Maui reopened to tourists in early October, after fatal summer wildfires that burned a great deal of the island.

Many residents of Lahaina have expressed their outrage over the reopening by signing a petition that would potentially delay the reopening as families continue to struggle to find shelter, provide for their children's educations, and cope with emotional trauma, according to the petition. Several homes have been flattened and are completely inhabitable. Businesses have been destroyed, and numerous loved ones remain unaccounted for. Residents have been grieving the loss of 97 people who died in the wildfires. The petition has accumulated over 10,000 signatures. 

The idea that tourism is expected to resume so soon around the outskirts of a town has shocked many citizens. The town has been made unrecognizable by the wildfires which has reignited an ongoing debate about Hawaii’s reliance on tourism. A community organizer and resident of Lahaina told ABC News that There are just not a lot of activities like there usually are for these people to do, so a lot of people are wondering, why do they want to come here? Tourism is the number one way of income for the state's economy, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, and businesses across the entire island have been impacted by the lack of tourists since the wildfires. 

Some residents link tourism and its historical links to colonialism with many of the issues plaguing the islands, including the lack of access to a clean water supply, the housing crisis, and pollution and destruction of the Hawaiian Islands. According to an interview with a hotel manager on Maui, ABC News reported, “It's a great business for Hawaii, but the difficult thing for us here is that there is not a street, a community, a country. There's nowhere that you can hide from tourism in Hawaii.”

With the loss of 97 residents due to the natural hazards, citizens claim they are just beginning to grieve. A resident of the islands said in an interview with ABC that, “Funerals just began and they are expecting us to go back to normal routines.”