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Some Hawaii locals want tourists to stay away for good. Do they have a point?

“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.

What’s happening

In the aftermath of the devastating wildfire that killed more than 110 people on Maui last week, Hawaii officials are urging visitors to avoid coming to the island in order to give locals an opportunity to recover. The few tourists who haven’t heeded that guidance have been the target of intense criticism from locals.

This situation is an extreme example of a much broader tension that has existed for decades between Hawaii residents and the millions of visitors who are drawn to the state’s lush tropical forests and stunning beaches each year.

The tourism industry makes up about a quarter of Hawaii’s economy and supports roughly a third of the total jobs in the state. More than 10 million people visited Hawaii in 2019, dramatically outnumbering the state’s 1.4 million residents.

The push and pull of tourism has been especially stark over the past few years, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Though income from visitors fell dramatically when the state imposed strict travel restrictions to control the spread of the virus in 2020, residents were provided what one local called “one deep breath of air,” without a flood of tourists clogging the roads, beaches and hiking trails. But tourism bounced back rapidly once the state opened back up. By last year, visitor numbers were back near pre-pandemic levels, and travelers were spending even more money than they were before.

Why there’s debate

Hawaii residents' views of tourism hit a record low in the midst of the industry’s post-pandemic rebound, with half the residents surveyed saying they don’t believe the benefits outweigh the problems it creates. Some locals , many of them of Native Hawaiian descent, have gone so far as to argue that travelers should cross Hawaii off of their future itineraries for good.

Tourism is seen as one of several factors that allowed the Maui fire to become so deadly. But travelers have been more directly blamed for some of the state’s many enduring problems, including a severe housing crisis , water shortages, environmental degradation and the dilution of Native Hawaiian culture. There’s a cynical view that the state effectively belongs to tourists , rather than the people who actually call it home.

The industry’s defenders argue that tourism, for all of the issues it creates, is still a major asset for the people who call Hawaii home. They say the state simply couldn’t survive without the billions of dollars in spending and tax revenue that travelers bring into the islands every year.

The state’s leaders have also worked to reimagine tourism over the past few years around the concept of mālama (Hawaiian for “giving back”) by emphasizing more sustainable types of travel, appreciation for Native culture and respect for local residents.

What’s next

The task of rebuilding areas of Maui destroyed by the fire is expected to cost upward of $5 billion . Hawaii’s Gov. Josh Green has said the state won’t allow the disaster to result in a “land grab” by outside developers, but some locals are concerned that they could be priced out by the time the recovery effort is complete.

Perspectives

No amount of money is worth the degradation the state has suffered

“Certain Americans seem to live in an impenetrable bubble where they don’t even seem to register the suffering of people who don’t look or live like them. … Could [Hawaii] use the extra tourism money? Yes. But apparently, some tourists clearly don’t know how to conduct themselves in someone else’s house.” — Ian Kumamoto, HuffPost

Tourism is even more vital as the state recovers from disaster

“Unlike other forms of economic development, travel and tourism have shown resilience through many different types of crises. … Tourism is an experience that is unique to the human condition. It sustains our hopes and dreams, and offers relaxation and tranquility, or excitement and adventure, through good times and bad.” — Rich Harrill, Conversation

Hawaii will always welcome the right kinds of visitors

“Hey, we would love you to come, but remember this is our home. You have to take care of this place.” — Mondy Jamshidi-Kent, a professor of travel management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, to Bloomberg

Tourism has helped create a severe cost of living crisis for locals

“With every resort and vacation home that pops up on the islands, more and more native Pacific Islanders are being pushed into homeless camps that litter the island.” — Jasmine Osby, Travel Noire

Tourism allowed Hawaii to develop a modern economy that raised standards of living throughout the state

“The tourism economy provided more than the plantations could. It lifted many people into the middle class, addressed some key social inequities, and brought about a modernization of Hawaii that has improved the quality of life for many people.” — Amy Asselbaye, Sunshine Topping, Erika Lacro, Honolulu Civil Beat

Money spent in Hawaii doesn’t always benefit Hawaii

“There’s an illusion that Hawaiʻi relies on tourism to survive. The complicated reality is that most of the corporations operating here are internationally owned, and the money they earn never seems to trickle down.” — Keoni DeFranco, Washington Post

The state’s new approach can maximize the benefits of tourism while reducing its harms

“Visitors want authentic, they want real, but they don’t even know what that looks like. This shift allows people and our culture to be the center of the industry. Hawaii is one of the biggest tourism markets in the country and could potentially be a model for what a Native-run model of tourism looks like, one that gives more than it takes.” — Kūhiō Lewis, president and chief executive of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, to New York Times

Photo Illustration by Ann Kim for Yahoo News; photos: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images, Getty Images (3)

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Community Voice

How Molokai Can Respond To Tourism, Gentrification And Inequity

As the world's special places continue to disappear, this island home’s ability to cling to its values is of important relevance.

By Todd Yamashita

April 20, 2022 · 4 min read

About the Author

Todd Yamashita

What’s missing from the map below? Hint: It’s the island of Molokai.

The map image is made from parts of an old Hawaii postcard deconstructed and reconstructed to emphasize my point.

Much more than ever, when people hear I’m from Molokai they remark on how it must be special to come from a place where visitors need to be invited.

When I first began to hear this more than a decade ago, I was polite about the small island of Molokai with its population of 7,400, being possibly confused with the privately owned island of Niihau that hosts a population of roughly 130 Hawaiians. Was it confusion?

A bold hand-painted sign in town reads “Tourists Not Welcome.” The other side of the sign reads “Visit, Spend, Go Home” and faces outgoing visitors heading back toward the Hoolehua airport. It’s been a few years now and the sign continues its prominent display from a homestead lot by the highway.

Before you get on the bandwagon of discussing the civility of this particularly polarizing sign, let’s instead realize it is a symptom of a community under pressure.

I’m here to report that the reintroduction of tourism after a two year hiatus has created an anxious response from this community.

The root cause? Gentrification.

Let me explain.

‘Stubborn  Resilience’

Look on Zillow. There are no single-family homes available for sale because the urban exodus created by remote work has led people to relocate here.

We have one airline we can no longer afford. Tourists eager to return have snatched up every discounted seat weeks and sometimes months ahead. More so than ever, locals who need to book essential travel are lucky to find an open seat at all.

Residents like me who work part time off island no longer have that option. Members from my own family have had major medical procedures set back by months due to seat availability and scheduling issues.

If you know Molokai, however, you know about our stubborn resilience. We are also known to be resourceful.

Over a dozen community members and leaders including state Sen. Lynn DeCoite, Maui County Council Finance Chair Keani Rawlins-Fernandez and Hawaiian rights activist Walter Ritte came together recently as participants of the Destination Management Action Plan or DMAP, a statewide project administered by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

The conversation was, yes, heated at times (this is Molokai, folks). But when it finally carried on after several hours of debate, this scrappy group came up with something quite surprising.

The Molokai group, in meeting overtime, listed at least three items worth highlighting:

• that Molokai, as a destination, be removed from all future HTA marketing efforts;
• that the single HTA position on Molokai, that was axed during the pandemic, be restored; and finally
• that HTA support community efforts in understanding visitor impacts in order to determine Molokai’s visitor capacity.

The final overarching ask? That these ideas be brought directly out of committee to the general public so that the community here can engage and decide what is best for itself.

But will Molokai disappear if removed from the map?

Molokai had the lowest unemployment in the state during the pandemic. Sustainable Molokai, a local NGO known for its broad-reaching sustainability efforts, has doubled its employee base to over 30 people with other organizations following their lead.

We are witnessing the return of our youth engaged in islandwide community building efforts that include conservation, agriculture, renewable energy and workforce development.

Caring for the people, places and the things we love — we are stubborn about that, too. As the world’s special places continue to disappear, Molokai’s ability to cling to its values is of important relevance.

Molokai’s ability to cling to its values is of important relevance.

Indeed Molokai is removing itself from one map and placing itself onto another.  A map that points to a place that isn’t necessarily a destination, but a place that is more well known: home.

I can’t claim to know how things here will work out. But I do know, like us, there are communities all over Hawaii suffering the deep impacts of tourism, gentrification and inequity.

This is just to let you know we’re in it, too. That perhaps there are creative alternatives to this idea that Hawaii needs to be a destination for someone else, from somewhere else.

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Community Voices aims to encourage broad discussion on many topics of community interest. It’s kind of a cross between Letters to the Editor and op-eds. This is your space to talk about important issues or interesting people who are making a difference in our world. Column lengths should be no more than 800 words and we need a photo of the author and a bio. We welcome video commentary and other multimedia formats. Send to [email protected] . The opinions and information expressed in Community Voices are solely those of the authors and not Civil Beat.

