Efforts to boost the industry will focus on key Southern California markets, with additional pushes targeting corporate meeting and incentive planners.
Government officials and tourism executives are seeking to restore tourism to Maui, a year after wildfires destroyed much of the island’s Lahaina tourism hub and battered the its key industry.
Just a year ago residents rallied to implore tourists to stay away from West Maui and let residents grieve and recover.
Now officials are planning to target travelers from Southern California – Maui’s most important market – with a campaign designed to restore what tourism executives say is critically needed business for the island’s economy.
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Visitor numbers and spending remain sluggish since the August 2023 wildfires. According to the most recent available data from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, for June, the number of visitors to Maui was down 22% compared with June 2023. Visitor spending was down 27%, HTA reported.
Under the iconic open ceiling of the Hawaii State Capitol, Lahaina Strong community representatives delivered more than 10,000 signatures to Gov. Josh Green’s office in October asking to keep tourism to West Maui closed indefinitely. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2023)
The 216,065 visitors to Maui in June was far more than the 94,221 who came in September, the month after the fire. But the number is 22% fewer than the 276,136 who came in June 2023. And with the traditionally slow fall travel season on the horizon, the situation soon could get worse.
“We’re clearly seeing tremendous softness on Maui,” said Jay Talwar, chief marketing officer with the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. Projections show the softness could remain until March or April of next year, said Talwar, whose organization leads Hawaii’s tourism marketing to the U.S. mainland.
The press to attract travelers is a dramatic departure from the mixed messages prospective visitors received in the weeks and months after the devastating fires, said Mufi Hannemann, chairman of the board that governs the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
In a series of stories this week, Civil Beat is reflecting on what’s happened in the year since wildfires swept through Maui and what’s ahead for the island and its people.
Initially, tourists thought they should stay away from Maui, Hannemann recalls. Later they were told to come to Maui but not to West Maui. Then they were told to come, but to be sensitive to what residents were going through, as part of a “Malama Maui” campaign.
Now tourism officials are rolling out an unequivocal welcome mat, especially for potential visitors from the Los Angeles area, Hannemann says. The authority is hoping to make mixed messages a thing of the past, he said.
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“We really feel all of that is behind us,” Hannemann said.
Workforce And Air Service Decline As Visitor Base Shrinks
Tourism executives on Maui are facing multiple problems as tourism lags.
One critical issue involves workforce, said Lisa Paulson, executive director of the Maui Hotel and Lodging Association. The island’s hotel workforce has declined by 5,600 since the fires, she said. And with housing prices escalating, it’s hard to recruit new workers to the island, she said.
The lack of workers is so bad that some hotels are considering outsourcing certain jobs to third-parties instead of relying on hotel employees, Paulson said. That creates fewer in-house hotel jobs, which drives more people out of the workforce. It’s all part of what Paulson describes as a downward vicious spiral.
“It’s like a dog chasing it’s tail,” she said. “Where does the solution insert itself?”
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Another vicious spiral involves airline seats to Maui. Airline assets are by definition mobile: if a route isn’t popular, airlines can move a smaller plane to serve it or eliminate the service altogether. That means a smaller supply of seats for travelers — and potentially higher fares for those seats, which affects demand, and so on.
“The challenge with airlines is their assets are moveable, so they can move their assets where demand is,” HVCB’s Talwar said.
In July 2023, a month before wildfires destroyed much of Lahaina, U.S air travelers had booked more than 130,000 seats to Hawaii heading into the fall and winter, including 25,943 for the prime December holiday season. This past July, the numbers were approximately 96,000 overall, and just 18,656 booked for December.
According to Paulson, Maui’s passenger air capacity is down 16% since before the fires. Much of that involves service to the key Los Angeles market, Talwar said. Losing the LA seats is especially problematic, he said, because LA serves as a gateway to Hawaii, serving travelers from destinations further east as well as those from Southern California.
“If we lose flights from LA, it’s a double whammy,” he said.
But regaining air travelers poses a major challenge. Short term, airline bookings for Maui through the end of the year are below levels reported in July 2023, the tourism authority reports. And some softness could remain for years.
A recent Hawaii Tourism Authority study found that over a third of air travelers interviewed in May said the Maui wildfires will impact their likelihood of visiting Hawaii in the next two years. Eight percent said they previously were likely to visit but are “no longer likely to visit in the next two years due to the fires.”
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Karli Rose Wilson, owner of To Be Organics in Wailuku, said revenue is down 25% compared to last year, as tourism on the island lags. (Stewart Yerton/Civil Beat/2024)
It’s not just big businesses like resorts and airlines that are feeling the pinch. For small business owners like Karli Rose Wilson, the drop in visitors has meant a substantial decline in her business. The owner of To Be Organics, Wilson manufactures high-end bath, body and skin care products at a design studio in Wailuku.
Wilson normally sells her products wholesale to boutiques, hotels, meeting planners and the like. After the fires, Wilson said, she shut down her factory and and shop for about three weeks and used the space for people to drop off relief supplies. Wilson’s husband, a former chef who now works with To Be, volunteered cooking meals for fire survivors.
