Curious how Maui is doing and so I looked up the recent visitor numbers. I see they have grown from the 2M a year when I was there to 2.6M-2.7M a year now. Further curious, I checked what the hotel room rates are, and was shocked to see they are double and triple what they use to be only 10 years ago. Ten years ago they were high room rates, they are off the charts now.

Third, I looked at what are the long-term residential and short-term vacation rental rates. The long-term residential rental rates are substantially higher, almost twice what they were when I was there 10 years ago. I would think for the service industry workers, much of Maui, that long-term rental rates and even availability are a real problem now. The short-term vacation rental rates look low to me and probably a good choice for vacationers over the exorbitant hotel room rates.

Lastly, I looked around the Maui map (Google) to see what has been built in the past 10 years, and was shocked to see that very little new residential has been built on Maui in the past five to 10 years, yet your visitor numbers have increased 35 percent. Maui, you have a serious planning problem. Water is not the issue. Maui needs more housing of almost all types. Why isn’t it happening? Where’s the leadership?

Brad Parsons

Austin, Texas