#Maui visitor

A coordinated statewide effort to support Maui’s tourism recovery is now underway, with the launch of a $6 million Maui Emergency Marketing Campaign funded by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority.

Eighteen months after the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, there were 202,738 visitors to Maui in January 2025. The number of visitors to Maui in January 2025 was higher than January 2024 (175,005 visitors, +15.8%), but below January 2019 (233,422 visitors, -13.1%).

Here on Maui, 14 months after the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, there were 180,609 visitors to Maui in October 2024, which was higher than October 2023 (134,493 visitors, +34.3%), but below October 2019 (238,043 visitors, -24.1%). Visitor spending increased to $388.5 million in October 2024, compared to $332.9 million (+16.7%) in October 2023 and $379.8 million (+2.3%) in October 2019.

The Maui Police Department asking for the public’s help with any information on the whereabouts of Susan Krasny, 76. Krasny was reported missing on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, by family members after they discovered she left her Wailea hotel room and did not return.  

The vacation rental unit supply on Maui continued to be impacted by the Aug. 8, 2023 wildfires. The information and data was part of the state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism’s March 2024 Hawai‘i Vacation Rental Performance Report released today.

Maui County hotels continued to be impacted by the Aug. 8 wildfires, but still led the counties in December 2023 Revenue Per Available Room due to comparatively higher Average Daily Rate. 

The impacts from the Maui wildfires were significant in September 2023 with both visitor arrivals and visitor expenditures down by more than 50% for Maui for the month compared to 2022.

Senator Angus McKelvey and Representative Elle Cochran sent a letter to Governor Josh Green urging him to abandon the hard date of Oct. 8 for the reopening of tourism to West Maui.

The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority reports that vacation travel to West Maui is strongly discouraged for the near future. Visitors in West Maui have largely heeded the call to leave the island. About 46,000 people have flown out of Kahului Airport since Wednesday.

A mass bus evacuation for visitors will be staged at Sheraton Maui Resort in Kāʻanapali this afternoon and take visitors directly to Kahului Airport. Five County of Maui buses, each with a capacity of 49 people, and five Polynesian Adventure Tours buses, each with a capacity of 50, will provide the transportation, with the first wave of buses scheduled for around 4 p.m.

Visitor spending was $544.8 million in April 2023, compared to $496.7 million in April 2022 (+9.7%) and $398.6 million (+36.7%) in April 2019.

Maui had 276,485 visitors is March of 2023, up +15.4% from the same time last year, when 239,538 visitors came, and up +1.7% from March of 2019 when 271,934 arrived.

There were 228,743 visitors to Maui in January 2023, up nearly 25% from the 183,278 visitors who arrived in January 2022, and down -2% from the 233,422 visitors who came in January 2019.

Visitor arrivals to Maui were down in October of 2022, compared to the same time in 2019, but visitor spending continues to trend upward.

In October, Maui County had the largest vacation rental supply of all four counties with 211,900 available unit nights. That’s up +2.9% from 2021, but down -34.5% from 2019. 

The number of visitors present on any given day last month on Maui increased nearly 2% from the same time in 2019, and overall arrivals were close to pre-pandemic totals for the same timeframe, according to a report released Thursday. 

Some residents backed a plan to cap Maui’s transient accommodations, while industry testifiers questioned whether a ceiling would have unintended legal and financial consequences during a Maui County Council committee meeting Wednesday.

A 60-year-old Georgia man, visiting Kāʻanapali in West Maui, told state officials he “was very sorry” for lifting a sea turtle out of the water by its shell, last week. He told DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources officers he didn’t know his actions were against the law.

For the first two months of 2021, visitors to Maui were down 58 percent to 29,060 visitors per day, compared to 69,281 visitors per day at the same time in 2020.

In August, total visitor days fell 96.8 percent in Maui County from a year ago. There were 2,341 visitors to Maui in August versus 273,638 visitors a year ago, according to a new report released by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority.