120 Kane Street
Kahului, Hawaii 96732
U.S.A.
History of Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc.
One of Hawaii's oldest and largest corporations, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (Maui Pine) grows and cans pineapple and develops and operates resort and commercial property. Maui Pine conducted its business through two primary operating subsidiaries, Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd. and Kapalua Land Company, Ltd. The pineapple operations, situated on roughly 7,900 acres owned by the company, represented the company's original business, whose roots indirectly stretched to the first appearance of pineapple in Hawaii in 1813. The real estate-related business of Maui Pine emerged during the 1960s, when the company began developing residential, commercial, and resort properties. During the late 1990s, Maui Pine developed and managed property at the Kapalua Resort, located on 1,500 acres bordering the ocean. The company also operated retail properties, including Kaahumanu Center, Napili Plaza, and other nonresort property.
Origins
The history of Maui Pine incorporated the history of the Baldwins, a family of New England Congregational missionaries who arrived on the Hawaiian Islands in 1836. Displaying considerably more prowess as land barons than as proselytizers, the Baldwins became one of the Big Five families who controlled Hawaii in the century before World War II, establishing a far-reaching business empire with holdings in agriculture, ranching, coffee, canning, and other activities. Their grasp on the Hawaiian economy was comprehensive, maintained by a labyrinthine network of businesses whose development spanned generations of Baldwins. One of these businesses spawned from the varied interests of the Baldwins was Maui Pine's earliest direct predecessor, the Keahua Ranch Co., which was incorporated in December 1909 to control a portion of the family's pineapple operations. In 1929 the Keahua Ranch Co. was renamed the Haleakala Pineapple Co., Ltd., three years before the pineapple operations of Haleakala and Maui Agricultural Company were consolidated to create Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd. J. Walter Cameron, a descendant of the Baldwin family, was appointed manager of the new company, presiding over its development for the next 30 years until a flurry of corporate maneuvers created the Maui Pine that existed during the 1990s. In August 1962, Alexander & Baldwin, a principal Baldwin family concern, merged three of its pineapple operations, Baldwin Packers, Ltd., Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd., and the old Haleakala Pineapple Company, to create what four months later became the Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd. J. Walter Cameron was named president of the Alexander & Baldwin subsidiary, joined by his son, Colin Campbell Cameron, who was appointed general manager.
It was the younger Cameron who exerted the greatest influence over Maui Pine during the 20th century. A Maui native, Colin Cameron earned a master's degree in business administration at Harvard College, leaving the institution in 1953 to return to the pineapple operations on Maui. Two years after the formation of Maui Pineapple Company, Colin Cameron was promoted to general manager and executive vice-president when his father retired from day-to-day control over the company and became its chairman. Although the Camerons held prominent titles at Maui Pineapple, the fortunes of the company were not entirely under their control. Alexander & Baldwin held sway as the parent company of Maui Pineapple, having the final say in the decision-making affecting its subsidiary. It was a relationship that became strained during the 1960s and irrevocably damaged in 1967 when Alexander & Baldwin's new president, Stanley Powell Jr., delivered an ultimatum. Powell wanted to centralize all management decisions in Honolulu, which, in Colin Cameron's view, put him in an untenable position. Cameron believed the pineapple operations could not flourish if they were managed from afar. Further, he had tired of competing for attention with Alexander & Baldwin's other subsidiaries, which included sugar and shipping operations that were much larger and made much more money than Maui Pineapple. In response, Colin Cameron resigned in 1967, the same year his father retired as chairman. Both remained on the company's board of directors, however, and would return shortly to submit a proposal to Alexander & Baldwin.
1969: A New Beginning
In 1969 the Camerons made their bid for independence. They approached Alexander & Baldwin about purchasing Maui Pineapple Company and reached an agreement in July for a $20 million buyout of the enterprise. In September the Camerons changed the name of the company to Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. Three months later, they took Maui Pine public. With J. Walter Cameron serving as chairman and Colin Cameron serving as president and chief executive officer, Maui Pine took its first steps unfettered by Alexander & Baldwin, beginning a new era as the 1970s began.
