Pirate's Cove

I wonder if the whole “don’t vacation in Maui right now or anytime soon” calls have had an effect?

Visitors implored to come back as Maui job cuts soar

More than 8,000 people on Maui are unemployed, in what’s become an economic crisis in the wake of the fire disaster. More are losing jobs daily, as residents and officials implore visitors to come back, but not to West Maui.

The suffering in Lahaina is beyond comprehension, and now, more anxiety as job cuts mount due to a drop visitor arrivals.

“Hotels are starting to notify their teams that they’re reducing hours or doing layoffs,” said Tapani Vuori, general manager of the Maui Ocean Center. “I’m hearing several boats already shut down their operations. So all of a sudden, it’s starting to touch every single person here on Maui.”

Initial weekly unemployment claims for Maui averaged just over 100 before the fire, but more than 8,100 people filed for unemployment between Aug. 8-20.

“We need to recover. We need to keep Maui employed,” Vuori said. “An employed Maui is a resilient Maui. Unfortunately, the messaging in the beginning started with, ‘Don’t come to Maui, Maui is closed.’ This was a grave, grave mistake in my opinion.”

Well, you can certainly understand the messaging, but, they need the tourism. 40% of their economy is based on Tourism. Other estimates say 70% of every dollar generated in Maui is from tourism. Construction is also large, but, is unnecessary without tourism.

Visitors listened and stayed away. In early August about 8,000 arrived daily, down to under 2,000 these days, putting at risk Maui’s significant contribution to the state’s economy. Maui drives nearly one-third of visitor counts of 3 million a year, and nearly one-third of visitor spending of about $6 billion a year. Almost $800 million of that annually was brought in by Lahaina businesses employing 5,300 people before the fire.

This article is from a local Hawaii outlet, KHON. Again, you can understand the sentiment, but, it should morph to “welcome to our island, please stay away from the Lahaina area.” Seriously, other areas have been destroy by the volcanoes, of course, not the loss of life. Maui desperately needs the tourism.