Almost half the hotel rooms on Maui are shut down for at least two weeks because of power outages related to wildfires that destroyed two Lahaina hotels, razed a historic commercial power center and continue to take a staggering human toll.

Prior to the wildfires, the Lahaina-Ka‘anapali-Napili- Kapalua region had the most hotel units of any area of Maui. Its 3,552 hotel units spread across 10 hotels comprised about 48% of the 7,372 hotel units on the Valley Isle, according to the latest Visitor Plant Inventory report from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The wildfires obliterated the 34-room Best Western Pioneer Inn, which was built in 1901 by George Alan Freeland and was one of nine buildings that constitute the Lahaina Historic District. Also destroyed was The Plantation Inn, an 18-room bed-and-breakfast style hotel, which housed Gerard’s Restaurant. Outrigger Hospitality Group had only purchased the property last month.

But losses for Maui hotels, a prime driver of the island’s economy, are still mounting, and they aren’t limited to infrastructure. While the majority of the hotels in the Lahaina-Ka‘anapali-Napili- Kapalua region were not damaged by fire, they also are facing temporary closures due to logistical challenges that are preventing them from housing not only visitors, but residents and essential travelers.

Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawai‘i Hotel Alliance, said communication is limited to mostly satellite phones, and all of the hotels in the region are still without full power.

“All of the hotels are in the process of evacuating their guests,” Gibson said. “Reservations also are on pause for a week at a time until we can figure out the logistics.“

Gibson said diesel trucks were finally able to get into Kapalua on Thursday to fill up the tanks of electric generators.

“It’s just for emergencies. It’s not adequate to support a guest experience,” Gibson said. “It takes care of pumps and a certain amount of lighting and maybe an elevator.”

Keith Vieira, principal of KV &Associates, Hospitality Consulting, said hoteliers are supposed to get a status update on electric power today. Even if repairs are authorized to start, Vieira said the best case would be two weeks.

“We just don’t know how long this is going to take,” he said. “There have been surprises every day. Yesterday morning, the death toll was 6, then it was 36, now its 55, and likely to grow.”

Vieria said in addition to dealing with the lack of communication and power outage, many workers might not be ready to return to work.

“Thousands of hotel workers live in the devastated area,” he said. “I don’t even think we have felt the full emotional toll of that.”

Gibson said hoteliers in the Lahaina-Ka‘anapali- Napili- Kapalua region have not fully evacuated guests, but are making progress as they work with officials and travel partners.

Evacuating visitors and others who need it has been a long slog. Maui was initially caught flat-footed by the wildfires, which started Tuesday afternoon and were 80% contained on Thursday. There have been logistical difficulties in moving visitors off Maui, where on any given day in June the average daily visitor census was 71,790.

The Hawai’i Tourism Authority said that 14,000 people were moved off Maui on Wednesday, with another 14,500 expected to be evacuated Thursday.

Teri Orton, general manager of the Hawai‘i Convention Center, said a shelter opened in the facility Wednesday and officials were prepared to host as many as 4,000 people, but only 69 guests stayed overnight. She said about a dozen came on Thursday, but most obtained flights or left to stay with friends or in a hotel.

Orton said officials planned to keep the center open overnight Thursday, but planned to meet to discuss mobilizing at the airport in the future.

“We haven’t had that many people stay, but those that have really have needed help,” she said. “One man was hiking when the fire broke out and lost all of his belongings. He had to apply for an emergency passport.”

Orton said a family of four, including two kids, had to walk down seven flights of stairs with their suitcases when they evacuated from Ka‘anapali due to the power outage. She said she has heard that one property in Ka‘anapali still needs to evacuate as many as 4,000 visitors, who can’t get out because of nearby road closures.

Gibson said many Maui visitors have left the island either to go home or to continue their vacations on another island. However, he said some have been accommodated at hotels in Wailea-Kihei or Kahului- Wailuku. Some 11 hotels are in the Wailea-Kihei region, which at 3,253 units is Maui’s second-largest hotel region, according to the DBEDT report. Maui’s third largest hotel region is Kahului-Wailuku with 5 hotels and 487 hotel units.

Ben Rafter, president and CEO of Springboard Hospitality, said, “Maui Beach Hotel and Maui Seaside are on the other side of the island and thus are operating as normal. Not surprisingly, both hotels will be full for the foreseeable future. We have set a fixed rate for kamaaina that are impacted by the fires and closed out wholesale channels.”

Gibson said Wailea, a luxury resort area far removed from the wildfires, also is full.

“Wailea is not closing and they are open for business and they will continue to be open for business,” he said. “If there’s one bright spot out there at least one area can be open still and still be viable to help with the economic challenges that will be going forward with other parts of the island. That’s at least something that can keep the planes flying in and keep the tourists coming to that area.”

Gibson said Maui hoteliers outside of the wildfire- affected regions are anxious to keep some semblance of the economy going. While the hotel industry is sensitive to the ongoing tragedy, he said some hoteliers want to keep the 50% of Maui’s hotel inventory that has not been hit by the wildfires open to prevent devastating economic losses.

He said it also is important to eventually recover hotel operations in the Lahaina-Ka‘anapali-Napili- Kapalua region, where many of the 4,500 team members have suffered personal and property losses.

“The best thing that we can do in the short time is to get them back to work,” he said. “We also want to get back up and running so that we can take care of our residents.”

However, state officials, including HTA, are discouraging nonessential travel to Maui, a move they used statewide to protect resources during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

HTA said, “Visitors who are on nonessential travel are being asked to leave Maui, and nonessential travel to Maui is strongly discouraged at this time. In the days and weeks ahead, our collective resources and attention must be focused on the recovery of residents and communities that were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses.”

While the messaging only applies to Maui, it’s going to be challenging for Hawaii’s visitor industry to ensure that tourism does not drop statewide. Visitors often are confused by the geography of Hawaii, and as evidenced by social media posts some are not inclined to travel anywhere in Hawaii during adversities for fear of being viewed as being insensitive. There also are posts from residents telling visitors to stay away from all of Hawaii, not just Maui.

Paul Brewbaker, principal of TZ Economics, said “the tragedy, the loss of life overrides everything.”

“Maui’s tourism activity is going to be severely impaired both immediately and for some time as recovery is mounted. But like other parts of the economy that are in a position to do so Maui tourism needs to continue to make its contribution to the economy and the community by staying open for business as much as is possible without impeding the response.”