Maui Business

The Maui Nonprofit Directors Association recently held its Annual Meeting and Leadership Awards via Zoom, installing the association’s 2020-2021 officers and recognizing its supporters. Bevanne Bowers, Executive Director of Maui Mediation Services, received the distinguished O’o Award as Maui County’s Outstanding Nonprofit Executive Director.

The County of Maui received a “Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting” on Tuesday for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019. The certificate was awarded by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) which is a professional association providing services to finance practitioners and those responsible for government fiscal policy and management.

Maui County’s Department of Planning launched a publicly accessible and interactive “Land Use Viewer” for visualizing various Maui County land use datasets. 

To ensure peace of mind for some travelers, the Retreat is debuting a new elective post-arrival on-property COVID-19 Nasal PCR testing program that is in addition to the government required pre-arrival testing.

“Tabora Gallery Lahaina is a brand new business and we are busting at the seams to get going. We’ve been waiting to open the doors and we finally were able to do it,” said Anne Wood. Other Front Street stores that opened on Thursday included: CocoNēnē, West Maui Gifts, Maui Jewelers, Billabong and Honolula Surf.

Maui United Way has added Lisa Grove, a Lāna’i resident and active member of the Lāna’i community, to its board of directors. Grove will help strengthen the organization’s partnership with Maui Nui.

Maui Airports District Manager Marvin Moniz said that considering it was the first day, the day went by “fairly well.” He reported the biggest issue was large volumes of passengers arriving at the same time. This included two American Airlines flights and one United flight, which arrived at the same time, “deplaning approximately 500 passengers that caused a back up in the holding room.”

At Kahului Airport, with Thursday’s launch of Hawaiʻi’s Safe Travels Program, Maui Mayor Michael Victorino declared: “This is a new day for Maui County. It is a rebirth of our visitor industry.”

The fourth in a series of community budget meetings for fiscal year 2022, hosted by Mayor Michael Victorino and his administration, will be held on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020 starting at 5:30 p.m.

First Hawaiian Bank announced today that it will reopen on Oct. 19 four more branches – two branches on Hawaiʻi Island and one each on Maui and Kauaʻi – that were temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

All across Maui, hotels, vacation properties, car rental companies, restaurants, retail shops and other businesses that cater to the island’s 3 million or so annual travelers are preparing for the return of non-quarantining tourists, beginning Oct. 15. So what to expect? No one can say with any authority what numbers of visitors will travel to Maui through the end of the year. But most agree: The recovery is going to start out slowly.

The US Department of Energy has awarded Nalu Scientific, a Honolulu-based technology firm, $2.3 million in grants to continue its work on high-performance microchip and ultrafast camera, according to a news release from Nalu Scientific.

Hawaiian Airlines today announced it will temporarily suspend ‘Ohana by Hawaiian passenger and cargo services effective Nov. 1. Hawaiian, which reduced its workforce by nearly 2,500 employees this month when the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Payroll Support Program expired, will suspend its ‘Ohana by Hawaiian passenger flights between Honolulu and Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i, as well as cargo-only service within the Hawaiian Islands. Service between HNL and Kapalua in West Maui was suspended in March.

For the fourth straight year, Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi has received five out of five stars from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for its 2021 Medicare plan.

The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority report showed Maui County with 123,100 available unit nights in August, which is a decrease of 57.9% compared to a year ago, the largest vacation rental supply in all four counties; unit demand also decreased 94.7% with 12,100 unit nights, resulting in 9.8% occupancy with an ADR of $229.

NOHO HOME By Jalene Kanani, a home decor company, collaborated with non-profit Bishop Museum in Honolulu on Hawaiian snail-inspired pillowcases whose profits will be donated to help with the museum’s fundraising during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The State has made it clear that they want to move forward with the pre-travel testing program, without the second test,” Mayor Victorino said. “Many of our businesses and working families are struggling, so we are moving forward with the transpacific program.

Governor Ige hosts a media briefing today to discuss the upcoming pre-travel testing program for the state and other comprehensive safety measures ahead of the Oct. 15 launch. 

The governor has already denied requests from Maui and Kauaʻi for post-testing proposals; however Maui Mayor Michael Victorino said, “even though he has denied the second test for incoming trans-Pacific travelers, he is still in favor of looking at some other alternatives.”

A new report compiled by the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization shows that the number of tenants fully caught up on rent dropped from 95% prior to the pandemic to 85% in August.