KAHANA, Maui >> The official restart of tourism today in the northernmost section of West Maui is in for a mixed reception of open arms and crossed arms from the community, two months after a deadly wildfire burned down most of Lahaina.
Visitors returning to hotels and vacation condominiums stretching from the Ritz-Carlton Maui in Kapalua to the Kahana Villa 4 miles from Lahaina town are expected to initially only trickle in. But their experience may not be typical given divisions in the local community that include people who lost their homes and family members in the runaway fire and depend on tourism for employment.
Gift shop owner Jasmine Witt, who lost one of three stores to the blaze that was fed by gale-force winds, is looking forward to the region welcoming more tourists. But she’s also wary about those customers having negative impacts on residents who suffered unimaginable losses.
“Because it’s our backyard where all of the tragedy occurred, there’s always an underlying feeling for visitors to go away,” she said Saturday.
Witt reopened one of her stores, At Witt’s End in the Kahana Gateway Shopping Center, Sept. 1 because it’s in the center of a community with a mix of residents and tourists. A second shop, though, in Napili-Honokowai that caters mostly to tourists remains closed because Witt is nervous about what her employees may face from visitors who could be insensitive or ignorant about the disaster and the heavy emotions of residents.
A reopening date for that store remains undecided. “We’re still going to feel it out,” Witt said.
Jess Westbrook, a zip line guide at Kapalua Ziplines who lives in Napili, said she’s already experienced some offensive tourist behavior with would-be customers of the business, which closed Aug. 7 due to high winds and isn’t slated to reopen until Oct. 30.
“Some people are real sensitive, but others say, ‘Why aren’t you open?’”
On Friday, the Maui County Council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution urging Gov. Josh Green to postpone today’s reopening of West Maui tourism that he announced Sept. 8.
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The resolution, transmitted to the governor, came after a roughly 10-hour Council committee meeting Sept. 27 in Kaanapali where members heard from hundreds of West Maui residents opposed to visitors returning to their community so soon after the disaster that killed at least 98 people and destroyed 2,200 mostly residential structures.
Council member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez of Molokai, who introduced the resolution, said the Council “should step up to the plate and be the voice of our people.” She and other members said it was far too early to reopen to tourism while fire survivors continue to grieve, mourn and process the trauma they have experienced over the past two months.
“I was so compelled,” Rawlins-Fernandez said, “by the over 1,200 people in the room consistently asking for more time — time to grieve, to mourn, to process, time to establish some kind of stability.
“Every day has been filled with anxiety for them. Burned buildings, charcoaled abandoned cars, melted metal, a town leveled to ash — it’s easy to see the damage the fire caused to the houses that burned to the ground, but to see the level of damage the fire caused to people, it’s not so easy to see.”
The resolution states that tensions can arise between residents under emotional strain and tourists. It also states that such tension has begun to surface and could inadvertently jeopardize the welcoming reputation upon which Hawaii’s tourism industry heavily relies.
“Imagine working in a restaurant serving tables and being asked by your first customer whether your house burned down and whether you lost family,” Rawlins-Fernandez said. “Say you lost your grandma and your family home with all the memories contained within it. The next table of customers, thinking they’re being compassionate, ask you the same question. And then another table. And then another table. And then another table. And each time you relive the trauma, but you’re expected to smile and be pleasant.”
A “Lahaina Strong” petition at actionnetwork.org had attracted 11,141 signatures, including 3,517 listing a 96761 Lahaina ZIP code, as of Tuesday when it was hand-delivered to Green’s office. The number of petition signatures Saturday had grown to nearly 17,000.
Rawlins-Fernandez characterized Green as having “cracked the whip” sending everyone back to work. She also said reopening West Maui tourism two months after the fire is not “trauma-informed,” and that doing so would force some traumatized fire survivors to return to work where they may encounter insensitive tourists who reopen wounds.
“The spectrum of tourists who come (range) from amazing human beings, to the uneducated, to the downright deplorable humans,” she said. “More of the amazing humans are going to be choosing not to come because they have compassion for our community. More of the deplorable ones would choose to come right now.”
Rawlins-Fernandez described the latter as visitors who in the immediate aftermath of the disaster treated “our residents as roadside attractions” and took photos for social media using the ashes of Lahaina as a backdrop or visited community hubs to take free supplies and meals.
ACKNOWLEDGING residents who support the timetable for West Maui tourism reopening, Rawlins-Fernandez spoke of some people who want to return to work perhaps as a way to obtain a sense of normalcy or to be occupied.
Rhoda Aceret, a shift manager at Honolua Store at Kapalua Resort, is among them.
Aceret, whose Lahaina home burned down, returned to work when the general store reopened Sept. 15 after being closed since the fire. She’s glad for the return.
“I want to keep myself busy,” she said Saturday. “I want to stay occupied.”
Before Friday’s vote on the resolution, Molokai resident Bridget Mowat told Council members that she has relatives who lost homes in the Lahaina fire, and that they are facing financial challenges along with other fire evacuees she knows.
“I know families that want to go back to work, and they all work in the hotel industry,” Mowat said. “It’s not what they want … it’s what they need. They need work.”
Pamela Tumpap, president of the Maui Chamber of Commerce, told the Council that a landslide of economic damage to Maui affecting employment, business owners and tax revenue needs to be avoided by helping commerce dominated by tourism concurrently with health and humanitarian issues.
“Relief efforts are just not coming quickly enough for many businesses, and they’re seeing the negative impacts due to visitor losses,” she said at Friday’s meeting.
West Maui contributes 15% of state tourism revenue, and the drop in visitors to the island is producing an estimated loss of state tax revenue between $11 million to $13 million a day.
An estimated 8,773 people are still out of work on Maui, and nearly 8,000 people who lost homes in the fire are living in hotels or other temporary accommodations.
A REBOUND in West Maui tourism is not expected to be fast.
According to a recent survey by Lisa Paulson, executive director of the Maui Lodging and Hotel Association, visitor occupancy in West Maui is expected to rise to 9.3% today, up from about 4% last week, then gradually reach about 34% in mid-November.
Though Green declared a reopening for all West Maui tourism, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen announced Sept. 27 that it would be staggered by proximity to Lahaina. The initial phase area runs from the Kapalua Resort to Kahana Villa. Two subsequent phases closer to Lahaina will follow with unspecified timing.
Hotels and vacation condominium properties in the first phase include the Montage Kapalua Bay, the Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua Bay Villas, Napili Shores Maui by Outrigger, Napili Kai Beach Resort and Kahana Sunset, among others.
Many are welcoming the return of tourists, but not all.
The Napili Surf Beach Resort informs would-be customers online, “As an ‘ohana, the Napili Surf Beach Resort team discussed reopening. We ask for more time to regain our bearings and face our broken hearts before serving outside our community.
“Please avoid a Westside vacation for now (Ka‘anapali, Kapalua, Napili & Honolua); but our neighbors on the South Shore, East Side, Upcountry and North Shore may be ready to serve you. Please remember, EVERYONE on Maui knows someone impacted by this calamity.”
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Star-Advertiser staff writer Christie Wilson contributed to this report.
