West Maui is in shambles. Lahaina has largely been destroyed. 111 people are confirmed dead, with as many as 1,000 still missing. Over 2,000 structures were damaged – most of them residential. But slowly life is being put back together. Verizon cell phone service was just restored.
I spoke with a veteran journalist last week who had travel planned to Maui. And we both agreed that,
- It didn’t make sense to go right away. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, tourists would be a burden on limited infrastructure.
- But it would soon be important for Maui to go. They’re dependent on tourism.
- This switch would happen before people realized it had happened. So trip shaming would last longer than it should – long than what’s in the best interest of locals.
Already the Mayor of Maui is asking tourists to come to the island, just not to head to the Western part.
Don’t go to west Maui. Obviously, there’s so much going on with trying to rebuild it, but the rest of Maui is still open.
Maui’s infrastructure is fine on the eastern part of the island. It’s fine to go to Wailea, though most of the restaurants I’ve enjoyed are in the western part and are no longer there.
You can travel to Maui without taxing the response, and with over half of all jobs on the island related to tourism locals will be hurt if people don’t come. Indeed, they need tourism dollars to fund their recovery.
One news outlet says government says stay away & others say we need tourism to survive but others say go away while we mourn. I do know this most Hawaii hate tourist bit it makes them money. I just feel right now is not time to go to Maui! Go somewhere else!
@robin
The locals want to run tourist off. The lights are on in Lahaina, traffic is flowing, roads are full of cars, hotels, shops, airports, malls, Costco, beaches, car rentals are all operating as before. There is no shortage of food, supplies etc..
I’m bothered by the amount of people that are strictly worried about whether or not they’re going to be able to vacation in maui. What about all the people that lost their homes? I think I might have seen one maybe two comments touching on this. I guess that just goes to show the mentality of the world today.
Very disappointing.
Personally, I’d give it a couple more weeks. But then Maui will probably be a better place to visit than it has been the past decade because many of your fellow tourists will still be booking away, making it less overcrowded.
If this isn’t the most biased , one sided article I have ever read! Absolutely tone deaf and steeped in the colonial privilege & white savior mindset .. just terrible
@Sara – is the Maui Mayor, whose position I was reporting, colonizing his people while you liberate them..?
“colonial privilege & white savior mindset”
She’s a nut.
You knew somebody was going to make a disaster a race issue.
@sarah
Making such comments on a travel blog shows your trolling, full of hatred and misinformation. You should be canceled and fired from your job if you have one. Certified Nut!
@ Sarah
Maui has been hit by an unprecedented disaster and will be dealing with this for a very long time. I’m confident the vast majority of people here in Hawaii understand the vital role the return of tourism will play in this. A very few anti everything folks are on social media saying otherwise but most want a balanced return of tourists to help the people who live here to keep working, feed their families and support those who aren’t so lucky.
You are kicking people in the okole who are already down and out and just want to recover from this.
This is an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild with a heathy dose of affordable housing and create a very authentic, respectful sense of place for the people that live there. That in turn will create a place that tourists will want to return to. Hopefully outside speculators will not be able to influence the local politicians too adversely…we’ll see on that one
I probably wouldn’t go right now, but that is more because of my personal preference for the Ka’anapali area over Wailea. Going to Ka’anapali without the restaurant support of Lahaina would not be enjoyable for me personally. I do understand the small businesses need tourism dollars so I wouldn’t say don’t go. What I would say is to remember that if your reservation is at Ka’anapali, then your experience will be hindered by the tragedy quite a bit.
Totally agree about The preference of Kannapali over Wailea and without Lahaina, I would feel I’m missing a lot. I have many friends in Paia and I could enjoy the trip but I much prefer Kannapali so for now I’ll stay home