Read this next:

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By David Gierlach · April 21, 2022 · 4 min read

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Todd Yamashita is a fourth-generation resident of Molokai and father of two boys. He sailed on the Hokulea Worldwide Voyage, is board president of Hoahu Energy Cooperative Molokai, publisher of the Molokai Dispatch, Molokai operations manager for Hawaii Marine Animal Response, and is a published children's book author, an instructor, and curriculum developer for Molokai youth.

Latest Comments (0)

Reading your bio you are a real asset to your community and global society as a role model. Problem you know is the lethargy of community members that don't want to work bringing everything down. We all gotta keep working bit by bit, and we all gotta let go of the enticing vices to get to what is real, really good for ourselves, our community, our society. Keep up the good work. consider recruiting a few pilots and start a charter service. Offer one week eco-learning to schools around the globe to come share culture with y'all.

time4truth · 2 years ago

Best keep holding hta's feet to the fire to ensure that these changes spoken about are brought forth ASAP.

Scotty_Poppins · 2 years ago

Molokai’s problems are a microcosm of dramatic structural problems in Hawai’i and other tourist zones. The dramatic side effects of overtourism -and increased global mobility - of capital are becoming mainstream. You describe it really well. If we want to fight this, as communities in Hawai’i Nei, we need to "act local" . And I think we also need to "think global" and tackle the larger systemic issues. Otherwise there is a danger of Molokai becoming another community simply wanting to hide from this world, suppressing the real issues.

Keaukaha · 2 years ago

About IDEAS

IDEAS is the place you'll find essays, analysis and opinion on public affairs in Hawaii. We want to showcase smart ideas about the future of Hawaii, from the state's sharpest thinkers, to stretch our collective thinking about a problem or an issue. Email [email protected] to submit an idea.

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Hawaii locals beg tourists to stay home, citing COVID-19 concerns

“When tourism came back, it came back with a vengeance."

Many Hawaii locals have been asking tourists to stop visiting the islands during the pandemic, and the governor is now echoing their calls .

"It is a risky time to be traveling right now," Gov. David Ige said at a press conference on Monday . "We know that the visitors who choose to come to the islands will not have the typical kind of holiday that they expect to get when they visit Hawaii."

The delta variant is ravaging Hawaii, with the state having more confirmed cases than at any point in the pandemic. Averaging more than 700 cases a day, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine , roughly 72% of the state's hospital beds are full.

Despite the growing number of cases across the country, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates, tourism is quickly matching pre-pandemic levels. In June 2019, there were 277,930 daily visitors on average, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority . In June 2021, that figure was back up to 255,936.

Only about 62% of Hawaii residents are fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins, creating a growing risk for those who remain unvaccinated as tourism ramps back up.

MORE: COVID-19 live updates: Hawaii governor urges tourists to stay away

Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO John De Fries told ABC News that the visitor experience to the state will not be the same. Restrictions are in place that reduce restaurant capacity, and many events or venues are simply closed.

De Fries added that tourism in Hawaii tends to slow toward the end of the summer anyway. But many residents have said for quite some time that wide-reaching tourism has been a danger to locals.

"During our lockdown in 2020, we were able to see what Hawaii was like without tourists and we realized the adverse impacts that tourism is having on our islands," said Healani Sonoda-Pale, a spokesperson for the local advocacy group Ka Lahui Hawaii. "When tourism came back, it came back with a vengeance."

MORE: Teen social media stars in uphill battle against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

During the lockdown, Sonoda-Pale and other Hawaiians enjoyed empty beaches, emptier streets, short lines at grocery stores and the comfort of knowing that delicate ecosystems were safer. Tourism was taking a toll on the natural environment and the well-being of locals and native Hawaiians, according to the HTA.

But when the islands began to loosen restrictions during the summer, coronavirus cases began to climb, and endangered animals quickly became playthings for tourists.

The island has had to increase the patrolling of Turtle Beach, where sea turtles were being harassed by hundreds of tourists , and one visitor was fined $500 for touching endangered monk seals , as more videos of tourists posing with the Hawaiian animals has gone.

"They don't come here with any kind of respect or idea of some of the things that they're doing are actually hurting our environment, or hurting our communities and hurting the residents and the Kanaka Maoli people here," Sonoda-Pale said.

MORE: Mom urges masks in school after son experiences rare COVID-19 complication

However, tourism doesn't seem to be going away any time soon -- it's the largest source of private capital for Hawaii's economy, according to the HTA . But Sonoda-Pale said the pandemic is a perfect time to reimagine the community's relationship to tourism.

Before the pandemic, which highlighted the island's alarming reliance on tourism, De Fries said the HTA has been attempting to make moves toward educating visitors on the culture and the treatment of the land and people.

"Malama means 'to care for, to protect, to nurture,'" said De Fries. "If you care about Hawaii, when you travel here, you must understand the ways in which we Malama. There's a heightened level of visitor awareness and appreciation and sensitivity that we are committed to sharing with the visitor."

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Hawaii Welcomes Back Tourists—and Reignites Old Tensions

F or most of this year, Honolulu’s Waiola Shave Ice had one window open for business, instead of the usual two. The shop’s neon-blue storefront, decorated with rainbows and anthropomorphic shave-ice statues, still stands out against the surrounding residential buildings, but since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have barely been enough customers to sustain a single line. On a Monday in late October, as the shop’s 50-year-old owner Jerry Lee served up guava and cotton candy-flavored shave ice atop heaps of mochi and ice cream, the flow of customers was at a trickle.

For Lee, it’s easy to spot which of his customers are locals and which are tourists. “A local will know exactly what they want. They always get the same thing without looking at the menu. But tourists, they’ll look and get overwhelmed at first, asking questions,” says Lee, whose family has owned the business since the early 1980s. Before the pandemic, about half of the shop’s customers were tourists. After Hawaii Governor David Y. Ige in March instituted a mandatory two-week self-quarantine for all people arriving or returning to the state, thus preventing most tourism, Lee had to cut his staff in half and shrink his menu.

Now, Lee can be found serving customers himself most days, and says he’s noticed a small surge in business since the state of Hawaii opened back up to mainland U.S. tourists on Oct. 15. He hopes the trend continues. “Tourists coming back…it’s a great thing,” he says. “Every little bit helps.”

Lee is far from alone in his eagerness to see tourists return to Hawaii. With the archipelago’s resident population at approximately 1.4 million and an average 249,021 daily visitors in 2019, losing tourists meant suddenly losing about 15% of the total number of people on the islands. Tourism, the single largest source of private capital for the state’s economy, brought in $17.75 billion last year, so it’s not surprising that Hawaii is among the U.S. states hit hardest by the pandemic. More than one out of six jobs were gone by August, and though other tourism-dependent states, like Nevada, have recovered the majority of leisure and hospitality jobs lost between February and April, Hawaii is still lagging . Last week, Kai Kahele won the House race for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district, becoming the second Native Hawaiian to be elected to Congress. Getting through the coronavirus pandemic and its accompanying recession is a top priority for Kahele. “It is going to need federal support, sustained federal financial resources,” Kahele told the Associated Press .

But the return of tourists also exposes a long-simmering tension over the role of tourism in Hawaiian life—and adds an extra dose of concern: Both Wednesday and Thursday of last week saw record highs of new COVID-19 infections in the United States, and many are concerned that letting outside visitors onto the islands will be a step backwards for public health.

On Oct. 15, the state began its pre-arrival testing program, allowing U.S. visitors who showed proof of a negative COVID-19 test from up to three days before their departure to enter the islands without undergoing the two-week self-quarantine. On Nov. 4, the program expanded to include visitors from Japan, Hawaii’s other top tourism market. “The state does not expect an immediate flood of travelers,” the governor’s office said in a statement , and lieutenant governor Josh Green has announced that he expects 5,000 to 8,000 visitors arriving each day with the new program in place.

Concerned that visitors won’t follow social-distancing rules and might bring with them a rise in cases, many residents of the islands are hesitant about visitors, even with those restrictions. They know how quickly gains can be erased: The island of Lanai had zero recorded cases of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic until Oct. 20, when three employees at the Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay and a healthcare worker tested positive. These four cases turned into a much larger outbreak , reaching a count of nearly 80 in just six days.

On a Tuesday afternoon at Ala Moana Beach Park , between downtown Honolulu and the tourist-centric Waikiki neighborhood, the divide between residents was clear. “We need the tourists,” said local Mel Monico, as he cast a fishing line. “They should be testing everybody, but we need them here.”

Mo Freitas, a lifeguard who was on duty, shared a similar sentiment. “It was a nice break for lifeguards when they weren’t here, but it’s a good thing that they’re returning, for our businesses and for many people on the island,” said Freitas.

But just a few yards away from the sand, Rudy Perucho, putting his surfboard back in his car, expressed a very different view about the reopening. Perucho, who has worked at the Oahu Transit Services for over a decade, says he has deeper concerns about the return of tourists. “Some people come and they don’t respect the rules or have much regard for the land,” he says, “and they don’t recognize the fact that this land isn’t theirs to begin with.”

