Visitors at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu. Marco Garcia / AP Photo
-
Maui County’s Mayor Michael Victorino asked the airlines to “take a break.”
-
Hawaii has seen a massive tourist boom as people start traveling again.
-
Locals and businesses are not fully prepared for this stream of visitors, Victorino’s office told Hawaii News Now.
- Check out Insider’s business page for more stories.
The Revenge Vacation season is now in full swing, and during many travelers are rushing to book a trip After a year stuck at home, the mayor of a tropical island tells airlines to slow down: Maui, Hawaii.
“I’ve spoken to various airlines and … we just ask you to take a break if you want to use that term,” said Michael Victorino, Mayor of Maui County, during one press conference on June 29th. “We don’t have the authority to say stop, but we ask those in power to help us.”
In the past few weeks, the number of tourists flocking to Hawaii is sometimes exceeded the travel level of 2019. And from July 1 to July 5, according to data, over 170,000 people traveled to the state Hawaii’s travel dates. As a result, Maui’s Kahului Airport has hit “overcapacity” with bottlenecks across the airport, according to Victorino.
In late June, Victorino also met with “airline executives” to possibly reduce the airlift to the airport, Rick Daysog reported for Hawaii news now.
“The people of Maui County do not have enough time to prepare for the sudden, large influx of tourism, even if health restrictions persist,” Brian Perry, a spokesman for Victorino, told Hawaii News Now. “Many of our hospitality companies are still struggling to fully staff their operations to provide quality customer service.”
Overtourism is not a new topic for the warm weather state. But despite the economic benefits of tourism, this massive stream of visitors has angered some Locals concerned about the spread of COVID-19 and the lack of compliance with health protocols by some visitors.
“People are choosing Hawaii not just because of the wonderful resources and people, but because there really aren’t a lot of options,” Victorino said, citing that other international travel destinations currently have closed borders.
Some of these tourists also do not use “common sense” and [are] going to areas they shouldn’t go, ”said Victorino.
This wave of visitors also gets headwind from the Lack of rental cars in the statewho has pushed TOur customers rent U-Haul moving vehicles and trucks instead of rental cars. This might be a clever alternative, but it has left some U-Haul locations with less equipment for the locals.
“I want to remind visitors that Maui is first and foremost a community and secondly a vacation destination,” said Victorino.