As the company set out on its own, it drew support from two primary business areas. One side of Maui Pine represented the most recent addition to the Cameron family's business activities, its importance reflected by the inclusion of the word "land" in Maui Pine's corporate title. During the 1960s, Colin Cameron had spearheaded resort planning and development activities that had operated under the control of Maui Pineapple Company. Following the Camerons' purchase of Maui Pineapple Company, these real estate activities were organized into a new subsidiary incorporated in 1970 as Honolua Plantation Land Company, Inc. Through Honolua Plantation, which counted Colin Cameron as its president, Maui Pine began building residential housing projects, beginning with a 174-unit, low- and moderate-cost housing project called Napilihau that began construction in 1972. By the time the Napilihau units were ready for occupancy in 1974, the Camerons had formed another real estate development subsidiary named Kapalua Land Company, Ltd. Following the 1974 incorporation of Kapalua Land, the Honolua Plantation subsidiary was responsible for the management and development of nonresort lands, while Kapalua Land oversaw the duties of resort development. Kapalua Land's resort development activities during the 1970s included the construction of an 18-hole golf course, condominium complexes, and the 196-room Kapalua Bay Hotel, which opened in 1978. The other side of Maui Pine's business was its pineapple operations, representing the thread that connected the Cameron family-controlled company to the 1909 founding of the Keahua Ranch Co. In 1977 the pineapple operations were separated into their own subsidiary called Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd.
J. Walter Cameron's death in 1976 left Colin Cameron as the patriarch of the family and principal leader of Maui Pine. His father's legacy--a half century of stewarding the fortunes of the company's pineapple operations--would stand in contrast to his own, as Colin Cameron devoted the bulk of his energies to the development of Maui Pine's real estate activities, particularly during the late 1980s. The Kapalua Land subsidiary served as the hub of activity, presiding over the development of The Ironwoods, a 40-unit condominium project that was completed in 1980, and The Ridge, a 161-unit condominium project, also completed in 1980. The subsidiary also completed its second golf course, The Village Course, in 1980. Financial pressure, attributable to the more than $50 million of debt that weighed Maui Pine down in 1984, forced Cameron to sell what was regarded as his masterpiece, the Kapalua Bay Hotel, in 1985. Despite the divestiture, Cameron, serving as chairman and acting president of Kapalua Land after the sale of the company's signature hotel property, pressed ahead with other real estate development projects. In 1985 the company acquired the Kaahumanu Shopping Center and broke ground the following year on the Pineapple Hill at Kapalua project, a single-family residential project. The Pineapple Hill at Kapalua development, comprising 99 lots, was completed in 1987 and was followed by the development of Kapalua Place, an eight-lot, single-family residential project, completed in 1989.
Late 1980s: Controversy and Despair
Against the backdrop of commercial and residential development projects, Cameron was busy working on what could rightly be called his dream project. At roughly the same time as Maui Pine's formation, Cameron and his father had begun planning a large-scale hotel project that became known as the Kapalua project. They conducted an archeological survey on an area in West Maui, later deciding on a beachfront plot known as the Honokahua site. Years of planning went into the project, time spent designing the hotel, having the zoning code changed to permit the construction of the hotel, and securing the financial backing to fund the project. By 1986, the final hurdles before beginning construction had been cleared. Ritz-Carlton had agreed to serve as the hotel operator and financing had been obtained from Japanese investors. There was one nagging problem, however. The Honokahua site was discovered to be an ancient Hawaiian burial ground, the magnitude of which was not fully realized until late in the project's development. A thorough excavation of the site had unearthed 700 burials by 1988, including a variety of artifacts that were estimated to be 3,500 years old. By 1989, construction of the $100 million, 450-room Ritz-Carlton was a year behind schedule and Cameron found himself at the center of protests and heated debate. Kapalua Land was at risk of losing the financial backing for the project and suffering the departure of its Ritz-Carlton partners.