What Perucho describes is a feeling that isn’t unique to this moment in time; it’s a friction that has been present in Hawaii for centuries. Historians believe that Polynesians inhabited the Hawaiian islands as early as 400 C.E., more than 1,300 years before British explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to set foot there. Throughout the 1800s, Christian missionaries, western traders and whalers all flocked to the islands, bringing with them venereal diseases, mosquitoes, smallpox, measles and more. At the time of Cook’s arrival, the Native Hawaiian population had been about 300,000. By halfway through the 19th century, it had diminished by more than 75%, to 70,000. In 1893, businessmen and sugar barons illegally overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii, leading to its annexation as a U.S. territory. Even after Hawaii’s eventual acceptance to the union as the 50th state, tensions did not disappear. As recently as last year, the proposal of a $1.4 billion observatory on Mauna Kea, the state’s highest peak and a sacred site for Native Hawaiians, led to a movement of protests against it.

This tortured history is on Perucho’s mind today, he says, as visitors once again come to the islands at a fragile moment. He holds no hostility toward visitors—“I still welcome everyone,” he says, in the Aloha Spirit—but some officials are worried that other locals may be less tempered in their reaction. In the early days of the pandemic, there were public altercations between locals and visitors who took advantage of cheap airfare to the islands, and in recent months, Hawaii residents have been enjoying time at their beaches and sites without tourists . Not all officials are in agreement with the pre-arrival testing program, either. Three of the state’s island mayors have said they want tourists to show a second negative test after arrival in order to bypass the two-week quarantine, and Big Island Mayor Harry Kim has said one test won’t be enough for him to lift the quarantine for Big Island visitors.

“My greatest concern is that there is going to be a backlash from locals against the visitors,” says Hawaii state senator Glenn Wakai, chair of the Hawaii Senate’s Committee on Economic Development, Tourism and Technology. It’s a tricky balance, argues Wakai, to maintain public health while also opening up the economy. “In the worst-case scenario, our tourists that we invite here, perhaps some of them will be COVID-positive, and that unfortunately leads to a spike in infections,” he says. “I’m really afraid that the local folks here are going to have a very anti-tourism sentiment if that in fact plays out.”

It might be too early to tell whether the return of U.S. mainland tourists has led to a spike, and the opening to Japanese tourists “might add a little too much fuel to the fire,” says Wakai.

But on a recent day at Menehune Mac Candies, the oldest existing manufacturer of macadamia nut candies in Hawaii, none of that wariness could be found. Susan Morita, the factory’s executive chocolate taster, was ready and waiting to welcome the first round of tourists back to the gift shop, which was empty of customers but full of handmade sweets and snacks.

Since the start of the pandemic, Menehune Mac has lost about 95% of their business. Neal Arakaki, Morita’s brother and president of the company, says that number includes both most of his wholesale clients—including Neiman Marcus and several local hotels—and visitors to the factory’s gift shop. “I used to have Japanese tour buses in here doing factory tours all the time, that was my bread and butter,” says Arakaki.

It’s clear how different times are now, as Arakaki sits in a room at the back of the empty factory and admits he doesn’t quite know what’s next for the family-owned business. “This pandemic, it’s economic and psychological,” he says. Family members had to take over production during their lowest slump in business, when they had to furlough their crew of chocolate makers.

This year has shown how hard it is to make predictions about anything from public health to the economy, and now Arakaki is reluctant to guess what comes next, even about whether the business survives at all. “It’s a day-to-day thing,” he says. The return of tourism is a similarly unpredictable situation—but, with or without local buy-in, Hawaii is about to find out how it goes.

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Write to Anna Purna Kambhampaty / Honolulu at [email protected]

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

‘Let Maui heal’: Grieving Hawaii residents want tourists to go home

Maui’s tourism machine never stops, but residents who are reeling from wildfires need a break

While the Maui wildfires became the deadliest in the U.S. in a century, the 1,500-acre resort hub of Wailea was salvaging business as best as it could.

South Maui properties from premium brands such as the Four Seasons, Hyatt, Marriott and Waldorf Astoria were advised to shelter their guests, keep the roads clear and use their hospitality infrastructure to support relief efforts.

With Lahaina in crisis, workers who could get to their jobs faced difficult decisions. For one dancer in luau shows, that meant deciding whether to show up for a shorthanded crew or spend time cooking and making Costco runs for displaced family members. Two of his siblings lost their homes. His wife’s auntie lost her life. In an interview with The Washington Post, the performer said he felt remorse over going into work. He spoke with the conditions that he remain anonymous and that his employer not be named to protect his night job.

Maui wildfire updates

“I shouldn’t be here,” the man said he was thinking while dancing. “Everyone that I told that I had to work, they were in shock. Like, ‘Why are you working?’ They couldn’t believe that a luau is going down. It’s embarrassing. I should be there for my community.”

As Maui reckons with catastrophe , many residents have been questioning whether the tourism businesses that fund their livelihoods should continue during a tragedy.

“There are two camps,” said Somerset Tullius, a Los Angeles resident who was born and raised on Maui and who flew home to the island the day after the fires to help her family. When she landed, she started working with the Maui Rapid Response Instagram page to coordinate relief efforts.

“One camp is, ‘Let Maui heal, we don’t need you here right now,’” Tullius continued. “And the other camp is like, ‘Hold on a second, this is my main form of income. I have to suck it up or else what else am I going to do?’”

For the luau dancer, showing up wasn’t easy.

“I could have said no, but it’s my job, and it’s my responsibility to show up for work,” he said. “But it was hard for me to do. … I wasn’t present while I was dancing. I could only think about my family.”

How to help or donate to Hawaii residents displaced by Maui wildfires

Snorkelers spark controversy

Two days after Lahaina burned to the ground, a 53-foot dive boat departed for a half-day snorkel trip about 15 miles south of the disaster site. From the highway en route to Lahaina, Miki‘ala Makanamaikalani Pua‘a-Freitas — a Maui native and the founder of Kapuna Farms in Waihe’e Valley — spotted the excursion and started recording the scene.

“Shame on this company right here — Maui Snorkeling,” Pua‘a-Freitas said in a video she posted to her Instagram account the next day. “Look at all these tourists just frolicking in the waters off of Lahaina. Unreal.”

In the more than 700 heated comments on the post, Instagram users were divided over whether tourism should go on during a tragedy.

Mark Elmore, the owner of Maui Snorkeling, insists the publicly shamed tour wasn’t actually an example of putting profits over people. The trip, he said in an interview, had been planned before the worst of the fires, and was carried out as a fundraiser. A screenshot of a receipt reviewed by The Washington Post shows a payment of $10,265.88 to the Maui Food Bank , representing 100 percent of the trip’s profit.

“It’s really hard to serve people mai tais when your family and your friends and everyone is suffering.” — Somerset Tullius, a Los Angeles resident who was born and raised on Maui

Elmore’s company is working with PR Security Service, a crisis communications and management firm that focuses on reputation repair and social media response, according to the company’s website . Maui Snorkeling has posted an apology on its website and its Facebook page . The PR firm showed The Post a screenshot of a social media message from Maui Snorkeling to a customer in which the company said it was rescheduling a tour set for the day after the fires and planned to donate all proceeds from its next booking. The message has a timestamp for Aug. 9, well before the Instagram callout was filmed.

Elmore told The Post he wished he had “telegraphed our intentions a little better.” Speaking of the criticism, he said “it came fairly quick and caught me off guard, but I certainly understand.”

For locals, however, the optics of tourists snorkeling were incredibly painful.

“The boat tours that went out to Lahaina the very next day taking people snorkeling was like a stab in the heart,” April Boone, owner of the Tropical Goddess boutique inside the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, said in a text message.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mikiʻala Makanamaikalani Puaʻa-Freitas (@kapunafarms)

Boone, who has been focusing her time on volunteering with relief efforts, says the unfolding tragedy feels as devastating as a terrorist attack. She doesn’t think visitors realize the gravity of the situation, that people working in tourism are still waiting on DNA test results to see if their loved ones were among the 106 fatalities confirmed as of Wednesday morning.

“I think people should respect the Hawaiians [and] Maui and give the locals time to grieve without having to worry about interacting with extra tourists,” Boone said. “This is not Disneyland. This is our home.”

A tourism-driven economy

Even with Lahaina in ashes, tourism is inescapable in Maui.

About 70 percent of every dollar generated in Maui can be attributed to the visitor industry either directly or indirectly, according to the Maui Economic Development Board, which calls tourism “irrefutably the ‘economic engine’ for the County of Maui.” In 2022, total visitor spending on Maui was $5.69 billion , according to the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

“To a degree we are so dependent on other people,” said Native Hawaiian Kaimanamālie Brummel, a former luxury concierge who’s now the director of advancement for Seabury Hall, a private school in Upcountry Maui.

“We’re dependent on people coming here and spending money. We’re dependent on ships coming here,” Brummel said. “We’re not growing our own food, and that’s really frustrating because we never wanted it to be that way.”

