LIHU’E — The recent spike in travelers coming to Hawai‘i is stirring up some community leaders statewide.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Maui Mayor Mike Victorino said the pandemic stopped everyone from going almost everywhere, causing the nation to want to travel more.
“We’d like to welcome them,” Victorino said. Yet, Victorino said he has some reservations when it comes to visitors who may strain government resources. “Air One (rescue helicopter), all of that, has been taxed because, again, many of these visitors are not using good common sense and going into areas where they’re not supposed to.”
“It’s important to understand it’s not my problem. It’s not just our county’s problem. It’s a state problem,” he said.
Gov. David Ige, in a recent interview, said the state has no authority over limiting aircraft bringing in people.
“I talked with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) about what a state can do. And we cannot restrict aircraft flying into the state of Hawai‘i,” Ige told Hawai‘i News Now.
And there is no question that the visitor industry is picking up again on Kaua‘i, Mayor Derek Kawakami said.
“As we continue to vaccinate our residents and loosen restrictions, we continue to look at how to manage our COVID-19 response and recovery, which
includes focusing on
managing visitor impact to our island,” Kawakami said.
“When Kaua‘i experienced the historic April 2018 flood, our leaders also saw an opportunity to better manage visitor impact on our North Shore. That led to changes that were adopted into DLNR’s Ha‘ena State Park Master Plan.”
According to Kawakami, this changed the way visitors got to the North Shore, put a limit on parking, imposed fees, and brought back the quality of life to the community.
“We plan to use this model islandwide to manage our more-popular visitor destinations, which is why we have allocated American Rescue Plan Act funding to conduct a study on our congested beach parks in Po‘ipu, Lydgate and Hanalei Black Pot,” Kawakami said.
“As more visitors come to Kaua‘i, we have seen the return of our pre-existing transportation challenges. Our county team and partners have been trying to figure out how to implement transportation mode change for years, and the pandemic gave us a window to try to support another way to have visitors move around the island.
“We thank the transportation industry for incorporating more options for this, and our Office of Economic Development stands ready to support where possible — such as the pilot shuttle program that Hawai‘i Tourism Authority and the transportation industry will be heading,” he said.
“COVID-19 has allowed us to move our initiatives faster and in the right direction. We saw how teleworking and allowing flexible schedules helped to mitigate traffic. We continue to look at out-of-the-box ideas and encourage our business community to adopt similar protocols.”
Hanama‘ulu resident Allison Davis said she thinks it’s great that Hawai‘i has more revenue coming in, but she still has some concerns.
“I just wish they would respect our rules about the pandemic and masking,” Davis said. “For the most part, they do, with the exception of a handful.”
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Stephanie Shinno, education and business reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
