Amid the intense response to the Maui wildfires that destroyed the famous town of Lahaina and claimed more than 110 lives, Hawaii remains open for tourism, despite skepticism from residents and tourists.
“Don’t go to Maui,” said Kate Ducheneau, a Lahaina resident, in a TikTok videos which has been viewed more than two million times since it was posted on Sunday. “Cancel your trip. Now.”
“It’s kind of a gut-wrenching feeling to see other people enjoying parts of their lives that we used to take for granted,” he said, adding that his home was severely damaged by the fire and his family evacuate with a few minutes to spare.
Last week’s tragedy intensified long-simmering tensions over the archipelago’s economic dependence on tourism, a dependency that has fueled anti-tourism protests in recent years and brought the state to its knees during the pandemic. Many residents, particularly on Maui, resent the uncomfortable, conflicting scenario of visitors reveling in the state’s lush forests or sunbathing on white-sand beaches as they mourn the massive loss of life, home and culture. Others believe that tourism, although particularly painful today, is important.
“People are quick to forget these days, how many local businesses have closed during Covid,” said Daniel Kalahiki, who runs a food truck in Wailuku on Maui, east of Lahaina. The island needs to heal and the disaster areas are far from recovered, he said, but tourist-go-home messaging is irresponsible and harmful.
“No matter what, the rest of Maui has to move on,” said Mr. Kalahiki, 52. “The island has been shot in the chest. Are you going to stab us in the heart too?”
The devastating loss of life, and these conflicting messages, cause travelers to wrestle with whether it’s worth visiting Maui, or anywhere else in Hawaii, in the near future, prompting them to ask if help their dollars or their presence will hinder recovery efforts.
“If we’re on a Vrbo, does that take away from a potential person being displaced?” said Stephanie Crow, an Oklahoman traveling to Maui this fall for her wedding.
Official guidance from the Hawaii government has shifted over the past week, first discouraging travelers from visiting the entire island of Maui, and now, from West Maui for rest of the month. Travel to other islands, including tourist-draws Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island, remains unaffected.
State tourism groups say travel is encouraged to support Hawaii’s recovery and to prevent it from falling into a deeper crisis.
“Tourism is Hawaii’s main economic driver, and we don’t want to combine a terrible natural fire disaster with a secondary economic disaster,” said Ilihia Gionson, a spokesperson for Hawaii Tourism. Authority.
Economically important
For those in the tourism industry, the year is off to a good start. Visitor spending through June was $10.78 billion, a 17 percent increase over the same period last year, according to Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The hardships of the pandemic are in the past.
But the tension with the growing number of tourists is not. Hawaii has for decades been one of the top destinations for American and international visitors, and has struggled to balance tourism with residents’ demands to recognize and protect the islands’ traditional culture. Visitor-dependent countries such as Jamaica, Thailand and Mexico have navigated similar existential issues.
A year ago, John De Fries, the first Native Hawaiian to head the Tourism Authority, told The New York Times that “local residents have a responsibility to host visitors in an appropriate manner. On the contrary , visitors have a responsibility to know that their destination is someone’s home, someone’s neighborhood, someone’s community.”
At the tourism agency latest survey of residents’ sentiments, released in July, 67 percent of 1,960 respondents across the four islands expressed “favorable” views of tourism in the state. But the same percentage agreed with the statement: “This island is run for tourists at the expense of the local people.”
In the immediate days after the fire, frustration erupted among visitors to Maui.
“People fall victim to trauma,” writes Kailee Soong, a spiritual teacher who lives on Maui in Waikapu, in a TikTok post.
Tourists are still in the shops even though resources are limited, said Ms. Soong, 33, in the video. “They are on the road today as people mourn the loss of loved ones, of places that have been burned, of history that has been completely erased.”
“Maui is not the place to go on vacation these days,” Oahu-born actor Jason Momoa said in an Instagram Story. He posted an infographic that read “stop traveling to Maui,” and included instructions on how to make donations. There was an outcry after a Maui-based the snorkeling company held a charity tour after the wildfires, leading the company to issue an apology and suspend operations.
“To hear that people have snorkeled in water that people have had traumatic experiences and died, it’s hard to justify the reasoning behind why that would be viewed as acceptable,” Ms. Ducheneau, 29.
He works in property management and at a restaurant in Lahaina, and noted that his family’s income is completely dependent on tourists. However, he said, “I don’t think this is an appropriate time to welcome tourism back to our area.”
The industry provides approximately 200,000 jobs across the island, and last year, more than 9 million visitors spent $19.29 billion, according to the Tourism Authority. About 3 million visitors come to Maui, where the “visitor industry” accounts for 80 percent of every dollar generated on the island, the The Maui Economic Development Board said.
“Like everyone else, we have to work. We just got over Covid. Things are just starting to get better. To think that everything might shut down again,” said Reyna Ochoa, a 46-year-old who lives in Haiku in North Maui and works several jobs outside the tourism industry. “The islands need the tourism and the income to rebuild.”
In Wailuku, Mr. Kalahiki said his food-truck sales have dropped by half. The streets that are usually “popping” with tourists are empty, she said, and there are days when her husband, who owns a beach clothing store in town, doesn’t sell a single item.
Travelers seek clarity
Then there are travelers who have been saving for their first vacations for years, many with plans to reunite with family or celebrate weddings and honeymoons. Many want to be polite and seek clarity on what that looks like, deluging online forums to ask local residents where and when it is acceptable to visit.
Early next month, Danett Williams, 48, will spend her honeymoon on the Big Island, where North and South Kohala burned.
For several days, he and his fiancée went back and forth about canceling their trip, considering a road trip from their home in San Francisco instead. In the end, they decided their tourism dollars were worthwhile, as long as they stayed away from other islands and didn’t take much-needed space or resources from displaced residents, he said.
Others, like Ms. Crow, from Oklahoma, says vendors like her wedding planner ask her to keep their trip. In early September, Ms. Crow, 47, and his fiancee are getting married on a beach in Kihei, about 20 miles south of Lahaina. It should be a wedding in a “happy, blissful paradise” setting, she said.
“These are first-world problems I’m dealing with. They lost their lives, their homes, their income, they lost everything,” said Ms. Crow.
Determining what to do is overwhelming and conflicting, he added. And shifting directives from officials is confusing, he said.
‘We just need time’
Marilyn Clark, a travel agent who specializes in Hawaii trips, said the travel industry is in a “holding pattern” awaiting further government guidance.
Major hotels across Maui have relaxed their cancellation policies until the end of August, he said, but what hotels and vendors will offer beyond that is unclear, adding to the anxiety and confusion. to travelers.
And travelers like Ms. Crow isn’t sure if their presence will displace people in need of shelter. In Lahaina alone, an official said as many as 6,000 people could be displaced.
Some hotel operators say they are offering rooms and other support to emergency responders, displaced residents and hotel staff. The state has acquired 1,000 hotel rooms, most of them north of Lahaina, in Kaanapali, said Kekoa McClellan, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Hotel Alliance.
Joe Pluta, a West Maui community leader and real estate broker, is among the homeless. He lives with his daughter after escaping the fire that destroyed his home and all his possessions.
Describing himself as a “top fan of tourism,” however, he suggested there are other ways to support Maui. The horror and grief is too raw, he said.
“This is not the right time to go and play,” said Mr. Pluta, 74. “Come again, just give us time. We just need some time.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
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