Seeing vacations continue unimpeded feels like an added blow.

“The way I’ve been framing it for a really long time is people have felt entitled to our land, to our culture, to our people, and now they’re feeling entitled to our grief,” Brummel said.

Vandalism, tantrums and narcissism: Entitled tourists are out of control

As days pass, Brummel says the community is discovering additional impacts from the fires. The area is home to many eco- and farm tourism businesses, as well as restaurants that rely on travelers’ dollars. At her school, there are students and staff who have lost everything either in the Lahaina fires or those in the Upcountry.

“We were already an isolated, under-resourced community with a lot of people living on the edge of poverty, and now we’ve had this tragedy on top of that,” she said.

‘The rest of Maui is still open’

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) issued an emergency proclamation Sunday declaring that nonessential travel to West Maui was “strongly discouraged.” The proclamation noted that “visitors in West Maui have largely heeded the call to leave the island, and hotels and other accommodations are needed for displaced residents and emergency workers.”

The Hawaii Tourism Authority echoed that message in an update to its website Monday, saying that the stance is in effect through this month. It noted that hotels in the area — which includes Lahaina, Napili, Kaanapali and Kapalua — have temporarily stopped taking future bookings.

But it did not warn travelers away from visiting other parts of Maui, including Kahului, Wailea, Kihei, Hana and Wailuku. Earlier advisories from officials strongly discouraged nonessential travel to the whole island and urged tourists to leave; the narrowed focus on West Maui has led to criticism as locals and advocates ask visitors to stay away. (A spokesman for the authority, T. Ilihia Gionson, did not address a question about that criticism.)

“The lack of empathy and seeming like your vacation is more important than the tragedy … that happened in these people’s lives — that’s what’s upsetting,” said CarrieAnn Randolph, who grew up on Oahu and left Hawaii in 2013, and still has family on the island, as well as the Big Island and Maui. Her cousin lost his Lahaina home in the wildfire.

Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said during a recent news conference that the message has been to avoid West Maui, “but the rest of Maui is still open. We’re not shut down, we’ve not shipped anyone out, we’ve not asked anyone to leave.” Green, the governor, said that if no one traveled to the island, it “would be potentially catastrophic.”

“We probably would see a mass exodus from Maui,” he said.

Tourists are still arriving, lounging by resort pools and posting about their vacations on social media.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by ʻĀina Momona | Moloka’i (@ainamomona)

Tullius said Maui’s dependence on tourism is “very complicated” because workers need to earn money but may also resent visitors for enjoying themselves during such a dark time.

“It’s really hard to serve people mai tais when your family and your friends and everyone is suffering,” she said.

Actor Jason Momoa, who was born in Hawaii, has been one of the most prominent figures to join the chorus of local voices discouraging tourism.

“Maui is not the place to have your vacation right now. DO NOT TRAVEL TO MAUI,” he recently posted on Instagram . “Do not convince yourself that your presence is needed on an island that is suffering this deeply.”

Callback to covid

The pleas are reminiscent of a widespread sentiment felt during the pandemic. Two years ago, as coronavirus cases rose, then-Gov. David Ige (D) asked tourists to stay away. Residents implored the visitors who did come to be respectful amid a spate of bad tourist behavior, including faking vaccination cards and trespassing into clearly marked private property.

That summer, as locals grappled with a water shortage and restrictions on Maui, “stop coming” became a rallying cry on social media. The county’s mayor asked airlines to bring fewer visitors as restaurants and other businesses struggled to keep up with an influx of tourists, the Associated Press reported .

But even with a mandatory 14-day quarantine in place from March to October 2020, then a longer-lasting “Safe Travels” program with protocols that required testing or vaccination , mainlanders continued traveling to Hawaii en masse .

“This conversation intensified during the pandemic, but has been happening for decades prior, possibly since the beginning of the hospitality industry in Hawaii,” said Maui-born Kainoa Horcajo , a cultural adviser and founder of Mo‘olelo Group, a consulting firm specializing in Hawaiian culture and communications.

With the fires intensifying the conversation yet again, Horcajo has heard from both sides of the issue including some calling for a total shutdown of the tourism industry. He understands the argument but believes it would impact “massive amounts of people,” “and that’s creating another disaster where there was just one,” he said.

Business as usual?

With such arguments looming, tour operators find themselves in a double bind.

“There are so many people that have just taken off work, they’ve spent down their vacation days or their companies just closed up out of sensitivity, and they’re asking themselves, ‘We got to open back up. How do we do it in the right way?’” Horcajo said. “I don’t think there is a blanket approach.”

Pua‘a-Freitas, who shared the video of the Maui Snorkeling tour, emphasized she is not opposed to tourism, but called for sensitivity.

“People will never be able to look at these beaches, these waters, these places, these spaces that brought us so much joy and happiness,” she said. “It’s also a place of remembrance for a lot of pain. We can’t just be like, ‘Oh, a few days passed, let’s go back to what we were doing.’ I’m sorry, we’re going to have to all pause and really move forward with a better conscience.”

Helen Taras, office manager of Hana Tours of Maui, says the company began running tours this weekend after being closed for a few days out of respect. “We’re heartbroken about what’s happened, but we also want to help people keep their jobs so we can help them and they can help their family and friends,” she said.

Send us your Maui memories

Kevin Ditamore, co-owner of the tour operator Adventure Maui, said that while his company will be donating 20 percent of the proceeds from Maui bookings for the rest of the year, they’re struggling.

“Just about everything for the first week [of the fires] was canceled, so that was a significant loss,” said Ditamore, who’s lived back and forth between Maui and Kauai for 25 years. He started his business in Lahaina; the office he rented in 2002 is now gone, as are two of the houses where he once lived.

“This also really hurts because it’s coming on the heels of the covid pandemic where we were all closed for a year,” Ditamore added. “We were just in full-blown recovery, and when this happened, it really hurt.”

Horcajo says every individual and family may have to decide for themselves what’s right. That includes tourists.

If someone does want to keep their trip to Maui, Brummel asks them to do so with empathy. Even if they’re staying in or visiting parts of the island that weren’t burned, everyone on the island has been affected heavily. “We are trying to figure out how to welcome and host people while trying to reconcile what this means for our community,” she said.

It’s not the time for a standard beach vacation, she added. Only come if you’re ready to respect the culture in addition to the island’s physical beauty.

“I need people to know that culture is based on this land and the people who live here,” she continued. “You can’t like the culture and the food without loving the people.”

A previous version of this article misstated when the Maui Rapid Response Instagram page was founded and who founded it. Nicole Huguenin started it in March 2020 for pandemic relief efforts. Somerset Tullius is a contributor. This version has been corrected.

Wildfires in Hawaii

What’s happening: After the deadly wildfire in Maui devastated the town of Lahaina, people search for their loved ones as they face the devastation of losing homes , schools and businesses .

How did the fires start? Officials have not announced a cause, though video and data shows it was probably power lines . The spread of nonnative grasses and hurricane-stoked winds could have been factors, along with the indirect influence of climate change .

What areas have been impacted? Fires burned across multiple Hawaiian islands — these maps show where . The town of Lahaina on the island of Maui suffered widespread damage, and historical landmarks across the island were damaged . These photos show the extent of the blaze .

Can I help? Many organizations are accepting donations to assist those affected by the wildfires. Visitors returning to West Maui are encouraged to practice regenerative tourism .

Americans are flocking to Hawaii, but locals don't want tourists visiting now — and some wish they'd stop altogether

• Hawaii is experiencing a surge in travel as visitors flock to the state's popular islands.
• Many locals shared the message: "Don't come here in a pandemic."
• Some Native Hawaiians hope tourists will permanently remove Hawaii from their bucket lists. 

Throughout the summer months of 2020, Kawenaʻulaokalā Kapahua, a Native Hawaiian born in Kailua on the island of Oahu, would trek to Waikiki Beach for surfing.

It was the first time in years Kapahua had seen the popular tourist beach empty.

But a few weeks ago, when he showed up at Waikiki, it was too crowded to surf. The 23-year-old said it was "maddening" how many people were there — with most disregarding Hawaii's public safety restrictions.

"It looked like it did before the pandemic," the 23-year-old graduate student and community organizer told Insider. "But I could count the number of masks on one hand."

Kapahua's experience of tourists on the shores of Waikiki Beach represents the larger surge of tourists entering Hawaii.

From April 3 to April 8, more than 23,000 people arrived in Hawaii every day, according to state travel data . Arrivals peaked on Saturday, April 3, when nearly 29,000 people stepped foot onto one of Hawaii's eight major islands, approaching pre-pandemic tourism levels . 

On Friday, the CDC announced fully vaccinated people can travel domestically. Although Hawaii hasn't adjusted its protocol for vaccinated travelers, the state is already seeing an increase in travelers . 

Native Hawaiians told Insider they fear incoming travelers will cause coronavirus cases to rise and urged travelers not to visit during a pandemic.

