The Tourists Are Back. In Rural Hana, The Residents Aren’t Happy …Visitors are bringing an infusion of cash but they’re underscoring concerns about overtaxed roads, beaches and infrastructure, environmental degradation and cultural exploitation.
HANA, Maui — Tourism — Hawaii’s most lucrative, and at times overwhelming, leading industry — was outlawed in Hana for several months last year as the public health threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic loomed large over the 800 residents of this rural hamlet on Maui’s far eastern edge, where medical resources are scarce.
National Guard soldiers blocked virtually all nonresidents from entering the area from mid-March to July, making Hana, one of the most isolated communities in the state, nearly locals-only.
Gone were the swarms of sunscreen-slicked bodies. And residents, feeling as though they’d entered a time portal to the 1950s, saw signs of marine life, and each other, enjoying a badly needed break.