While Cameron's hotel project sat motionless, mired in controversy, Maui Pine could at least fall back on it pineapple operations, which had recorded consecutive years of profitability that stretched from 1977 to the end of the 1980s. The company's Maui Pineapple Company subsidiary ranked as the largest producer of private-label pineapple in the United States, providing a steady stream of income that tempered the frustration stemming from the hobbled Kapalua hotel project. As Maui Pine exited the 1980s, however, its pineapple operations suffered a devastating setback that later resulted in the worst year ever recorded by Maui Pine or any of it predecessors. The first sign of trouble surfaced in 1989, at the same time the Kapalua project was a year behind its construction schedule. The source of the trouble was Thailand, which had begun gearing up for large-scale pineapple production in the late 1980s. As a pineapple-producing region, Thailand possessed ideal characteristics, including excellent growing conditions and laborers willing to work for low wages. The number of canning businesses in the country proliferated as a result, concurrent with increased production by Maui Pine and other U.S.-owned pineapple canning businesses. In 1989 the abundance of pineapple produced and canned led to an oversupply in global markets, resulting in Maui Pineapple Company's $3.9 million operating loss for the year, a year after the subsidiary had registered profits totaling $7.2 million.
By 1993, the situation had become disastrous. After ordering its workers to let 20,000 tons of pineapple rot in the fields rather than try to move the fruit onto the glutted world market, Maui Pineapple Company recorded $16.2 million in operating loss. Maui Pine, unable to offset the loss with its real estate activities, registered a net loss of $11 million on revenues of $131 million.
While the company reeled from its mounting pineapple losses, the ill-fated Kapalua project regained its footing, giving Maui Pine executives at least one positive development to which they could point during the early 1990s. The site of the resort had been relocated away from the burial ground and the hotel was slated to open in 1992. Unfortunately for Cameron, the grand opening of the long-planned-for hotel was a celebration that, tragically, he missed. In June 1992 Cameron was found unconscious in the ocean near his home on Maui, having died of a heart attack while swimming. The Ritz-Carlton hotel opened four months later.
Cameron's sudden death prematurely ushered in a new era of leadership. Mary Cameron Sanford, Colin Cameron's sister, was appointed chairman and Maui Pineapple Company's president, Joseph H. Hartley, was promoted to president and chief executive officer of Maui Pine. Together, the pair had to contend with the worst crisis in the company's history. The first order of business was to arrest the financial slide experienced by the company's pineapple business and to resolve the difficulties stemming from the market glut. Pineapple harvesting and canning were trimmed by 25 percent in response to the surfeit of pineapple available and extensive efforts to reduce costs were initiated. Capital improvement spending was cut drastically, slashed from $8.2 million to $1.5 million over the course of the next two years. Executive salaries were reduced, wages were frozen, and employees were laid off. The company ended its 20-year practice of hiring offshore workers during the harvest season and a long-standing arrangement with Wailuku Agribusiness to farm 40,000 tons of pineapple for Maui Pine was abandoned. By 1995, the sweeping measures had begun to yield positive results, aided substantially by the U.S. International Trade Commission's ruling that Thai pineapple canneries were guilty of selling their product in the United States at prices lower than the cost of production. As a result of the ruling, duties were imposed that averaged roughly 25 percent of Thai pineapple sale prices, which buoyed the market sufficiently to enable Maui Pine to raise its prices 23 percent.
A drought in 1996 inflicted another blow to Maui Pine's pineapple business, but after the temporary setback the company recorded encouraging success with its pineapple operations during the late 1990s. Pineapple sales registered their greatest upswing at the end of the decade, when, in sharp contrast to the early 1990s, there was a worldwide shortage of pineapple. At the decade's conclusion, a new generation of management took the helm at Maui Pine. Mary Sanford was appointed director emeritus, making room for the ascension of the next line of Camerons, Richard H. Cameron, Colin Cameron's son, who was selected as chairman in March 1999. As Richard Cameron faced the challenge of shepherding the family business into the next century, Maui Pine's legacy of perseverance bolstered belief in its ability to contend with the difficulties of the future.
