Kaanapali, Maui >> Maricris de los Reyes smiles while calling a customer at the ABC Store in Whalers Village. The store closed after being fatally injured in the Maui wildfires on Aug. 8 and could not reopen until visitors began returning to West Maui.
Lahaina residents suffered many losses. Her home, where she, her fiancé, and her two children lived along with other members of her family, was burnt down. The Lahaina Canned ABC Store where she worked was not one of the three ABC stores on Maui that were reduced to ashes. However, it was damaged in a fire and is currently closed.
De los Reyes said she and her family narrowly escaped the fire, but stabilization and healing will take time. But she’s grateful for the reopening of West Maui’s tourism industry. That gave her the opportunity to work at the ABC Store in Whalers Village in Kaanapali until the Lahaina Cannery, where she has worked for half her life, reopens.
“I’m glad this place is open again. I said to the tourists, ‘Thank you for coming,'” de los Reyes said. “We have to think positively. It’s not necessarily negative. When we left the fire, we only had two clothes. My daughter didn’t have slippers. I told her, ‘You can always replace it when mom goes back to work.’
West Maui’s phased reopening of tourism, which began Oct. 8, has given businesses an opportunity to begin recovery from a deep economic downturn.
Arrivals to Maui in September fell 57% to 94,221 and spending dropped 52.6% to $203.2 million, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
DBEDT estimates that tourism contributes 29% of the direct economic impact to Maui, reaching nearly 38% when all spillover effects are included, making the recovery of the tourist industry critical to all business sectors. It shows gender.
Since tourism reopened across West Maui on Nov. 1, the region has finally shown signs of a fragile recovery. Still, balancing the various community interests that have emerged since the fires remains a challenge.
Lahaina Strong, a grassroots organization focused on restoring the historic town, set up tents and fishing poles Friday on the public access portion of Ka’anapali Beach in front of Whalers Village, and its members were sworn in by Maui Mayor Richard Bissen. He said he intends to exercise his traditional rights and remain there until the situation is resolved. Governor Josh Green will solve Maui’s growing housing crisis.
They are asking Bissen and Green to convert thousands of temporary vacation rentals and short-term rentals in West Maui into long-term rentals. They also want protections such as rent controls and immediate mortgage forbearance for all homes lost in the fire.
Some Lahaina Strong members are already sleeping on the beach, and the group has indicated that more tents will likely be erected to house the displaced. They said they chose such a prominent location to emphasize the urgency of the housing crisis.
They say they are prioritizing “local needs over corporate greed.” This mantra has left visiting industry stakeholders concerned that the “fishing for dignified housing” could make visitors feel unwelcome, delay recovery and perpetuate the cycle of job losses.
Junlin Ai, leader of Lahaina Strong Operations, said, “It’s hard to give a toss right now.” We couldn’t get FEMA, we couldn’t get SBA, we couldn’t get unemployment, so we couldn’t get a job financially. There are a lot of people who have to go back. They had no choice but to go back to work, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy there.”
Ii said she previously worked as a cleaner at a condominium hotel, but did not return after the fire.
“I didn’t think it was okay for me to go clean a room where tourists come in when I probably knew this person who was being kicked out,” she said.
Many hotel industry and government officials dispute Lahaina Strong’s contention that returning tourists are replacing fire evacuees.
However, the complexity of Maui’s housing shortage poses multiple concerns that impact businesses. As tourists return and more businesses reopen, there will be a shortage of housing for the workforce and growth could stall.
Despite these ongoing challenges, business in West Maui is beginning to recover.
The popular Whalers Village restaurant was packed Friday night, in some cases even busier than it was earlier in the week before Lahaina Strong’s tents and fishing pool were set up.
On November 6th, visitors gathered on the lawn in front of the Sea Maui booth to take a sunset catamaran cruise. Operations manager Taylor Rigsby said business really started picking up about a week ago.
“We were able to bring our employees back and give them more hours. This was very important because we had several employees who had to go off-island. Tipped labor “Losing a job is not a great thing for a person,” Rigsby said. “Once restaurants started reopening, we got busy.”
There were so many customers at the newly opened Monkey Pod Kitchen by Merriman’s on Tuesday night that a line formed around the building. Hula Grill Kaanapali was also crowded. It looked mostly normal, except for a sign at the entrance reminding people to be patient and not to ask employees about the fire that had destroyed the area.
The upscale Kapalua hotel is much quieter than Kaanapali, but the Honolua location in the resort town has longer lines at the deli and more patrons dining on the balconies of the tavernas.
Traffic volume along the Honoapirani Expressway has also increased. Signs went up last week advertising the opening of 808 Antojitos, a Mexican food truck, at Lahaina Cannery Mall, where anchor tenants Safeway and Longs Drugs reopened in September.
ABC Stores President and CEO Paul Kosasa said the fire caused the loss of more than 50 employees, destroyed three of the company’s stores, and resulted in the closure of the Lahaina Cannery ABC Store. said that it was done.
“We’re doing the cleanup logistics up there (at the Lahaina Cannery) and there’s no water over there. But we’ll reopen. Our efforts are about getting people back to work and getting them back to work. “It’s about trying to give time to people,” he said.
Kosasa said ABC Stores currently has three stores open in West Maui, including Whalers Village, Honokawai and Kapalua.
“Most of our customers are emergency workers and relief workers, but they are gradually turning into tourists,” he said. “Of course, it is impossible to go back to the way things were before. But it is a good sign that visitors are returning little by little. There is room for optimism.”
Toni Marie Davis, executive director of the Hawai’i Activities and Attractions Association, said the A3H board has awarded more than $32,000 to 42 members across Maui, as many businesses have struggled since the fires. He said that he had approved the refund of membership fees.
“Many businesses have been directly hit by the fire and are closed indefinitely. There are also those who have been affected indirectly as most of our livelihoods depend on the visitor industry. Here As the number of (visitors) plummeted in a matter of months, the hardships in our island communities were compounded and rippled through the economy,” Mr Davis said.
Still, she said, there is hope on the horizon as tourists are slowly returning.
“Kapalua Ziplines reopened last week, with employees back to work and reporting healthy customer numbers. Maui hiking companies have also adapted to fewer tourists by operating at reduced capacity. “We reported a profit in October,” Davis said. “Other businesses are open and sharing that they are operating at a 30% loss, but at least their employees have jobs. Like it or not, the community is coming together to , I pray that we all recognize the value of the tourist industry to our economy.”