Aloha, Climate Action, Resilience, and Environment Committee:
I support the moratorium on visitor accommodation development, and I respectfully request that you do the same and extend its provisions to all of Maui County.
There are ways to make tourism simultaneously sustainable and profitable. In order to explore those ways, we must stop and examine the accommodations and numbers of visitors we have already accommodated, and compare them with the environmental, cultural, and societal carrying capacity of Maui County before considering adding even more.
Please use this moment in time to stop and think about the future without considering money. What will be important to the Islands twenty years from now? One hundred?
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.
Mahalo nui and mālama pono,
Amy Fonarow (former Maui resident)
My husband and I are in SUPPORT of the proposed "MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS FOR VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS (CARE-50),” We have lived on Maui since 1970 and seen how the environment has eroded terribly over the years, while local families we have know for years can no longer find housing, and feel "pushed out" by the tourists. Enough is enough. Please, no more building! Cap the number of tourists, and let the environment recover. Thank you.
I am a former resident of Maui, now living in California. While I am anxious to visit the islands as soon as I feel it is really safe. I can see clearly that the current situation with tourists is that many tourists are uneducated as to the fact that they are in someones community. Many tourists are behaving very disrespectful. They act as though they were in a private amusement park. The numbers of tourists at this point is overwelming. A moratorium is a wise move in the right direction.
Excessive tourism strains the islands resources, water, waste water/sewage, supplies, medical services etc. We've all seen what happened with the ocean mammals when the island was shutdown for a bit, it was wonderful. There needs to be a better balance between the have's & have not's,
There MUST be a moratorium on visitor accommodations! Maui cannot continue to support the huge influx of visitors we've been seeing. We do not have the infrastructure or natural resources to support the numbers to which we have grown. You all saw the number of rental cars parked during the shut down and we should learn from the pandemic. It's the perfect time to diversify and break free of the strangle hold of tourism. Put effort toward sustainable agriculture, clean industry and allow Maui to become a self supporting supplier of the Pacific. Learn from what happened to Oahu.
Please immediately enact a moratorium on new development of visitor accommodations. Over-tourism does not serve our community. We need to hit pause and think about what will best nourish our people, the aina and future generations.
There are too many malihini as it is already, we certainly don't need more hotels. The quality of life for local residents suffers because of too many tourists. There's a mentality that we need the tourist industry so badly but who does it really benefit? As we learned in Pacific Business News, Hawaiʻi's tourist industry is the lowest paying in the country. A moratorium is needed badly. Please vote in support. Mahalo.
I strongly support this moratorium. Maui has changed so drastically in the past few years and not for the better. When is enough, enough? I believe the time is now and I know all of the real locals here feel the same. I hate that my keiki cannot enjoy many of the beaches and other parts of this island that I grew up at all because of the overwhelming amount of tourists and transplants here now. Quality over quantity please. Maui No Ka Oi
Hi my name is Consuelo Apolo-Gonsalves I fully support this measure our infrastructure can't handle anymore hotels enough already this moratorium should be for the whole island of maui not just south kihei and westside Mahalo for your time
I wholeheartedly support this measure!! The island an it's infrastructure cannot sustain the same levels of tourism pre-pandemic. We're already feeling some of those pressures again. We need our economy more derversified, so as never to experience the same economic misfortune!!! This is our home and we need better! Mahalo
I'm writing in SUPPORT of the proposed "MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS FOR VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS (CARE-50). It's important to slow down the growth of visitor hotels in ALL parts of Maui, too, for if stopped in the usual tourist areas, the growth will just move to the rest of the County, as we are witnessing in plans for hotels or hotel expansion in Wailuku and Kahului.
Mele Stokesberry, Kula
Testimony of
Mufi Hannemann
President & CEO
Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association
Maui County Council
Climate Action, Resilience, & Environment Committee
May 19, 2021
CC 21-232: AMENDING THE BUILDING CODE TO ADD CHAPTER 40 RELATING TO A MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS FOR HOTELS
Chair King and members of the Committee, mahalo for the opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of the Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association, the state’s largest private sector visitor industry organization.
The Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association—nearly 700 members strong, representing more than 50,000 hotel rooms and nearly 40,000 lodging workers —advocates on behalf of an industry that has been disproportionately hamstrung by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our people and our businesses are just beginning to get back on their feet, and we, as community, should be trying to make it easier for businesses to recover safely especially during an economic downturn that has hurt our state’s top economic driver. At its core, this proposed measure unfairly discriminates against a single industry that consistently contributes millions of dollars each year in State and county revenues.
It should also be noted that the findings of this proposed measure cite tourism statistics from 2019 that do not take into account the pandemic, or the year-long depression in visitor arrival numbers. These numbers will not rebound overnight- we will not see 10 million visitors statewide or 70,000 daily visitors to Maui County any time soon. This would provide both West and South Maui ample time to update their respective community plans without limiting measured growth and or renovation of aging properties.
Moreover, the proposed language of the measure cites several goals including the lowering of carbon emissions, climate change mitigation, and limiting global warming by “pausing visitor accommodation development and the related increase in tourism” but limiting development and renovation now would not accomplish this. Any restriction on hotel development would not in any effective manner lower the demand for travel to Maui County at this time. It would, however, severely limit a property’s ability to retrofit or upgrade its infrastructure during planned rebuilding.
Finally, restricting construction, expansion, or renovation would only harm other sectors of our economy like construction and other trades that have survived the pandemic. Building permits of all types ultimately mean more projects and, by extension, more jobs for Maui residents. It would seem self-destructive to enact such limiting constraints on both the travel industry and the trades in Maui which is historically the county most reliant upon tourism for its economic well-being. This fact was made especially clear during and throughout a pandemic that has left Hawai‘i with the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
For these reasons, HLTA strongly opposes this proposed measure.
Thank you for the opportunity to offer this testimony.
Aloha, Climate Action, Resilience, and Environment Committee:
I support the moratorium on visitor accommodation development, and I respectfully request that you do the same and extend its provisions to all of Maui County.
There are ways to make tourism simultaneously sustainable and profitable. In order to explore those ways, we must stop and examine the accommodations and numbers of visitors we have already accommodated, and compare them with the environmental, cultural, and societal carrying capacity of Maui County before considering adding even more.
Please use this moment in time to stop and think about the future without considering money. What will be important to the Islands twenty years from now? One hundred?
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.
Mahalo nui and mālama pono,
Amy Fonarow (former Maui resident)
Please recommend that the Council approve a moratorium for al of Maui County.
Mike Foley, retired Maui County Planning Director.
When is enough enough?
Enough excess already. Educate visitors, limit tourism.
My husband and I are in SUPPORT of the proposed "MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS FOR VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS (CARE-50),” We have lived on Maui since 1970 and seen how the environment has eroded terribly over the years, while local families we have know for years can no longer find housing, and feel "pushed out" by the tourists. Enough is enough. Please, no more building! Cap the number of tourists, and let the environment recover. Thank you.
I support the Moratorium On Visitor Accommodations Development.
I am a former resident of Maui, now living in California. While I am anxious to visit the islands as soon as I feel it is really safe. I can see clearly that the current situation with tourists is that many tourists are uneducated as to the fact that they are in someones community. Many tourists are behaving very disrespectful. They act as though they were in a private amusement park. The numbers of tourists at this point is overwelming. A moratorium is a wise move in the right direction.
Excessive tourism strains the islands resources, water, waste water/sewage, supplies, medical services etc. We've all seen what happened with the ocean mammals when the island was shutdown for a bit, it was wonderful. There needs to be a better balance between the have's & have not's,
There MUST be a moratorium on visitor accommodations! Maui cannot continue to support the huge influx of visitors we've been seeing. We do not have the infrastructure or natural resources to support the numbers to which we have grown. You all saw the number of rental cars parked during the shut down and we should learn from the pandemic. It's the perfect time to diversify and break free of the strangle hold of tourism. Put effort toward sustainable agriculture, clean industry and allow Maui to become a self supporting supplier of the Pacific. Learn from what happened to Oahu.