Principal Subsidiaries: Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd.; Kapalua Land Company, Ltd.
Related information about Maui
pop (2000e) 128 100; area
1885 km族/728 sq mi. Second largest island of the US
state of Hawaii; forms Maui County with the islands of Lanai and
Molokai; chief town, Wailuku; resort at Kanapali; former capital of
Hawaii at Lahaina; rises to 3055 m/10 023 ft at
Haleakala; has the only railway in the Pacific; sugar, tourism.
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727
square miles (1883 km族). Maui is part of the State of Hawai[okinai] and is the
largest island in Maui County; the other islands comprising the county
being L?na[okinai],
Kaho[okinaolawe], and
Moloka[okinai]. The
island has a resident population of 139,884 in 2006 which is ranked
third within the state behind the islands of Oahu and Hawaii.
Name
Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the island's name
in the legend of Hawai okinailoa, the Polynesian navigator attributed with discovery of the
Hawaiian Islands. The story relates how he named the island of Maui
after his son who in turn was named for the demi-god M?ui.
According to legend, the demi-god M?ui raised all the Hawaiian
Islands from the sea. The Island of Maui is also called the "Valley Isle"
for the large fertile isthmus between its two volcanoes.
History
Polynesians, from Tahiti and the Marquesas, were the original peoples to populate Maui.
The Tahitians introduced the kapu system, a strict social order that affected all
aspects of life and became the core of Hawaiian culture. King Kamehameha I
took up residence (and later made his capital) in L?hain? after
conquering Maui in the bloody Battle of Kepaniwai in 1790 in the ?[okinaao Valley].
ao Valley
On November 26,
1778, Captain James Cook became the
first European explorer to discover Maui. The first European to
visit Maui was the French
admiral Jean Fran巽ois de Galaup de La P辿rouse, who landed
on the shores of what is now known as La Perouse Bay on May 29,
1786. More Europeans followed: traders, whalers, loggers (e.g., of
sandalwood) and
missionaries. The
missionaries began to arrive from New England in 1823, choosing L?hain? They clothed
the natives, banned them from dancing hula, and greatly altered the culture. The missionaries
taught reading and writing, created the 12-letter Hawaiian alphabet,
started a printing press in L?hain?, and began writing the islands'
history, until then existing only as oral accounts. The Mission
school opened in 1831 and was the first secondary school to open
West of the Rockies.
At the height of the whaling era (1840-1865), L?hain? was a major whaling
centre with anchorage in L?hain? A given
ship tended to stay months rather than days which explains the
drinking and prostitution in the town at that time. Whaling declined
steeply at the end of the 19th century as crude oil (petroleum) replaced whale oil.
Kamehameha's descendants reigned in the islands until 1872. They
were followed by rulers from another ancient family of chiefs,
including Queen Lili[okinauokalani] who ruled in 1893 when the
monarchy was overthrown by a group of American businessmen. One
year later, the Republic of Hawai[okinai] was founded. The island was
annexed by the United
States in 1898 and made a territory in 1900. Hawai okinai became the 50th state in
U.S. in 1959.
Maui was centrally involved in the Pacific Theatre of
World War II as a
staging centre, training base, and for rest and relaxation. The
growth is occurring because many people, having visited Maui,
decide to move or retire to the island.
Maui County Population, 1960-2000
|
|
1960 |
1970 |
1980 |
1990 |
2000 |
2005 |
| Total |
42,576 |
45,984 |
70,847 |
100,374 |
128,094 |
139,884 |
| Change |
|
3,408 |
24,863 |
29,527 |
27,720 |
11,790 |
| Change (%) |
|
8.0% |
54.1% |
41.7% |
27.6% |
9.2% |
|
source: CensusScope
2000 Census analysis |
Population growth窶廃artly due to an influx of new people typically
from Canada and the U.S. mainland窶琶s producing strains, including
growing traffic congestion on many of the major roads. Maui County
Council has been investigating ways of changing the
situation.