Others emphasized deep-rooted issues in Hawaii's tourism industry, and they hope travelers will permanently remove Hawaii from their bucket list.

COVID has hit Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders hard

Storm chasing surfers and body boarders enjoy the waves before the pandemic in honolulu, hawaii. kat wade/getty images.

Camille Slagle has watched the coronavirus disproportionately affect her family, friends, and community.

Slagle, a Native Hawaiian from Kailua on Hawaii's Oahu island, has watched other Native Hawaiians fill essential jobs across the state. She says many in her community have been worried about spreading the virus at home, especially in houses filled with multiple generations.

"I'm terrified and frustrated for Native people," the 21-year-old told Insider. 

Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are among the hardest hit by the coronavirus, according to a study from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders account for 40% of the positive coronavirus cases on the islands, but they only make up 25% of Hawaii's population . 

They're also some of the least vaccinated populations. As of March 16, 8.8% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have received a COVID vaccine compared to 25.4% of Asians and 19.2% of Hawaii's white population, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser . 

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"It's actually terrifying since not everyone is vaccinated yet," Slagle said about the surge of tourists. "People are acting like the virus just doesn't exist anymore." 

But the virus does still exist, and in parts of Hawaii, it's getting worse. Daily new case reports have doubled since late February, and Slagle said she fears CDC's announcement for vaccinated travelers will make things worse.

"Tourists can go home and have happy memories of their trip, but we are left to deal with the deaths, closed businesses, and environmental impacts they have left behind," Slagle said.

Meanwhile, tourism plays an enormous role in Hawaii's economy. In 2019, Hawaii welcomed more than 10 million visitors , and tourism became the state's largest source of private capital  for Hawaii's economy. 

Last October, Governor David Ige launched a pre-travel testing program to encourage travelers to visit. The program allowed visitors to skip the 14-day mandatory quarantine if they brought a negative coronavirus test. Around the same time, a temporary residency program, known as " Movers and Shakas ," launched, and tourism companies enticed visitors with travel incentives and resort bubbles .

But the majority of Hawaii's residents didn't want to welcome back visitors, according to a survey published by the Hawaii Tourism Authority in November.

"My family and I are very frustrated," Slagle said. "I'm happy that some local businesses are able to benefit from the money that tourists are spending, but my motto will always be to prioritize people over profit."

About 65% of surveyed residents said they agreed strongly or somewhat strongly that "people from outside Hawaii should not be visiting right now," and 62% disagreed with the statement, "I am confident that state and county governments can safely re-open my island to visitors from outside the state of Hawaii."

Tippe Morlan, a Kama'aina, or local resident from Kapolei in Oahu, said no one she knows is happy about the influx of tourists.

Morlan attributed those feelings to tourists who behave poorly, whether that's by not wearing masks , breaking mandatory quarantines , or not social distancing.

"My perception of tourism in Hawaii is much more negative after seeing the way people have treated my home, simply because it is a domestic beach destination," the travel blogger told Insider in an email.

Slagle said that marketing Hawaii as a "paradise" and an "escape from daily life" during a pandemic has opened her eyes to Hawaii's problematic tourism industry — an industry that Slagle and Kapahua said has been problematic long before the pandemic. 

Hawaiians against tourism is not new

Dryden Kūʻehuikapono Chien Tzin Seto-Myers said the tourism industry has sold an image of Hawaii centered on coconut shell bras, hula skirts, and Mai Tais.

An image that commodifies Hawaiian culture and hides its colonialist past, Seto-Myers, a 21-year-old Native Hawaiian from Kailua in Oahu, told Insider. 

Locals said their communities rarely benefit from the tourism sector. Native Hawaiians often fill lower-paying service jobs , and many Hawaiians have one or more jobs to survive the state's high cost of living. Meanwhile, overcrowding has harmed their historical landmarks and disrupted fragile ecosystems .

Kapahua said that for some, the ongoing pandemic has increased awareness around the issues of tourism in Hawaii.

"People have been opposed to it for a while, but now even more so given that it's literally life-threatening," he said.  

Slagle said many Americans from the lower 48 states feel entitled to visit, but they rarely take the time to learn the state's history. 

"It's disheartening that such a complex culture has been reduced to a grass skirt and coconut bra, and Native Hawaiians are left to try to educate people about Hawaiian history," Slagle said.

Native Hawaiians had a clear message: Don't visit during the pandemic

"It's hard for me to understand why people emphasize their right to travel over the right for people to live," Seto-Myers said.

Seto-Myers, Kapahua, and Slagle urged people — vaccinated or not — to stop traveling to the state while the pandemic is ongoing. 

As the New York Times reported , Hawaii's residents' thoughts on tourism typically fall into three categories: "absolutists," who want tourism to end; the status quo group who believes "tourism should remain the lifeblood of the economy;" and "the compromisers," or people that think "tourism can and should exist in concert with other sectors like farming, retail, health care, and culture."

The locals who Insider spoke to each fell into one of these categories.

Kapahua wants people to stop traveling to his home. He said he doesn't believe there's a way to ethically visit Hawaii in today's structure. Seto-Meyers agreed but acknowledged that it's an idealist mindset.

While Morlan wishes the state didn't have to rely on tourism so heavily, she said she believes that tourism isn't inherently bad. But she said tourists need to show respect, follow rules, and understand the communities' sentiments toward tourists before booking a trip. 

Slagle stressed that if you do decide to visit Hawaii post-pandemic, research  and learn about Hawaii's history. 

"The vaccine doesn't fix ignorance," Slagle said. "Ignorance is one of the biggest threats that the Hawaiian people face in today's society."

Watch: How COVID-19 is impacting US Army basic training — where training continues with new physical distancing measures

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Tourism Takes A Toll on Native Hawaiians, But Here’s How You Can Help

Enlightened entrepreneurs and activists seek to make tourists more aware and responsible.

(CNN) -- The Hawaii most tourists see is one of azure waters and towering resorts, of “aloha” and “ohana,” and “hula.”

But as it exists now, the powerful tourism industry dictates the lives of Native Hawaiians, often for the worse, said Kyle Kajihiro, a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and activist for the rights of Native Hawaiians.

The tourism industry in  Hawaii  powers its state revenue, but that reliance on tourism has resulted in Native Hawaiians getting priced out of their homes, climate change wreaking havoc on the natural landscape, and a lack of respect for the 50th state that is also the ancestral land of more than half a million people.

“I think that it is too easy for people to visit places like Hawaii,” Kajihiro said. “It conditions visitors to feel entitled.”

The industry must change to improve the futures of Native Hawaiians, Kajihiro told  CNN . He’s one of several residents who have worked to educate visitors and return some elements of Hawaiian culture to the people from whom it originated. If visitors to Hawaii decenter themselves and instead take with them respect and a willingness to learn -- or choose not to visit at all -- then Hawaii may be preserved for the people who have called it home for centuries, activists say.

For many residents, living in Hawaii is no vacation

Tourism is Hawaii’s largest single source of private capital, per the  Hawaii Tourism Authority . Even amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it remains incredibly lucrative: In April alone, visitors to Hawaii spent over $1 billion in the islands, according to a state  report  marking the recovery of tourism since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But what’s profitable for Hawaii’s economy can negatively impact the lives of Native Hawaiians and yearlong residents. To combat drought conditions, residents last year were  asked  to reduce their water consumption or face a fine while large resorts continued to use far more water. There are millions more annual visitors than there are permanent residents – in  2021, there were more than 6.7 million visitors  compared to  1.4 million residents  – which can cause carbon emissions to surge and overuse of its beaches, hiking trails, and other natural wonders. Hawaii has even been called the “ extinction capital of the world ” for the number of species who’ve gone extinct or are at high risk of dying out.

It also has the highest cost of living in the nation, partly due to the state having to import around 90 percent of its goods. Its housing market is one of the most expensive in the country, ProPublica and the  Honolulu Star-Advertiser   reported  in 2020, and with a large demand for land and a limited amount of it, Native Hawaiians can spend decades waiting to reclaim ancestral land, leading some to move from the islands.

“Tourism normalizes and conceals the current dystopian reality experienced by many Kānaka Maoli and the poor immigrant communities in Hawaii,” Kajihiro told  CNN . (Kānaka Maoli is the Hawaiian-language term for Native Hawaiians.)

To empower Native Hawaiians and return some of their rights, the tourism industry needs to change, beginning with its ethos, Kajihiro said.

‘DeTours’ show the real history of Hawaii beyond the beach

In an effort to reclaim the histories of Hawaii and educate residents and visitors about the impacts of colonization, militarization, and tourism, Kajihiro created the Hawai’i DeTour Project. The program, which he runs with lifelong activist Terrilee Kekoʻolani, aims to “interject a more critical historical account of Hawaii” in hopes that it’ll start conversations about social responsibility and create solidarity with social justice and environmental activist efforts in Hawaii.

