by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 5:50 PM ET, Wed August 16, 2023
In the wake of the deadly wildfires that struck Maui and Lahaina, the Hawaii Tourism Authority has repeatedly called upon tourists to leave the island and asked prospective vacationers to hold of on their trips for the time being.
Right now, all energy and focus needs to be on recovery efforts for the devastated island. It seems not everyone is heeding that message however.
More than a few visitors have been spotted still sunbathing and enjoying Maui’s beaches (Paris Hilton among them). All while search-and-rescue teams continue sifting through building ruins and waters for victims of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
Understandably, locals who have suffered unimaginable losses, are angered by such images.
As a report from Reuters today noted, locals have begun expressing their frustration on social media, including posting videos of tourists enjoying holiday activities while the death toll from the fires continues to tick upward.
"Our community needs time to heal, grieve, and restore," Hawaiian actor Jason Momoa said on Instagram, urging tourists to cancel their trips.
Momoa wasn't the only one who took to social media to express such sentiments. Another account on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) posted a video of a tourist swimming in Maui and questioned the appropriateness of such behavior right now.
"Not to blame the tourists who are enjoying their Vacations in Hawaii right now regardless the situation, but what do you think of this?" said the post.
Managing a Balancing Act
Some authorities on the island and some businesses however, have suggested that the ongoing presence of visitors will help soften the economic blow the island is suffering as a result of the fires. The tourism industry on Maui accounts for 80 percent of its wealth, according to Maui’s economic development board.
The two opposing needs—recovery from devastation and continued tourism revenue that provides economic health—expose a challenge or a fine line the island must now walk. It’s a challenge not all that different from the balance the state had to strike amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which in that case involved weighing the risks of allowing tourists to visit during a deadly health crisis, against the economic harm the state would suffer without the revenue, Reuters reported.
"All of our people will need to survive, and we can't afford to have no jobs or no future for our children," Hawaii Governor Josh Green said recently. "When you restrict any travel to a region, you really devastate its own local residents in many ways more than anyone else.”
In the wake of the wildfires the number of airline passengers to Maui this past Sunday had plummeted by 81 percent from the same time one year earlier, Reuters reported, based on data from the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Looking at all of 2022, some 2.9 million tourists descended on the island, and that generated $5.9 billion in spending for Maui.
At this point however, the Hawaii Tourism Authority has asked visitors to avoid all non-essential travel to West Maui, the part of the island affected by the fires. If visitors can manage to heed this call, it will allow critical precious resources to be used to help locals recover.
Meanwhile, hotels in the area are no longer taking bookings. Instead the rooms are being used to house employees and evacuees.
Amid all of these limitations however, the Maui County Mayor has sought to underscore that the island as a whole is not off limits.
"Maui is not closed," Mayor Richard Bissen said at a weekend press conference. "Many of our residents make their living off of tourism."
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