There have been long-standing concerns about the reliability of
Maui's potable
water supply; While the long-term situation remains unclear and
reliable supply has not been secured, recent estimates indicate
that the total potential supply of potable water on Maui is around
476 million US gallons (1,800,000 mツウ) per day, many times greater
than any foreseeable demand.
At one time in the not too distant past, Sugar cane cultivation used
over 80% of the island's water supply (The Water Development Plan
of Maui, 1992 ? The water used for sugar cultivation is taken
mostly from the streams of East Maui, routed though a network of
tunnels and ditches hand dug by Chinese labor over a century ago.
In 2006, the town of Paia successfully petitioned the County against mixing
in treated water from wells known to be contaminated with both
EDB and DBCP from former pineapple
cultivation in the area (Environment Hawaii, 1996).
Agricultural companies have been released from all future liability
for these chemicals (County of Maui, 1999).
There is a great deal of discussion about the meaning of窶蚤nd the
way to achieve窶敗mart development. There clearly exists a tension
between economic growth and urbanization on the one hand, and the
wish to preserve the beauty of Maui and a relaxed way of life on
the other.
Economy
Maui's Economic Performance in 2005 and the Outlook for the
rest of 2006
In August of 2006, Fitch Ratings assigned a
"AA" (double-A) rating to US$29.2 million of the County of Maui's
General Obligation (GO) Bonds (2006 Series A). According to Fitch,
the double-A rating "...reflects Maui's solid financial results,
healthy economic activity, low debt burden, and conservative county
government management policies." (Read the entire article about
Maui's 2006 Fitch
Rating.) (See also "Fitch Ratings")
Further Good News --
The 2005 unemployment rate fell to 2.6 percent, lower than the 2.8
percent rate for Hawaii as a whole and 5.1 percent for the
nation.
Traditionally, the two major industries on Maui are agriculture and tourism. However, government
research groups and high technology companies have discovered that
Maui has a business environment favorable for growth in those
sectors.
Agriculture --
Tourism and the Hospitality Industry -- (See "Tourism in
Hawaii")
High Technology & Government Contracting --
The Maui High Performance Computing Center
in Kihei heralded the coming of "serious" high-technology
technology employers and government contracting to the island. It
is an Air Force Research Laboratory Center Managed by the
University of Hawaii, providing more than 10,000,000 hours of
computing time per year to the research, science, and warfighter
communities.
Another promoter of high technology on Maui is the Maui Research and Technology Center,
also located in Kihei. The MRTC is a program of the High Technology Development Corporation (HTDC), an
agency of the State of Hawaii whose focus is to facilitate the
growth of Hawaii's commercial high technology sector.
Maui is also an important center for advanced astronomical
research. The Haleakala High Altitude
Observatory Site was Hawaii's first astronomical research and
development facility at the Maui Space Surveillance Site (MSSS)
electro-optical facility. The high elevation, dry climate, and
freedom from light pollution offer virtually year-round observation
of satellites, missiles, man-made orbital debris, and astronomical
objects." (Source: High Tech
Maui)
(Read "Hawaii's Emerging
Technology Industry -- January 2000", a report by the Hawaii
Dept. of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.)
Geology and Topography
Each volcanic cone in the chain of the Hawaiian Islands is
built of dark, iron-rich/quartz-poor rocks which, as highly fluid
lava, poured out of
thousands of vents over a period of millions of years. (See
How Hawaiian Volcanoes Work)
Maui is such an island, formed from two volcanoes that abut one
another to form an isthmus between them. Both are shield volcanoes. The
older western volcano has been eroded considerably and is cut by
numerous drainages, forming the peaks of the West Maui
Mountains (called Mauna Kahalawai by Hawaiians). The larger, younger
volcano to the east, Haleakala Volcano (also known as East Maui Volcano),
rises to more than 10,000 feet (3,050 m) above sea level, but
measures five miles (8 km) from seafloor to summit. The valley-like
Isthmus of Maui that separates the two volcanic masses was formed
by recent lava flows and erosion of material from the steep slopes
of the volcanoes. This prominent topographic feature is the reason
why Maui is known as "The Valley Isle".
