Questions are growing on the island of Maui, Hawaii, about how soon is too soon to talk about healing and getting ‘back to normal’ and what role tourism will play in the island’s future.
Taking the time to stop and address a disaster is vitally important, according to Rafael Villanueva, part of the Tourism Expert Network that offers consultancy services to hospitality businesses. “You have to stop everything and focus on the disaster, but there does come a time when you have to start to rebuild, and that means keeping people employed,” he told USA Today.
1. Safety first
Villanova was involved in designing the immediate reaction to 2017’s mass shooting tragedy in Vegas, when the city stopped all tourist advertising within an hour, to instead rally the community to come together and “Stay Strong.”
France took a similar approach after 2015’s terrorist attacks. Then French President Hollande immediately deployed over 10,000 military and police personnel across 830 key locations in the country, according to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council on Medium.
The priority was to reassure people everywhere that the country was safe, which had the secondary effect of protecting France’s huge incoming tourist numbers (over 80 million arrivals per year at the time) as well as its important domestic tourism market that provides 70% of the country’s tourism income.
2. More tourists but not getting any bigger
Tourism in Hawaii is very different. Most tourists come from outside and there has traditionally been a division between tourist areas and local areas. The islands are not getting any bigger but welcomed over 10 million visitors in 2019, before the pandemic struck. There is little sign of numbers abating. Maui alone had 1.4 million visitors in just the first half of 2023.
Many islanders experience this as too much, especially as the more congested the islands become, the further tourists spread into traditionally local areas.
“Maui has always had tensions between the Native Hawaiians, the locals, the tourists and the rich outsiders,” Ginny Morgan, a professional musician and teacher at the Maui Community College, who also works in the island’s important wedding industry, told Travel Tomorrow.
And that tension is just in normal times. How can a tourist even begin to think about taking a vacation on an island where wildfire tragedy has struck, killing over 100 people and perhaps hundreds more yet to be found? An island where tourism is “a hindrance at this point because we need to take care of our families – our ohana,” in the words of Kapali Keahi, who lives in a local neighborhood on Maui. Keahi was reported by USA Today as saying those affected by the fire, himself included, are still “getting out of the survivor mode.”
Right now, people here are still in shock and anger will be expressed.
Ginny Morgan, musician and teacher at the Maui Community College
3. Community action
Meanwhile, Maui’s Economic Development Board says tourism is “irrefutably” Maui’s lifeblood, generating at least 70 cents in every dollar of the island’s GDP. So, how can the community need for healing and recovery be balanced with the need for an economy that allows all to thrive?
“The best responses taken so far have come from community action. The help was organized and efficient,” Morgan explains. Echoing Villanova and Keahi’s points about the importance of urgent and concrete steps, she said.
The state and federal responses have been great but often don’t recognize the immediate needs of the people. In general I see good progress on coming together and healing.
Ginny Morgan, musician and teacher at the Maui Community College
4. Not a cartoon
On the island’s future in tourism she said: “Unless we can find something else just as sustainable, we will continue to need tourism. Tourist taxes sustain living expenses for us that live here, including universal health care and lower property taxes.”
She has a sense of how things could evolve for the better. “I think if the Native Hawaiians felt more involved in narrating their own history, tourism could capitalize on that. It wouldn’t be the cartoon version that is promoted today.”
Going forward, in my opinion, the industry should involve the history of native Hawaiian culture, and not the Western version that we have today.
Ginny Morgan, musician and teacher at the Maui Community College
5. Respecting land, water and culture
Morgan also noted that whatever happens, it’s vital past mistakes putting industry above sustainability are not repeated. “Tourism is important here, but we are also in a climate crisis,” she said. “The damage done by the sugar and pineapple industries have left Hawaii vulnerable to the current climate crisis. Tourism needs to work to help those problems, not work against it, as in respecting land rights, water rights, cultural history. This is a chance to rebuild in a way that shows all Maui’s history, not just Western history. With that in mind, tourists should be encouraged to seek an authentic experience here. Maui is marketed as a paradise playground but real people live and work here, and their voices need to be heard.”
