Maui officials welcome visitors after fires, but packagers are cautious

Travelers with plans to visit Maui are grappling with whether or not to cancel in the wake of the devastating wildfires that ripped through the West Side of the island this month.

The western side of the popular Hawaiian destination, which includes the historic town of Lahaina, was devastated by what experts said is one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history. 

Travel suppliers have also taken varying approaches about how or whether to proceed with Maui tours.

Hawaii officials and the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) were clear: Visitors were welcome to stay in or come to the parts of Maui not impacted by the fires, and doing so would help Maui’s recovery. 

“South Maui is open. Kihei, Wailea are open,” Maui County mayor Richard Bissen told reporters. “Maui is not closed.”

Bissen’s sentiments were echoed by Gov. Josh Green, who said that keeping resorts and hotels open in other parts of Maui would help sustain jobs on the island. 

“All of our people will need to survive,” said Green, adding that the state “wrestled with this during Covid,” when it had to “balance the fact that when you restrict any travel to a region, it’s really devastating to all the locals.”

The HTA, along with the government officials, stressed that visitors should not go to western Maui. But the agency stood behind the governor on the importance of keeping travel open to other parts of the island. 

“We want to make sure that there isn’t a secondary economic challenge created by this,” said Ilihia Gionson, the HTA’s public affairs officer. 

What’s the right thing to do?

The response from travel suppliers has been mixed. Some tour operators this week are enabling guests to rebook accommodations in other parts of Maui, while others redirected them to different Hawaiian islands.

Pleasant Holidays, its luxury sister brand Journese and Classic Vacations were all rebooking their guests in hotels and resorts in Wailea, in South Maui, although Classic advised travelers to expect limited availability because some properties were sheltering residents displaced by the fires. 

Jack Richards, CEO of Pleasant Holidays, said that Wailea remaining open is good news in the wake of tragedy, as tourism in some parts of Maui that weren’t impacted by the fire would help support the island’s economy as it rebuilds. 

“We want to do the right thing, but we are getting mixed messages,” Richards said of conflicting reports advising tourists to leave or stay away from Maui along with messages encouraging travel to areas outside of West Maui. “We don’t want to be insensitive to the tragic loss and the devastation, but at the same time, we realize their economy is based upon tourism.”

Perillo Tours is currently redirecting all travelers who were bound for Maui to other islands, such as Kauai, through September, saying that they will revisit whether to operate trips on Maui later in the fall.

“We’re taking it day by day,” said Devin Buonanno, who oversees Perillo’s Hawaii product. “From an ethical standpoint, we don’t have Maui in our plans at this moment, especially Kaanapali. Everybody on another part of the island will be using resources like water and electricity that are resources Lahaina could be using.”

Tauck removed Maui from a 12-day Hawaii itinerary that departed earlier this month but has yet to make a decision on its upcoming departure in early September.

“We are currently considering how best to proceed,” said Joanne Gardner, vice president of worldwide operations at Tauck. “We want to be respectful, and we certainly don’t want to get in the way of any relief efforts.”

However, Gardner said that its partner suppliers on Maui “are very eager for us to return; even though they didn’t experience physical damage from the fires, they are certainly facing the very real prospect of negative impacts to their businesses.”

Hotels and resorts in Wailea remained open for the most part, with a number of properties reassuring travelers through their websites that their business is welcome and operations were running as normal.

Travelers staying away from Maui

Regardless of whether suppliers decided to move forward with their tours, many guests were not comfortable doing so. 

Tour operators said they were experiencing a high rate of cancellations, with even more expected in the coming weeks. Classic said guests are canceling Maui trips through mid-September, while Apple Leisure Group said cancellations for August and September have increased, as has travel for later in the fall.

Pleasant has 1,400 trips scheduled to visit Maui in August alone, and 3,000 by the end of September. Richards said he expects a cancellation rate of about 25% during that time, which early estimates show accounts for about $3 million in revenue. 

“Maui is our No. 1 destination in Hawaii,” he said. “It accounts for about 24% of our entire Hawaii business.”

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