Geologically speaking, Maui is the youngest of the Hawaiian
Islands. two of the resulting lava flows are located (1) at Cape
Kina'u between Ahihi Bay and La Perouse Bay on the southwest shore of East
Maui, and (2) at Makaluapuna Point on
Honokahua Bay on the northwest shore of West Maui. Although
considered to be dormant by volcanologists, Haleakala is certainly
capable of further eruptions.
Maui is blessed with a wide variety of landscapes, all of which
resulted from a unique combination of geology, topography, and
climate.
Climate
The climate of the Hawaiian Islands is characterized by a
two-season year, mild and uniform temperatures everywhere (except
at high elevations), marked geographic differences in rainfall,
high relative humidity, extensive cloud formations (except on the
driest coasts and at high elevations), and dominant trade-wind flow
(especially at elevations below a few thousand feet). Maui itself
has a wide range of climatic conditions and weather patterns that
are influenced by several different factors in the physical
environment:
- Half of Maui is situated within five miles of the island's
coastline. This, and the extreme insularity of the Hawaiian
Islands themselves account for the strong marine influence
on Maui?s climate.
- Gross weather patterns are often determined by an area?s
elevation and whether it faces into or away from the Trade winds
(prevailing air flow from the northeast quadrant).
- Maui?s rugged, irregular topography produces marked
variations in conditions from one locality to another. This is
because there is only a slight variation in length of night and
day from one part of Hawaii to another because all its islands
lie within a narrow latitude band. In the leeward areas,
temperatures may reach into the low 90?s several days during the
year, but temperatures higher than these are unusual.
- The other reason for the small variation in air temperature
is the nearly constant flow of fresh ocean air across the
islands. In the central North Pacific, the Trade winds represent
the outflow of air from the great region of high pressure, the
Pacific Anticyclone, typically located well north and east of the
Hawaiian Islands. This brings the heart of the trade winds across
Hawaii during the period of May through September, when the Trade
winds are prevalent 80 to 95 percent of the time. however, the
Trade winds still blow across the islands much of the time. They
provide a system of natural year-long ventilation throughout the
islands and bring to the land the mild, warm temperatures
characteristic of air that has moved great distances across
tropical waters.
These seemingly contradictory factors combine to create a unique
and diverse set of climatic conditions, each of which is specific
to a loosely defined sub-region of the island chain. These
sub-regions are defined by major physiographic features (such as
mountains and valleys) and by location (i.e., is it on the windward
or leeward side of the island). Dry weather is prevalent, with the
exception of sporadic trade winds showers that drift over from the
mountains to windward and during short-duration storms. The lowest
temperatures in the state are experienced in this region: air
temperatures below freezing are common.
Other Aspects of Maui's Climate
The wind patterns on Maui and the other islands are very
complex. Light to moderate mountain winds are prevalent in the more
mountainous areas of Maui. They sometimes reach speeds of 60 to 100
MPH and are best known in the settled areas of Kula and Lahaina on
Maui. They issue from the canyons at the base of the main mountain
mass of western Maui, where the steeper canyon slopes meet the more
gentle piedmont slope below. The break (a large-scale feature of
the Pacific Anticyclone) is caused by a temperature inversion
embedded in the moving Trade wind air. On Trade wind days when the
inversion is well defined, the clouds develop below these heights
with only an occasional cloud top breaking through the inversion.
These towering clouds form along the mountains where the incoming
Trade wind air converges as it moves up a valley and is forced up
and over the mountains to heights of several thousand feet. In
leeward areas well screened from the Trade winds (such as the west
coast of Maui), skies are clear 30 to 60 percent of the time.
Windward areas tend to be cloudier during he summer, when the Trade
winds and associated clouds are more prevalent, while leeward areas
, which are less affected by cloudy conditions associated with
Trade wind cloudiness, tend to be cloudier during the winter, when
storm fronts pass through more frequently. On Maui, the cloudiest
zones are at and just below the summits of the mountains, and at
elevations of 2,000 to 4,000 feet on the windward sides of
Haleakala. If the islands of the State of Hawaii did not exist, the
average annual rainfall on the same patch of water would be about
25 inches. Thus, the islands extract from the air that passes over
them about 45 inches of rainfall that otherwise would not fall. The
mountainous topography of Maui and the other islands is responsible
for this added water bonus.