Kajihiro leads DeTours to locations like downtown Honolulu to discuss Hawaii’s former sovereignty; to Iolani Palace, where the US supported a White settler-led coup against Queen Lili’uokalani; to military landmarks like the Pearl Harbor memorial to discuss American efforts to transform parts of Hawaii into military strongholds.

Though Kajihiro doesn’t advertise his services, visitors are increasingly seeking them out. While he prioritizes educational and political groups that can help create change locally, he has seen both residents and visitors on his tours, some of whom go on to become involved in the causes he highlights.

“I guess it could be seen as a good sign that people want to learn and be more responsible as travelers,” he said. “But there are also many people who simply want the novelty of a ‘reality’ tour or seek to assuage their guilt by doing a more ‘socially responsible’ tourism. I'm not interested in giving people permission to visit Hawaii guilt-free.”

One way to support Native Hawaiians is to not visit at all, some say

Two educators in Hawaii borrowed the name of Kajihiro’s operation for their book, which also shares his principles.  Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i , co-edited by Vernadette Gonzalez and Hōkūlani Aikau, is no ordinary guidebook – it’s a call to action.

The book is designed to educate readers about Hawaii’s past and present and the negative impacts of colonization, militarization, and tourism. Even if readers never make it to Hawaii, the stories transport them to some of the sites Kajihiro leads his groups to. In the introduction to the book, Gonzalez and Aikau write that not all readers will be “invited or allowed to go to all of the places that are described,” and some locales were left out entirely because they’re “not meant for outsiders.”

Many tourists’ relationship to Hawaii is an extractive one, Gonzalez and Aikau write, and that relationship must shift to one of support if the Hawaii tourists know and the Hawaii its residents live in are to continue to exist. Even better, they write, would be choosing not to vacation in Hawaii at all.

“Sometimes the best way to support decolonization and Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) resurgence is to not come as a tourist to our home,” the editors write.

Improving tourism begins with respect for the islands and Native Hawaiians

Of course, there will always be tourists in Hawaii as long as it remains the islands’ top industry, and as long as its beaches beckon to guests with deep pockets. The nonprofit Sustainable Tourism Association of Hawaii connects tourists with local attractions that emphasize cultural and environmental responsibility. The Coconut Traveler, a travel company created by Debbie Misajon, the granddaughter of Filipino immigrants who moved to Hawaii to work on sugarcane plantations, is aimed at wealthy guests and charges a responsible tourism fee, 100 percent of which goes to local organizations that work to sustain Hawaii’s natural beauty. Recentering the focus of a trip to Hawaii from the guest to the island and its residents might lighten the footprint a tourist leaves there, Misajon told CNN.

“I'm all for coming and enjoying the islands, but (I) encourage people to find ways to be part of the solution,” Misajon said. “It might be trite, but spend your money locally.”

Making fundamental changes to the tourism industry should begin with returning rights to Native Hawaiians and letting them decide how they want their culture to be shared and consumed, if at all, Kajihiro said. There’s already a model of this in New Zealand, where the Māori people have control over how their culture is represented and experienced by tourists, he said, with an emphasis on mutual respect.

“Let’s abolish the word ‘tourism,’” Kajihiro said. “The very term privileges the consumer, the act of consuming places, and the transactional relationship.”

Instead, he said, visitors should “rethink travel as entering someone else’s home.” Someone who’s a guest at someone else’s home may bring a gift with them or express their gratitude to their host in other ways, he said.

“As a visitor, you have the burden to learn, act responsibly, not be a burden and respect your hosts,” Kajihiro said.

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Hawaii is easing restrictions and preparing to welcome back tourists.

The state is eager for its vacation industry to rebound after a devastating 2020 season.

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Hawaii Eases Covid Restrictions

Gov. david y. ige announced his state would welcome international tourists again and lift capacity limits later this month on bars, restaurants and gyms in counties that require patrons to present proof of vaccination or a recent negative covid test to enter..

Indoor activities at restaurants, bars and social establishments must continue to require patrons remain seated with their party, maintain six feet of distancing between groups, do not mingle and wear masks at all times, except when actively eating or drinking. Effective Nov. 12, two changes will take effect. Outdoor activity at restaurants, bar and social establishments will no longer be subject to these restrictions. Regarding capacity for indoor high-risk activities such as restaurants, bar and social establishments, indoor capacity is set at 50 percent, unless the county implements a policy requiring vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test result within 48 hours, in which case, there will be no capacity limits. This does include gyms as well as bars, restaurants and social establishments. The State of Hawaii will align with the federal requirements for entry into the United States for international passengers traveling directly to Hawaii as of Nov. 8.

By Eduardo Medina

Signaling that Hawaii is eager to jump-start its battered tourism and hospitality industries, Gov. David Y. Ige said that his state would ease Covid restrictions this month and welcome international travelers again, under new federal guidelines that go into effect on Nov. 8 .

The governor’s decision was a turnaround for a state that only two months ago was advising travelers not to visit , as it dealt with the worst surge of coronavirus cases it had seen, a wave of illness driven by the highly contagious Delta variant that overwhelmed hospitals and halted Hawaii’s economic recovery.

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Hawaii endured months of lockdown , imposing strict, 14-day quarantine protocols and suffering the economic consequences to its tourism economy.

Now, with low rates of hospitalizations and new cases, the islands are again ready for business, officials say. On Sept. 2, the state’s seven-day daily average of new cases was 910. As of Tuesday, it had dropped to 116, according to a New York Times database .

On Tuesday, the governor signed an executive order that will lift capacity limits later this month on bars, restaurants and gyms in counties that require patrons to present proof of vaccination or a recent negative coronavirus test to enter. Hawaii is divided into four main counties — one for the big island; one for Oahu; one for the islands in between, including Maui and Molokai; and one for the islands west of Oahu, including Kauai.

At a news conference, Mr. Ige said the state’s vaccination campaign, which has inoculated about 60 percent of the eligible population, had driven new cases and hospitalizations down to a level that makes it possible to ease restrictions.

“The vaccination is the most widespread and important mitigation measure during this pandemic that each of us can take personal action to implement,” the governor said in a news conference .

The executive order from the governor comes two weeks after he announced that fully vaccinated domestic tourists would be welcome to visit the islands again starting Nov. 1.

Counties that don’t require proof of vaccinations or a negative coronavirus test will still have to limit capacity in bars, restaurants and gyms to 50 percent, according to the order.

The order also says that patrons must maintain six feet of distance and wear masks while inside restaurants and bars, except while eating or drinking — a measure that the mayor of Honolulu, Rick Blangiardi, questioned.

Mr. Blangiardi said in a statement that keeping the social-distancing requirement would prevent some businesses from operating at full capacity and “does not move the needle forward for many of the impacted restaurants and bars.”

Still, the governor’s order was evidence that the state was making progress on the pandemic, some officials said.

“We’re slowly starting to come out of it, which is good,” Brandon J.C. Elefante, a Honolulu City Council member, said in an interview on Wednesday. “I think that’s an important step as we kind of ease up on some of the restrictions, while still keeping a close watch on our positivity rate,” he said.

Hawaii is set to ease restrictions as it welcomes back tourists

Nov 5, 2021 • 3 min read

Hawaii is easing some COVID-19 restrictions as travelers return © Matt Munro / Lonely Planet

As the COVID-19 situation continues to improve across the state, Hawaii will lift capacity restrictions for many outdoor activities—and in keeping with the rest of the United States , international and domestic travelers will be welcomed back to the islands beginning November 8.

Gov. David Ige made the announcement on capacity restrictions this week. He had previously asked in August that would-be travelers postpone their trip to Hawaii until the latest wave of Delta-driven infections had settled. It was a request, rather than an outright travel ban, to give Hawaii time to recover.

Summer in Hawaii had seen a surge in coronavirus case numbers across the state that overwhelmed the health service and strained resources. But now case numbers are steadily decreasing , and the percentage of the population that's fully vaccinated is on the rise. “Our state continues to see one of the lowest incidences of COVID-19 and death rates related to the virus," Gov. Ige said in a press release . "As more and more people are vaccinated, we are moving to ease pandemic mitigation measures—including travel restrictions—in a way that ensures the health and safety of our communities.”

Read more: This Hawaiian island plans for fewer visitors as it pushes for sustainable tourism

For direct international travel from November 8 onward, US citizens have two options: fully vaccinated travelers will have to show proof of vaccination and present a test taken within three days of boarding their flight to the US, while those not fully vaccinated will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result within one day of boarding their flight to the US.

Non-US citizens will be required to show both vaccination records and a negative COVID-19 test result taken within three days of boarding a flight to the US. Passengers failing to meet these requirements will be denied boarding.

For non-direct international travel—i.e., international passengers who enter the US from another state or territory—you'll need to complete the Safe Travels Hawaii form before departure and, to bypass quarantine, either upload your vaccination record or a negative NAAT test result taken no more than 72 hours before the start of your trip.

