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MAUI MAY BE the only place in America where such issues as traffic jams and arrests for nude sunbathing have a direct effect on the county's economy. Both issues were hot topics among Maui residents last year, and a major irritant to tourists -- some of whom have decided to look at more pristine locations for next year's vacation spot. Since a slide in the island's major industry, tourism, would severely impact the entire economy of the county, Maui officials are scrambling to come up with solutions.
But, according to Frank Blackwell, executive director of the Maui Visitors Bureau (MVB), the bare fact is that traffic congestion concerns residents more than tourists. The bureau has received nearly 600 letters objecting because nude sunbathing is no longer allowed at Makena Beach, but not one line about traffic. "Residents find the traffic jams damned inconvenient because we're not used to it," Blackwell says. "But tourists from Los Angeles, Boston and New York who run into traffic that moves at 30 miles-per-hour rather than 50 are not in the same ballpark."
More than a decade ago, as Maui achieved its first million-visitor year, county planners expressed anxiety over the dangers inherent in too rapid development. In 1986, the Maui visitor count hit the two million mark for the third straight year, and county planners found themselves considering a moratorium on growth as an emergency measure to relieve the island's strained infrastructure. Despite the earlier warnings, most county residents have welcomed tourism's powerful impact on the county's economy. 1986 was no exception. Maui's visitor volume represented a 10 percent increase over 1985. The county had more visitors than the Big Island and Kauai combined and was only about a million visitors behind Oahu. "Maui had a very good year," says Blackwell. "But we will have to fight like hell for the future."
Hawaii Visitors Bureau figures show that Maui has lost its position as the tourism growth leader among the islands. For the last two years, the island of Kauai has shown greater increases in visitors, both in actual numbers and percentage increases. According to Blachwell, that's partially due to the fact that the HVB figures include only visitors from the East as they land in Honolulu. Oahu gets...