Daily Variations in Rainfall ? The most pronounced daily
variations in rainfall occur during the summer because most summer
rainfall consists of Trade winds showers that most often to occur
at night. Droughts hit hardest in the normally dry areas that
depend on winter storms for their rainfall and receive little rain
from the Trade wind showers.
Torrential rainfall is common in all parts of Maui,
except the very high mountains. This is because the usual run of
Trade wind weather yields many light showers in the lowlands,
whereas the torrential rains are associated with a sudden surge in
the Trade winds or with a major storm. Because weak tropical storms
resemble some Kona storms in the winds and rains they produce, and
because early records do not distinguish clearly between them, it
has been difficult to estimate the average frequency of tropical
storms. A tropical storm will pass sufficiently close to Hawaii
every year or two to affect the weather in some part of the
Islands. They are most likely to occur during the last half of the
year, from July through December.
Natural History
Maui is a leading whale-watching center in the Hawaiian Islands
due to the fact that many Humpback whales winter in the sheltered [okinaAu
okinaau Channel] between
the islands of Maui county. The whales migrate approximately 3,500
miles (5,600 km) from Alaskan
waters each autumn and spend the northern hemisphere winter
months mating and birthing in the warm waters off Maui. Humpbacks
are an endangered
species protected by U.S. federal and Hawai okinai state law.
Tourism
The Numbers -- Maui County welcomed 2,207,826 tourists in
2004; however, for 2005, the total was 2,263,676, with total
tourist expenditures of US$3.09 billion for the Island of Maui
alone. While the Island of Oahu is most popular with Japanese
tourists, the Island of Maui tends to appeal to visitors mostly
from the US mainland and Canada: in 2005, there were 2,003,492
domestic (i.e., USA nationals) arrivals on the island, compared to
260,184 international arrivals.
Places, Attractions, and Activities --
- The Maui Visitors Bureau: Maui Insider Newsletter www.visitmaui.com/insider/]
- The Maui Ocean Center
(and aquarium), Ma'alaea -- A world-class aquarium (includes one
of the best gift shops on the Island)
- The Island of Molokini -- Considered one of the 10 best
snorkel/SCUBA locales in the world (Pacific Whale Foundation's
snorkel tour of
Molokini)
- The beaches of the Kihei
coast -- On the sunny "dry" side of the Island) - A map and photos of Kihei
coast
- Iao Valley
& The Needle (more
photographs)
- The Kahekili Highway: Maui's
wild Northwest
- Tropical Gardens of Maui -- Maui Plantlife gallery (130+
photos)
- The Hana Highway: Gateway to
Maui's rainforests
- Ke'anae
Arboretum (on the Hana Highway -- map/photos
link)
- Lahaina's Sugar Cane Train
ride
- Maui's Atlantis
Submarine rides
- Maui Luaus -- gohawaii.about.com/od/mauiluaus/]
- Maui Swapmeets, Flea Markets, and
Farmers Markets
- Getting Married on Maui (AKA "Getting Maui'd") - Maui Weddings Information - Actually a big
"growth industry" on the island!
Events
- The annual Maui Invitational Tournament (basketball) held
in November
- The Hula
Bowl (college football)
- The Maui County Fair, October in
Wailuku
- The annual Maui Film Festival takes
place each June.
Sports
- The Maui Surf Report and extended
forecast
- Surfing JAWS: "Pros and
kamikazes only..." -- At Peahi Valley on Maui's North
Shore
- The Maui Kiteboarding
Association
Miscellaneous Maui-Related Topics
- Maui Trade
Dollars are issued by the Maui Chamber of Commerce that can
be used as currency in local shops;
This web site and associated pages are not associated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. and has no official or unofficial affiliation with Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc..