Hana Highway Regulation

05/15/2023

Trespassing by visitors has been a large issue in East Maui. The Bamboo Forest in Kailua (MM6.5) is considered private land with posted No Trespassing signs and yet incurs countless visitor emergency scenarios including injuries and fatalities. The County of Maui renders extensive helicopter, fire and EMT service support every year to recover visitors from this property. During the Summer of 2018 and 2019, Hana Highway Regulation’s Visitor Information Personnel concept exemplified its ability to deter 96% of trespassing attempts by visitors. We look forward to funding support from and by way of our application for the 2023 East Maui Tourism Management Pilot Program so we can implement proven solutions to diminish emergency rescue needs and decrease visitor tragedies.

05/15/2023

By Audrey McAvoy, The Associated Press: Hawaii lawmakers ended their 2023 legislative session on Thursday without allocating money for the tourism agency that manages the state’s biggest industry and employer.

But legislators, the governor and the lieutenant governor agreed to make some money available to the Hawaii Tourism Authority as the agency transitions from its traditional work advertising Hawaii to managing tourism so it doesn’t overwhelm local residents.

Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, said in a statement that the state needs to figure out “how we can shift this agency from its focus of marketing tourism to more strategically looking at destination management that would attract and educate responsible visitors.”

Under the agreement, the Hawaii Tourism Authority will have to request funds from the state Department of Budget and Finance. Lawmakers and Green’s administration will vet the requests.

04/15/2023

It is often traumatizing to think back at how heavy the tourism impact was during the Summer of 2019. This is the area of Honolewa otherwise known as South Wailua Falls. The lack of available parking stalls in comparison to the scale of visitor interest for this site creates intense gridlocks. Many visitors park illegally which restricts the flow of traffic through this one lane bridge. The bus is often delayed due to the circumstances described and pictured here. This is just one out of the hundreds of stressors that our community endures with the current lack of visitor management mechanisms by the State of Hawaii, County of Maui and its visitor industry. Grateful that our recommendation to prioritize this site for intervention was taken seriously by the Maui Visitors & Convention Bureau and Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. Honolewa in addition to four other critical sites along the Hāna Highway activity route are slated to be addressed through the upcoming 2023 East Maui Tourism Management Pilot Program.

04/13/2023

The Maui Visitors & Convention Bureau in collaboration with Hawaii Tourism Authority, has released a Request for Proposals; 2023 East Maui Tourism Management Pilot Project. The RFP is open to application for nonprofits from Ko‘olau to Kahikinui on the island of Maui. has asked for this gesture of community support from the visitor industry for six consecutive years. Evidence of these relentless communications between our organization and the visitor industry can be found on our website under the “industry engagement” page. The concept depicted within the RFP is modeled after our Visitor Information Personnel concept which aims to position generational intelligence (residents) at priority hotspots along the Hāna Hwy to provide traffic mitigation services and critical visitor information. We hope this materializes solution implementation opportunity for our region. We should not have to plead for support from the agencies that culprit the tourism impacts we endure. hopes this initial pilot project will create a mandated standard that attentions the daily weight East Maui endures for the benefit of all tourism on the island.

04/13/2023

Mile Marker 10; Waikamoi Bridge was identified as one of the five priority hotspots along the Hāna Hwy in need of intervention. Although there are over twenty hotspots that our organization has identified over the last six years as sites needing varying support, the top five have been prioritized due to intensity of traffic hazards posed upon the majority of our East Maui community, and are also the top sites incurring visitor emergencies including injuries and fatalities. To see the full list of hotspots and how we propose these problems should be remedied, review the Road to Hāna Problems and Solutions presentation on our website’s homepage. 📸: Resident Submission

04/08/2023

Administrator Napua Hueu was invited to share more about our community-driven visitor management efforts over the last seven years on this month’s episode of Free Hawai‘i News. Hosted by Leon Siu and Wong-Kalu Hinaleimoana, see the full episode at Free Hawaii - Independence For Hawaii.

04/07/2023

04/07/2023

New article conveying why taking a permitted, guided tour is the way to go when planning a Hāna Highway experience. Link in bio to read more and visit our website which features community approved outfitters like , , and ..