Meanwhile, the executive order easing capacity limits goes into effect November 12. "Outdoor activity at restaurants, bars, and social establishments are no longer subject to restrictions (such as masks, mingling, and six feet of distance). Indoor activity will continue restrictions as normal," the governor tweeted November 3. "Indoor capacity for all indoor high-risk activities is set at 50% unless the county implements a policy requiring vaccination or negative COVID-19 test, in which case, there is NO capacity limit. This includes gyms, as well as bars, restaurants, and social establishments."

It's worth noting that although things are improving in Hawaii, the situation could change suddenly. Gov. Ige has said that officials will "continue to monitor case counts and hospitalizations in the islands and adjust as needed while prioritizing the health and safety of our residents." Always check the latest public health guidelines before traveling. For more information on COVID-19 measures, see the Hawaii Tourism Authority website .

Read more: A new law will ban swimming with Hawaii's spinner dolphins 4 ways Hawaii is coping with a tourist influx as COVID-19 restrictions lift The 10 best hikes in Hawaii serve up stunning island views

This article was first published Oct 20, 2021 and updated Nov 5, 2021.

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Does Hawaii Want Tourists or Not? It’s Fickle.

We continue to try to work through this together; Hawaii visitors, and residents alike. Yet we can’t seem to escape this topic in the news, and what showed up most recently on our radar is an Oahu woman who’s been asking visitors repeatedly to stay away from Hawaii. There are no simple answers to the question posed in today’s title, but here are some thoughts.

Fickle: changing frequently, especially as regards one’s loyalties, interests, or affection.

What brought this to mind was Native Hawaiian Lily Hi’ilani Okimura , an Oahu resident who’s popular on social media, with 86k TikTok followers. She asks visitors to please not come to Hawaii.

That’s overlayed with this comment from one of our readers (Joy) who said, “…we are not entitled. We would never hurt the people or animals of this beautiful land. But we feel we may be treated that way by people who dislike tourists. Wish we were going to the Caymans where we are welcome with open arms. Aloha.”

Plus, the reality is that most people want to vacation here and be away from every day life. While they care about Hawaii, they also want to enjoy the weather, ocean and lifestyle of the islands as an escape. And the benefit to us is that visitors contribute financially to all of us.

Some of Lily’s outspoken comments below have made global news.

“A lot of tourists treat our land like it’s some theme park, they will ignore warning signs, fenced-off areas, and no trespassing signs, which can cause damage to our environment like erosion, vandalism, and pollution.”

“Tourists will try to go near and touch monk seals and turtles at the beach, despite having multiple signs at our beaches warning people that these are endangered species and touching them will result in them paying a fine.”

“When people say they should be able to visit Hawaii because it’s part of the United States, I tell them they’re missing the point. Sure, you have the ‘right’ to travel wherever you want, but does that make it right… Our tourism industry exploits our people and culture. What does that say about you to disregard all of this because, ‘What about my vacation?’”

She also says that if tourists do come, they should avoid hotels and vacation rentals, as they are largely non-resident owned. She concludes that it’s better to stay with someone who already lives here in Hawaii, and suggests learning the Hawaiian language and patronizing locally owned businesses and restaurants, especially those that are Native Hawaiian-owned.

And lastly, she suggests in her plethora of videos that visitors pick up trash and don’t damage the environment, including collecting sand or rocks.

No one can represent Hawaii in this discussion. It isn’t that easy.

While Lily is most outspoken and highly visible, she doesn’t represent Hawaii. No one does.

It’s complicated, to be sure. We suggest there are at least two major factors at play. The first is a growing discontent with unbridled Hawaii tourism that’s been ongoing for years. And second, the drop in tourism during COVID changed everyone’s perspectives, both tourists, and Hawaii residents. That was followed by the lightning-fast rebound in tourism that was expected to take years, but instead seemed to take just months.

Visitors and residents: neither can be lumped into one pile.

We know that most visitors simply want an escape from everyday life when they choose Hawaii. Others, have interests that are more cultural in the way that the TikToker mentions.

Many of her points are valid. Our tourism-reliant sector does market Hawaii as a paradisiacal theme park. That is changing, albeit very slowly. As we’ve said before, this false perception sets everyone up for disappointment. Hawaii is being overrun with tourism. There is no doubt about that.

Hawaii residents also have a range of viewpoints on tourism, and Lili’s is just one. Remember that tourism here impacts everyone’s life, in one way or another. And not everyone wants to cast that aside with nothing to replace it.

Hawaii is in the U.S., but it also isn’t.

Because Hawaii is a state and you fly here easily and relatively inexpensively, it can yield the inaccurate perception that Hawaii is the same as the U.S. mainland, which it definitely is not. That, even though your phone, health insurance, currency and prescriptions, are all valid here. And that’s frankly confusing.

Lily is right in that Hawaii’s whole sphere isn’t visitor satisfaction, although we aren’t opposed to it either, and we believe most people here want visitors to enjoy Hawaii while appreciating those things that we love too.

We also hope visitors will be kind and generous when here, and we aren’t talking about money. Aloha begets aloha, as you’ve said countless times before in the comments.

As a reminder, a study conducted a few years ago, showed there hadn’t been any dramatic shift in how Hawaii residents felt about tourism. Asked to rate their overall perception of the state’s tourism industry, about 1,600 Hawaii residents surveyed generated an average ranking of 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Lily was also right about the treatment of our natural resources and wildlife. Sometimes tourism is at odds with these. Specifically, monk seals and turtles need to be uninterrupted. We can personally attest to the many times we’ve seen people get too close for photos and not respect boundaries which are there to protect these important creatures in life and mythology.

Please add your thoughts, too.

Most of us who live here are connected with tourism in some way, either directly or indirectly. We appreciate visitors who value what Hawaii has to offer including our native culture and our unique ways. It’s never perfect here, but it’s real behind the umbrella in that Mai Tai drink. Come and enjoy and find out just what makes Hawaii unique.

Stay tuned for our thoughts on how to fit into Hawaii as a visitor. Coming this week. 

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122 thoughts on “does hawaii want tourists or not it’s fickle.”.

Although there is some truth in Lily Hiʻilani Okimura’s statements, I can’t help but wonder how her comments about tourists helps Hawaii. Hawaii’s only business is tourism! Hawaii’s real estate taxes are heavily dependent on non-islanders owned timeshares, condos and homes. So what if tourism drops, real estate prices drop, tourist revenue reduces, jobs disappear and the state can’t pick up the financial slack? Who wins? Can the Hawaiians afford to live on the island?

Over $16B spent on Tourism in 2019 before the Pandemic Lockdowns by Governor Ige, impacting over 200,000 Hawaii employee’s. It would seem, Governor Ige would rather have the Taxpayer $ from Mainland Citizenry to subsidize his State’s not wanting to go back to work, which took until June of 2022 to begin. Now, Governor Green, who proposed Visitor Fee’s (see Tax) a violation on Inter-state travel, on top of, the reality that in Maui, where no news comes out of west Maui, those from Wailea to Paia need Tourism to pay there Bills and support their employee’s. Hopefully Green can figure this out, I fear for all those in the one mile that was the Pier to Cannery in Lahaina, Blackstone will want for another Kaanapali-Wailea!

I live on the Big Island in an area that does not get that many tourists..and it’s still too much..I left Kona side just because of all the tourists and Snow Birds. So, here’s my idea… State Legislatatre…just stop funding any of these programs and give us the money back in a refund. How’s about that!! Saves our money//because it is our money//and probably less tourists.. Just a thought..just let this whole thing go..if hotels want to fund their own..that’s up to them. While I say this, I understand that alot of our economy is based on tourism, and that is something we Do need to address and start now..this year..changing that. Hawaii as a whole needs to figure out where the line on “development for tourist only” is going to be.

aloha Annie….I do not believe the People of Hawaii dont want you not to return to Hawaii…if you respect the island then, no problem……I know that we dont not want rude, wasteful, entitled, rude tourists who think that they can just disrespect and not care about Hawaii.

I have loved the Hawaiian islands since I was a child, and it breaks my heart to slowly come to understand that we are not welcome there. I love learning about the culture, the history, and the traditions of the Hawaiian people. I feel such a draw to the islands, but am starting to realize that perhaps I should just stay away if I truly care about what’s best for the islands and the people. I would love to hear more from native Hawaiians on the topic.

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Don't be that tourist: Here's how to respectfully visit Hawaii, have an authentic trip

• High levels of tourism haven't gone without a negative impact on the islands of Hawaii.
• A 2022 Booking.com survey found that 66% of respondents said they wanted to experience the local culture of the places they visit.
• Visitors should take the time to research the destination beforehand to plan for more authentic experiences.

With year-round warm weather, stunning natural beauty, and a rich culture, Hawaii has earned its spot on the top of many people's bucket lists. Each day, thousands of people arrive, excited to experience the island chain. 

