Many small businesses on the Hawaiian island of Maui are still wrestling with survival one year after the devastating wildfires claimed over 100 lives and paralyzed local economy last August.
The fires, which broke out on Aug. 8 last year, destroyed more than 2,200 buildings and caused about 5.5-billion-dollar damage, dealing a big blow to local economy, particularly the tourism industry.
On Maui, the historic town of Lahaina was destroyed. Although Lahaina occupies only one percent of Maui's land, the Maui County quickly announced to the public that they hoped tourists would refrain from visiting Maui, which led to a misconception among international travelers that the entire island was affected by the fires, causing many to cancel their travel plans, some insiders said.
Although the local government later clarified that other areas of Maui were unaffected and still welcomed tourists, it was too late, and the misinformation has continued to impact the tourism industry to this day, they said.
"But unfortunately what happened is the visitors stopped coming because they got the message that Maui had been burned and there just seemed to be no reason for them to come to Maui. And that message was reinforced unfortunately by local government saying these short-term rentals are taking away the housing that we need for the residents. Then visitors who even wanted to come might have felt bad because they felt they might be taking away housing from someone who really needs it. Unfortunately, those messages were not clear enough. I have less than half the business in my bed and breakfast this year than I had prior to the fires last year," said Tom Crowley, short-term rental operator on Maui Island.
In May this year, the local government announced plans to take away vested property use rights from existing owners in several areas of Maui over the next two years by shifting about 7,000 housing units from the short-term to the long-term market to bring benefits for local housing affordability on Maui.
In the well-developed area for tourism in central Maui, restaurants and short-term rental market are experiencing a significant decline in business. To make ends meet, many homestays have had to drastically reduce prices to attract tourists, and many restaurants have been forced to close doors due to doubling rents.
"Tax rates increased for property tax, for example, and landlords of commercial buildings raise their prices therein and more restaurants go out of business because they cannot afford the rent anymore. It's a chain reaction. It's like a domino effect so that the disaster is still going on," said Peter Trunk, senior media professional on the island.
The governor of Hawaii on Friday announced a 4 billion U.S. dollars settlement to resolve lawsuits stemming from the deadly wildfires. Seven defendants include the state of Hawaii, County of Maui, Hawaiian Electric will provide the compensation.
Small businesses continue to suffer in Maui one year after devastating wildfires