After reopening in September, Wilson pivoted from her business-to-business model to sell more products on line. The holidays and first quarter of 2024 were good for To Be, she says, as people rallied to support small Maui-based businesses.
This ongoing series explores where Hawaii’s economy is headed and whether it can grow beyond tourism.
But that business has fallen off, and the normal influx of summer tourists hasn’t come this year.
“We’re all used to the seasonal fluctuations,” she said. “We were waiting for summer to happen at the end of June. But there was nothing. It was crickets. We never really got that summer season.”
So instead of a boost to carry To Be into the holiday season, the company has seen a decline of about 25% compared with last year, she said.
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Corporate Meetings and Incentive Travel Targeted For 2025
The tourism authority and HVCB’s push in Los Angeles harkens back to a similar effort launched after the 2008 financial crisis, Talwar said. The idea is not simply to saturate the market but to use behavioral data to target advertising to potential visitors.
Talwar said the campaign will involve paid social media ads and non-skippable commercials appearing on smart TVs, but he declined to say much more. Hotels will be encouraged to bolster the advertising with their own ads and promotions
“I don’t want to go into too many details because it’s a competitive market,” he said.
The visitors bureau is also looking to corporate meetings and incentive travel to fill hotel rooms, restaurants and ballrooms. Travel paid for by companies for corporate retreats and as rewards for top performers can be especially lucrative, Talwar said.
And it’s not just money for rooms and food and beverage.
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With all their travel and lodging expenses paid, pampered corporate travelers often have extra cash for shopping, spas and other activities, Talwar said.
“We see a much higher spend from them,” he said.
For hotels, booking groups in advance enables them to better manage cash flow and staffing.
And with team-building exercises often scheduled for corporate meeting and incentive trips, such travelers are likely to engage in the volunteer activities that HTA promotes as part of its Malama Hawaii campaign.
To secure more such travel for Maui, the HVCB is hosting a trip to Maui in December for decision makers for what Talway described as “key accounts,” such as corporations and industry groups. In August 2025, Maui is planning to host some 250 key meeting and incentive planners, Talwar said.
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Wilson said To Be has benefitted in the past from corporate planners buying her luxury, locally made creams, oils and candles to give away as gifts. So boosting such travel will help her and other small Maui businesses that rely on tourists.
Asked whether she and her peers can survive until the new initiatives gain traction, Wilson expressed optimism.
“On Maui, I feel like we’re resilient. We’re a strong community,” she said. “As entrepreneurs, this is part of the journey — to overcome these obstacles, no matter what form they come in. And the festive season is right around the corner.”
Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
“Hawaii’s Changing Economy” is supported by a grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation as part of its CHANGE Framework project.
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(BIVN) – YAS Fest, aka the Youth Art Series Festival, is returning to Kalākaua Park in Downtown Hilo.
The East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center is hosting the event on Saturday, March 14th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Keiki and their families will be treated to an exciting array of performances, craft and information booths, and art activities,” a press release promoted.
From event organizers:
YAS Fest brings together local organizations dedicated to providing arts opportunities to keiki and teens from around Hawaiʻi Island. By spotlighting their activities, YAS Fest celebrates the importance of arts education for everyone.
Booths include the Hilo High School Art Club, Hawaiʻi Handweavers’ Hui, Friends of the Palace Theatre, and over a dozen more.
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Headlining the performers is HAAStile (a teen rock band from Hawaiʻi Academy of Arts and Sciences, directed by Trever Veilleux). Audiences will also enjoy performances by Big Wave Dance Academy, Aloha Teen Theatre, N2 Dance, Hawaii’s Volcano Circus, Prince Dance Institute, and Kona Dance and Performing Arts.
YAS Fest is made possible by support from County Council District 2 and Coldwell Banker Island Properties. EHCC also thanks KTA Super Stores, Kelsey Ito, and Lō‘ihi Studios for their contributions.
Says YAS Fest organizer Kellie Miyazu, who is EHCC’s Youth Education Director, “Last year we had around 300 visitors to the first YAS Fest. There was a lot of nice feedback from visitors, and also from the organizations who were able to network with each other and the community. We’re expecting an even more successful festival this year.”
Visitors are also encouraged to stop by the EHCC patio across the street to learn more about EHCC’s vision for the year and how community support helps keep EHCC’s unique gallery and keiki programs accessible to all.
For more information, visit EHCC online at ehcc.org, call 961-5711, or visit EHCC at 141 Kalakaua Street. Current gallery and office hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday noon to 6 p.m.
A boy was killed after being struck by a vehicle today in Hawaii Kai, police said.
At about 11:02 a.m., a 37-year-old woman “was attempting to travel northbound” on Kukuau Place when the vehicle hit a boy who was in the road in front of the vehicle, according to a Honolulu Police Department’s Traffic Division news release. The child was taken to a hospital in critical conition where he was pronounced dead.
The driver remained at the scene and was uninjured, police said.
HPD did not release the boy’s age or say whether speed, drugs or alcohol were possible factors in the collision.
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This was Oahu’s ninth fatality in 2026, compared with 15 at the same time last year.