Please immediately enact a moratorium on new development of visitor accommodations. Over-tourism does not serve our community. We need to hit pause and think about what will best nourish our people, the aina and future generations.
There are too many malihini as it is already, we certainly don't need more hotels. The quality of life for local residents suffers because of too many tourists. There's a mentality that we need the tourist industry so badly but who does it really benefit? As we learned in Pacific Business News, Hawaiʻi's tourist industry is the lowest paying in the country. A moratorium is needed badly. Please vote in support. Mahalo.
Please let’s be proactive with the tourism and not wait until land,
water, wildlife and reef is destroyed beyond repair
I strongly support this moratorium. Maui has changed so drastically in the past few years and not for the better. When is enough, enough? I believe the time is now and I know all of the real locals here feel the same. I hate that my keiki cannot enjoy many of the beaches and other parts of this island that I grew up at all because of the overwhelming amount of tourists and transplants here now. Quality over quantity please. Maui No Ka Oi
Please immediately enact the moratorium on any more visitor accommodations. Let's figure out our over tourism issue first!
Hi my name is Consuelo Apolo-Gonsalves I fully support this measure our infrastructure can't handle anymore hotels enough already this moratorium should be for the whole island of maui not just south kihei and westside Mahalo for your time
I wholeheartedly support this measure!! The island an it's infrastructure cannot sustain the same levels of tourism pre-pandemic. We're already feeling some of those pressures again. We need our economy more derversified, so as never to experience the same economic misfortune!!! This is our home and we need better! Mahalo
I SUPPORT a moratorium on all development and permitting of visitor accommodations for the entire island of Maui.
I'm writing in SUPPORT of the proposed "MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS FOR VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS (CARE-50). It's important to slow down the growth of visitor hotels in ALL parts of Maui, too, for if stopped in the usual tourist areas, the growth will just move to the rest of the County, as we are witnessing in plans for hotels or hotel expansion in Wailuku and Kahului.
Mele Stokesberry, Kula
Testimony of
Mufi Hannemann
President & CEO
Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association
Maui County Council
Climate Action, Resilience, & Environment Committee
May 19, 2021
CC 21-232: AMENDING THE BUILDING CODE TO ADD CHAPTER 40 RELATING TO A MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS FOR HOTELS
Chair King and members of the Committee, mahalo for the opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of the Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association, the state’s largest private sector visitor industry organization.
The Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association—nearly 700 members strong, representing more than 50,000 hotel rooms and nearly 40,000 lodging workers —advocates on behalf of an industry that has been disproportionately hamstrung by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our people and our businesses are just beginning to get back on their feet, and we, as community, should be trying to make it easier for businesses to recover safely especially during an economic downturn that has hurt our state’s top economic driver. At its core, this proposed measure unfairly discriminates against a single industry that consistently contributes millions of dollars each year in State and county revenues.
It should also be noted that the findings of this proposed measure cite tourism statistics from 2019 that do not take into account the pandemic, or the year-long depression in visitor arrival numbers. These numbers will not rebound overnight- we will not see 10 million visitors statewide or 70,000 daily visitors to Maui County any time soon. This would provide both West and South Maui ample time to update their respective community plans without limiting measured growth and or renovation of aging properties.
Moreover, the proposed language of the measure cites several goals including the lowering of carbon emissions, climate change mitigation, and limiting global warming by “pausing visitor accommodation development and the related increase in tourism” but limiting development and renovation now would not accomplish this. Any restriction on hotel development would not in any effective manner lower the demand for travel to Maui County at this time. It would, however, severely limit a property’s ability to retrofit or upgrade its infrastructure during planned rebuilding.
Finally, restricting construction, expansion, or renovation would only harm other sectors of our economy like construction and other trades that have survived the pandemic. Building permits of all types ultimately mean more projects and, by extension, more jobs for Maui residents. It would seem self-destructive to enact such limiting constraints on both the travel industry and the trades in Maui which is historically the county most reliant upon tourism for its economic well-being. This fact was made especially clear during and throughout a pandemic that has left Hawai‘i with the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
For these reasons, HLTA strongly opposes this proposed measure.
Thank you for the opportunity to offer this testimony.
I support this ordinance.