be Mr. and Mrs. Aloha, you know, to welcome visitors frolicking and having fun, it’s just going to be too hard.”
Hawaiian officials face a difficult challenge weighing how to resume tourism on an island where roughly 40% of the gross domestic product is tied to visitors, while also considering the still-raw emotions of the thousands who were displaced from homes and lost friends and family in the disaster.
Garrett Marrero, owner of Maui Brewing Company, a popular craft brewery with five restaurant locations, including three on Maui, said those advocating for a longer runway to reopen might not be keeping in mind the downward spiral it could create in the local economy and labor market.
His company has had to significantly reduce operating hours and lay off the bulk of its staff at its two West Maui locations. One of those restaurants is now getting as much business in a week as it typically got in a day, he said. He is considering breaking or renegotiating the lease on that location as soon as January.
“We cannot diversify our economy in an instant. That takes time,” he said. “So right now we need to heal the economy that we have.”
Tourism to Maui saw a steep decline following the fires, after dozens of flights were canceled and beachfront resorts were converted into temporary housing for those who lost their homes. In recent weeks, many displaced residents have received notices advising them to register with the American Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency or risk losing their temporary lodging, causing confusion and angst.
Rebekah Uccellini, who has been helping hundreds of families troubleshoot housing issues and connect them with resources, said she hasn’t encountered any wildfire survivors who said they wanted tourism to return.
“This is a still a graveyard, and there’s still missing people,” she said. “The fact that kids haven’t gotten back to school before tourism opens, there’s something missing here in terms of priorities.”
The Democratic governor, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, recently told local media that Sunday was a “gentle start” that would allow tourism to build up to the busier holiday months. He noted that more than 8,700 Maui residents had filed for unemployment as of Sept. 30.
“These individuals need to be able to take care of their families, care for their children,” Green said in the interview. “People can choose how they want to re-engage…but I can’t let parts of the state collapse.”
On Sunday morning, customers packed the Hawaiian Village Coffee Shop in Kahana Gateway shopping center, ordering veggie bagels and iced Thai espressos. “Lahaina Strong” stickers, T-shirts, and hats were for sale, with proceeds providing financial assistance to survivors.
Josephine and Garrett Ward of Newport Beach, Calif., were among the early visitors, sipping coffee and eating breakfast. Josephine Ward, a 57-year-old tech recruiter, said the couple booked their tickets two weeks ago, shortly after Gov. Green announced the Oct. 8 reopening. Hoping to support the local economy, they decided to book six nights on Maui instead of the Big Island.
Still, they wondered whether their presence was welcome.
“You feel uneasy about sharing the same space so early after a tragic event,” said Garrett Ward, a 59-year-old radiologist. “You hear that they need tourism and they can’t survive without it but it’s hard to know, well, is that just what the corporate guys are saying? Or the average person here?”
On the way from the airport, he said, the couple’s GPS routed them through Lahaina, past burned-out cars and ashen buildings. He advised his wife to keep driving and they both kept their eyes fixed on the road.
“It just felt disrespectful to stare,” she said.
Visitors arriving to Maui by air were down 58% in August from a year earlier, with visitor spending hovering at about half of August 2022 levels. While the rest of Maui has remained open, the drop in tourism across the island has forced small-business owners to furlough employees even in South Maui and other parts, said Pamela Tumpap, president of the Maui Chamber of Commerce.
Anticipated leisure occupancy rates in West Maui’s hotels and timeshares are hovering between 9% and 17% for the week of Oct. 8, according to data from the Maui Hotel and Lodging Association.
While industry leaders expect the return of visitors to West Maui to be slow, opening earlier was essential to ensure tourists can still plan trips for the November and December months, said the group’s executive director, Lisa Paulson.
Many properties in West Maui have been hosting visitors for weeks. Roads in and out of areas unaffected by the fire have remained open, and because so many of the accommodations in Kaanapali and other parts of West Maui are privately owned timeshares, they cannot be restricted.
Local officials relied instead on strong recommendations that tourists stay away from the region while the recovery got under way.
“It’s more of a welcoming,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said of the Oct. 8 reopening.
Bissen, who said the governor informed him of the reopening timeline hours before announcing it, laid out a phased approach for implementation, starting with a roughly 3-mile stretch furthest north of the burn zone this weekend.
“We are trying to strike a balance between the need for people to have jobs and the need for people to grieve and to mourn,” he said.
There are indications of more financial uncertainty to come.
A revised county budget proposal released by Bissen last week shows that Maui County is facing a $19.5 million general fund revenue shortfall.
A recently announced $4 million program to motivate local homeowners to house residents displaced by the fires is being funded entirely by money from private nonprofits, with no plans to use public funding to extend it.
Aleta McGrath, a local store manager with two young children, has had to move her family several times since their home burned down. Her family is awaiting housing assistance from the Red Cross. She said she doesn’t think it is reasonable to expect workers to staff the hospitality industry when they haven’t secured long-term housing or child care.
“Tourists don’t always bear in mind that they’re visiting somebody’s home, where they live,” McGrath said, adding that she hopes those who come to Maui do so with “pono”—a Hawaiian word that means balance and harmony.
“This is our reality and you’re visiting a really, really fragile place right now,” she said.