Leaders from Pacific Island nations and territories gathered this week at the East-West Center in Manoa for an inaugural diplomatic and business summit aimed at promoting private sector investments and contracts across island communities in Oceania.
Through Monday and Tuesday the Pacific Agenda summit brought representatives from more than a dozen countries and more than 80 companies, as presidents and prime ministers from across the region rubbed shoulders and held meetings with American corporate executives, investors and experts to discuss everything from infrastructure, energy, tourism, telecommunications and satellite technology.
Among the companies participating were national giants like Salesforce, Boeing, Google, SpaceX and JP Morgan along with local companies like L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, Hawaiian Airlines and Hawaiian Electric.
“Over these past two days, we have listened and shared through the roundtables and dialogues,” said Solomon Islands Prime Minister and Pacific Islands Forum Chair Jeremiah Manele as the summit wrapped up Tuesday evening. “I have noted some candid and frank discussions centered on the topics of this summit. Whilst the past and present may have influenced our perspectives, what we take forward as partners in commercial diplomacy following this summit is critical. Indeed, investment and security are inseparable and critical for prosperity.”
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The summit was hosted and co-organized by the East-West Center, U.S. State Department and Oahu-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. It’s part of a long effort that is in part aimed at countering China’s growing influence across the Pacific Islands as the U.S. and its allies work to maintain a footing in strategically important island chains.
Many Pacific Island countries have signed onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a series of Beijing-funded infrastructure projects aimed at promoting trade with China. Some analysts argue that many of the projects are “dual use” endeavors that also may be supporting Chinese intelligence and military operations in the region.
“We’ve seen other countries coming in the Pacific in quite an aggressive manner,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. “And in a sense, maybe that’s not a bad thing, and it’s given us a little bit of a kick in the butt to up our game in this region.”
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that it’s been something he’s brought up frequently with American officials, saying that U.S. government agencies are “helping us build infrastructure, schools, health care facilities, roads. But when it comes to private sector, we don’t see you. You’re absent, but China’s there. So what we want to see is we want to see U.S. investment. We want to see Taiwanese investment. We want to see Japanese investment in our islands. We want to see Australian investment.”
The U.S. military has been investing heavily in Palau on infrastructure to support its operations as it pursues port renovations, building radars and stockpiling weapons and equipment for a potential Pacific conflict.
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It also has begun building a new fuel depot in Papua New Guinea to offset effects of the ongoing shutdown of Red Hill and working on airstrips and other facilities across the region.
INDOPACOM Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo told attendees and the summit “we do need you in the private sector to move in and to help us build the vibrant commerce that brings this infrastructure to life. I ask you to work with our partners to develop and connect markets, to lower risk, to enhance transparency and to ensure a level playing field.”
As the summit concluded, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency announced it would fund a “hospital relocation project feasibility study” around Palau’s Belau National Hospital — the only hospital in the small island nation — in hopes of rebuilding and modernizing the aging facility, with local company Architects Hawaii Ltd. taking on the work.
Several other Pacific Island leaders told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser they had reached memorandums of understanding with companies to work on future projects across the region. Manele said top issues for island communities included “whether our child has electricity to study at night and whether farmers can reach markets, whether digital connections allow young people to participate in the global economy.”
Gov. Josh Green, who sits on the EWC’s board of governors, called the summit “an extraordinary success from the East-West Center perspective to gather all of these leaders … a lot of serious business partners that are interested in looking at Hawaii as a potential bridge deep into the Pacific.”
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Landau said that he foresees looking to the EWC more to engage with Pacific Island nations, saying “the location here in Hawaii makes it a natural choice.” But he said that it would ultimately take years as deals discussed at the summit actually take shape before anyone can measure the impact of the summit.
“We welcome the realignment of foreign policy, and this is the first step in engaging us,” Tongan Prime Minister Fatafehi Fakafanua told the Star-Advertiser. “I think it’s a smart move to use the private sector to encourage investment into the Pacific. Evidently, there is not that much U.S. investment in the Pacific Islands, and we think this is a great catalyst for us to deepen our relationship.”
During closing remarks, Manele told Landau he would like him to “to help us with the establishment of a Pacific trade investment office in the U.S. similar to those that we have in New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan and in Geneva. It will greatly help our efforts in connecting trade and investment opportunities for us into the future.”
But while Pacific Island leaders welcomed the attention of American officials and companies, many still have deep disagreements with the United States. This month President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which allowed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Trump and much of his Cabinet have insisted that climate change is a hoax. The White House has been rolling back environmental regulations while seeking to boost production of fossil fuels, encouraging other countries to import American oil and coal and deriding renewable energy sources.
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In a keynote opening the summit, Manele said “climate change remains the greatest security threat impacting our livelihoods, communities and economic prosperity. Rising seas and intensifying disasters erode development gains and strain national budgets. A flooded school or damaged hospital is not only a humanitarian issue, that is strategic one.”
Fakafanua said that during the conference his delegation had conversations with an American company on the prospect of underwater geothermal energy, a renewable source that could help Tonga become less dependent on imported fossil fuels.
“United States administration has prioritized some key areas that they’re focusing on,” Fakafanua said. “But at the same time, it’s a free conversation, and we’re also putting on the table our own priorities.”
