Josh Hargrove, general manager at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa, Kaanapali, has a straightforward pitch for travelers who are still a little hesitant about booking a vacation to Kaanapali, the beachfront West Maui destination roughly four miles north of Lahaina.
“Come have an amazing time on Maui — celebrate your life occasion, have a blast,” Hargrove said. “While you're here, you'll help the community, and then when you go back, and you tell your friends about the great time you had, you'll also be helping the community. All we need you to do is just come and have a wonderful time with us."
What’s the Situation in West Maui Today?
More than 100 people died in the Aug. 8 wildfire that destroyed much of Lahaina last summer and displaced another 8,000 residents who called the small West Maui town home.
Hargrove has owned a condo in Lahaina for years, and while it survived the fire, he and his family lived for nine months at the Westin Maui Resort because their home was surrounded by affected buildings and county officials deemed their condo uninhabitable until late this spring.
“We have no displaced families at the hotel now,” Hargrove said, explaining that he’s still asked often about whether his resort currently houses any fire victims.
And as the guests were coming in, they actually brought joy and celebration and all the things that people bring when they're on vacation to our community and to our workers.
“We’re down to about, I think, 260 [hotel] rooms across Maui that are still occupied by displaced families,” Hargrove told me, noting that at one point, the Westin Maui Resort alone had 440 guestrooms housing people impacted by the fire.
“Probably 150 of those housed [Westin Maui] employees,” he said. “Then 290 or so were displaced families not associated with the Westin.”
The Westin Maui Resort reopened to vacationers in December last year, according to Hargrove, who said that the decision wasn’t an especially easy one.
“We opened up, and I was initially concerned, thinking ‘Well, I hope everyone's okay,’” he recalled. “But then you felt the weight lift around the property. … And as the guests were coming in, they actually brought joy and celebration and all the things that people bring when they're on vacation to our community and to our workers.”
Hargrove told me that occupancy for the 769-room hotel has, meanwhile, remained essentially flat year over year, averaging right around 70%.
“In order to get there, [though,] we've seen rates drop fairly significantly,” he explained, saying average daily rates are down roughly 20% at resorts across Maui.
“I don't think it will last,” he continued. “I'm confident the rates are also going to recover — probably by the end of this year or beginning of next year. But for the moment, it's probably the most affordable time that visitors would be able to visit Maui in quite some time — probably since COVID-19.”
A Return to Hospitality
Jared Kahaialii, who is the assistant director of spa at the Westin Maui Resort, lost his Lahaina home in last summer’s wildfire, and he lived for six months on the property before finding new full-time housing this February in nearby Kahana.
During my visit to the property in May, Kahaialii told me he threw himself into volunteer work soon after the fire, putting in several hours many days a week at a local donation hub, where he helped provide food, clothing and other essentials to victims. Kahaialii said those efforts — and his later return to work at the resort — provided significant relief.
“For me, it was definitely an escape,” he recalled. “It was a welcome distraction. … It also provided a sense of normalcy and gave me reassurance that things are going to be fine. It's just another day in the office, and at the end of it, everything's going to work out.”
Hargrove said vacationing hotel guests have, in many ways, helped staff members a great deal simply by returning to the property.
“It’s healing, and our visitors are part of that process,” he explained. “That's part of what is helping everyone get through this. It’s that normalcy, it's that stability, it's relationships. All of that is healing.”
Hargrove and Kahaialii did note, however, that while West Maui and its visitor industry have come a long way in the recovery process, that didn’t happen overnight, and the destination certainly was not ready to welcome vacationers in the immediate wake of the fire’s devastation.
“There was signage here early on in the aftermath of the fire that read: Fresh Out of Aloha,” Kahaialii said, referring to national media reporting last fall about the challenges of returning to hospitality work for many of those impacted by the fires.
“It just gave the outside world a glimpse into how we were hurt at that time,” Kahaialii explained. “ We've been able to recover that part of ourselves, and we're ready to share that openly again.”
Slumping Sales
Jack Richards, the CEO and president of Pleasant Holidays, told me last month that his company’s business to all of Hawaii is down 25% year over year, and the tour operator has seen sales to Maui plunge between 35% and 50%.
“What’s happened is because of the fires and because of the initial messaging that came out, and all the stuff everybody's reading about, it's not limited to just Maui,” Richards said. “It is impacting travel to all the four primary islands: Oahu, Island of Hawaii, Kauai and Maui.”
Richards noted that high prices across the islands earlier this year also hampered sales, while demand has since increased for competitors such as Mexico and the Caribbean, and destinations in Europe are setting new arrivals and spending records.
“I don't think there's any definitive data you can point to and say, ‘This is why people aren't traveling to Maui or to Hawaii,’” Richards said. “But there's one thing that we all know for sure. There was a fire almost a year ago. It was devastating. It was a tragedy. And are people wanting to go after that tragedy and feel comfortable celebrating and vacationing? I don't have the answer to that, but people are voting with their pocketbooks.”
It’s also been a rough 11 months for the Pacific Whale Foundation, a Maui-based eco-tour provider that lost its newest ocean vessel and its retail storefront, while 22 of the company’s employees lost their homes in the Lahaina fire.
We are seeing very similar trends to what the state is recording for Maui County — about a 30% drop in business.
“Business is tough,” said Dayna Garland, chief of staff at the Pacific Whale Foundation. “We are seeing very similar trends to what the state is recording for Maui County — about a 30% drop in business.”
Visitors Are Welcome
Like the Westin Maui’s Hargrove, Garland agreed that her company’s staff is eager to see visitors return, and that the island needs tourism revenue to recover. But she also encouraged visitors to consider volunteering during their stay through one of eco-tour provider’s Malama Pono partnerships with local nonprofits.
“We encourage people to come with sensitivity — not just in light of the fires, but in light of what a special place Maui is,” Garland said. “We want to give visitors that experience, give them that connection to the ocean and the environment, so they leave feeling inspired to make a difference, to be a part of something bigger. … We definitely encourage people to get involved.”
We encourage people to come with sensitivity — not just in light of the fires, but in light of what a special place Maui is.
Longtime Maui resident and travel advisor Kathy Takushi, who owns Captivating Journeys in Haiku, told me she has booked a few trips for clients to West Maui this year, including visits taking place earlier this spring and a few more slated for this summer. She was quick to note her business this year to destinations in Asia and Europe has been booming, but the number of inquiries she’s receiving for Hawaii vacations has dropped “dramatically.”
“I would say [it’s] over 50% down,” Takushi said. “And by the time [resorts in] Kaanapali dropped their rates, it was a little bit too late for all those people who planned their summer trips ahead.”
Still, Takushi said guests she’s booked to West Maui have all thoroughly enjoyed their vacations, and she also spoke about the island’s real need for tourism revenue to recover.
“I would encourage other travel advisors — if they were not thinking about Hawaii, to please rethink that,” she said. “Because we need the support for our community here to keep people employed. … If we have the housing problem and an employment problem, it’s just going to turn into a real big mess.”