Unfortunately, the high levels of tourism haven't gone without a negative impact on the islands. From overcrowded trails to traffic congestion, the islands are now seeking a new type of visitor, who wants to create a deeper connection with Hawaii.

"It is important to Hawaii to uphold the values of our native culture and we have been excellent in portraying the spirit of aloha in Hawaii and across the world, but we also need to ensure that our visitors are also on the same page," Malia Sanders, executive director at the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association, told USA TODAY.

A new kind of visitor

"The visitor of today wants to learn, they want to engage, they want to play an active role in protecting the environment and preserving the natural wonders and beauty of Hawaii so that they can continue to enjoy it again and again," Sanders said. 

Enjoy your worry-free vacation: Best travel insurance policies

In a 2022 Booking.com survey , 66% of the 30,000 respondents said they wanted to experience the local culture of the places they visit, and more than half of the respondents said they wanted to leave the place better than when they arrived.

"If you plan your itinerary full of things that are educational, cultural, leave a positive impact and make you a better visitor, you are bound to have a truly authentic experience when visiting Hawaii," she said.

Here are a few ways you can learn more about the islands' history and culture on a trip to Hawaii – without breaking the bank.

1. Volunteer (and it could get you a cheaper hotel bill)

Give back to the islands with your time, and in turn, you'll meet dedicated locals and make a positive impact on the community. Many local nonprofits welcome visitors to volunteer, and you can find opportunities at travel2change.org .

Your volunteer work may even result in a cheaper hotel bill. The Hawaiian Tourism Authority recently launched the Malama Hawaii Program , offering visitors special discounts at certain hotels when they participate in a dedicated volunteer activity, such as beach cleanups or reforestation.

2. Don't act like a tourist

Failing to take the time to research your destination beforehand can actually hinder your trip, Sanders said: "At most, you will only discover what you accidentally stumble on to, you may encounter misinformation that isn’t authentic, and you may not have an enjoyable experience if it ends up taking you into places where you may not be safe or do not belong.

"As visitors, we have a responsibility to be as best prepared as possible, whether here in Hawaii or any other destination around the world. Preparing ourselves for a deeply rich cultural place requires us to do some homework as a visitor. We want to be responsible about how we act as guests." 

By this she means learning the customs and traditions of the place you're visiting – like how a kiss on the cheek is a common greeting in the islands – and what activities may be harmful – such as swimming too close to wildlife , or taking rocks or sand home from the beach.

Take the time to learn about where you're staying, since different parts of the islands have cultural significance. For example, Oahu's Waikiki , the heart of tourism in Hawaii, was once a historic battle site and where Hawaiian royalty like Princess Kaiulani owned estates.

3. Skip the chains, shop local

"Where you spend your dollar in Hawaii truly matters," Sanders said. "In the regenerative tourism model, the circular economy is a key component to its success. Buying and shopping local reduces capital flight and keeps that dollar continuously circulating into the local economy.

"Read the labels of the things you buy while on vacation. If it is made in Hawaii, it will usually say so or have a Hawaii address on the label." 

Seek out mom-and-pop shops or Native Hawaiian-owned businesses, which you can find online at Kuhikuhi . Purchasing a gift from somewhere like the family-owned Hot Island Glass gallery on Maui rather than a big-name store will not only directly reinvest in this local family, but also give you something handcrafted and more connected to the islands. 

4. Can you really know a place if you don't eat local?

From paniolos to plantations, for many years, the agricultural sector has been a critical part of feeding Hawaii and expanding Hawaii's staple exports, like sugar and pineapple. Choose to support and get to know the farmers and eateries that use ingredients from the islands. Plus, you'll also be tasting some of the freshest food available and flavors from the cultures that make up modern-day Hawaii, making the decision a win-win. 

More tourists seem to agree. A new study by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa found that 78% of tourists from the continental U.S. are willing to pay a premium for locally grown food. 

There are lots of places to eat in Hawaii that won't drain your wallet, such as the many Asian food stalls in Maunakea Marketplace in Honolulu's Chinatown or a plate lunch at the family-owned Sueoka Market on Kauai. 

Also consider going straight to the source and booking a farm tour, which you can find on every island, like Kona Coffee Living History Farm on Hawaii Island and  O'o Farm  in Upcountry, Maui. These farm tours are often inexpensive and introduce you to the passionate folks of Hawaii's agricultural sector. You can also stop by a farmers market to check out what tropical produce is grown in Hawaii.

5. It doesn't get more authentic than community events

Throughout the year, Hawaii hosts many festivals and events that celebrate the cultures and traditions rooted in the islands. In November, there is the  Kona Coffee Cultural Festival , honoring the farmers, growers and roasters of the longstanding coffee community, on the Big Island. In September, there is the Okinawan Festival on Oahu, celebrating all things Okinawan (which also has a large population in Hawaii.)

There are also smaller, more frequent events that support local businesses and the arts and culture scene, like the weekly  Hanapepe Art Night on Kauai and monthly First Fridays  in Honolulu. Entry to these events are often free. 

6. Get deeper

Although you probably want to spend most of your time in Hawaii outside at the beach, it's important as a visitor to get a deeper understanding of Hawaii's past and present, from its Polynesian roots, to the tragic overthrow and statehood. 

Make time to visit one of the islands' many cultural institutions, like Honolulu's 'Iolani Palace  to Hawaii Island's Hulihe'e Palace . If you're traveling on a budget, some museums like Bishop Museum, the largest collection of Hawaiian and Pacific cultural artifacts and natural specimens in the world, host After Hours events with cheaper admission. 

7. (Hawaii) is not a place. It's a people. 

These days, many hotels in Hawaii have decided to employ cultural advisers, or people who are deeply rooted in Hawaiian culture and its values and practices. After many years of the media misrepresenting Hawaiians and their culture for entertainment and tourism, these people work hard to ensure the hotel shares Hawaiian culture in appropriate ways and set up workshops and other activities to educate guests. Often, these workshops are free to hotel guests, and you'll meet and work with respected practitioners of their craft.

These advisers and other locals you meet on your trip can be a good source to help you weed out inauthentic activities, Sanders said.

"Hawaii is the destination, but perhaps more importantly, our visitors are coming to experience the richness of the Hawaiian culture and our people," she said. "That feeling of deep spiritual and cultural connection, overflowing aloha and kindness, the sense of family and belonging ... this is what they are missing in their own lives, and I am convinced this is why they come."

Rams join efforts to boost Hawaii's tourism industry as Maui recovers from devastating wildfire

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- It's been 14 months since a wildfire brought sheer devastation to Maui, and leaders from the Hawaiian Islands are thankful for the unwavering support of the Los Angeles Rams in helping them recover and boost tourism.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green led a group of dignitaries Sunday during a visit to SoFi Stadium for the Rams' home opener in an effort to regenerate tourism, especially among Southern Californians, who in the past have made up 80% of visitors to the islands.

"The main purpose of this trip was to say, 'Thank you,'" Green told Eyewitness News. "Thank you to the people of California for supporting us in Maui and now to set up a relationship between the Rams and Hawaii, formally, going forward."

The Rams and the Hawaiian islands have had quite the love affair over the years.

"Our experience giving back to Maui after the fires is a natural extension in our investment in the islands, in the Hawaiian community, as part of our presence there because they don't have a local team," said Rams President Kevin Demoff.

In 2019, the Rams hosted the Dallas Cowboys on O'ahu in front of the largest crowd in Aloha Stadium history.

Following the Lahaina wildfire, the Rams had T-shirts made in support of Maui and all the proceeds went toward relief efforts. They also partnered with the other 11 L.A.- based sports teams to donate $450,000 to the cause.

"I was at our Seahawks game last year in Seattle when one of their sideline workers mentioned that he works for the Seahawks but he's a Maui resident," recalled Demoff. "He was so grateful for what the Rams did."

The Rams have certainly made an impact in Hawaiian communities over the years and are working with state officials to bring more "Rams Aloha" to the islands. This could mean possibly hosting training camps or mini camps in the future.

Officials want Southern California residents to know the Hawaiian Islands have been and are open for business.

"People should come ... that helps us heal," said Green. "We had the tragedy now just about 14 months ago and look, it broke our hearts, but when people travel to Maui, to O'ahu, to the Big Island, wherever, they inject revenue and resources."

Earlier this week, the Mayor of Maui County Richard Bissen toured SoFi Stadium and the Rams facility, describing the incredible strength and spirit of the Maui people, especially in Lahaina where residents are already rebuilding.

"One of the issues that occurred with what happened in Lahaina is that people thought all of Hawaii was no longer available," said Bissen. "I want to speak for the other counties as well, certainly, we ask people, come share moments, come make memories, come rediscover Maui."

"We love the business that Southern California has given us through the years," said Mufi Hannemann, the president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association (HLTA). "It's a sizeable contingent of local folks that live here and we say ... welcome. Please come now more than ever."

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• LOS ANGELES
• LOS ANGELES RAMS
• U.S. & WORLD
• HAWAII WILDFIRES

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