Lānaʻi Advisory Group Invites Visitors to Lānaʻi City
The Lānaʻi Advisory Group has a message for visitors coming to their island: buy local. Whether the visitor is coming from out of state or is a kamaʻāina visitor from a neighbor island, the Lānaʻi Advisory Group encourages all visitors to plan a meaningful day trip on their island by venturing up to Lānaʻi City to support the mom-and-pop shops in their charming, historic town.
A common concern among Lānaʻi residents, including those on the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA)/Maui Visitor and Convention Bureau-convened Lānaʻi Advisory Group, is that visitors coming from Maui, plan to solely hit the beach during their day trip or stay. They arrive on the island with coolers and beach chairs in tow, without a visit to Lānaʻi City to grab a coffee, enjoy lunch and explore the local shops and art galleries—all of which supports local merchants. Another concern among residents is visitors coming on snorkel or dive boats from Maui, who never set foot on the island itself. Both of these issues are concerns for Lānaʻi residents because the natural resources of Lānaʻi are subject to becoming degraded from overuse through this extractive model of tourism.
The Lānaʻi DMAP called for the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau (MVCB) and HTA to convene the Lānaʻi Advisory Group, with a focus on promoting Lānaʻi City and creating community-supported messaging for Lānaʻi. The Lānaʻi Advisory Group then embarked on the important work of identifying harmful messaging about their island and creating a new, community-supported messaging. Much of this centered on their unique town of Lānaʻi City, which is decidedly not a tourist town, but does welcome tourists. The Lānaʻi Advisory Group encourages visitors to think outside the beach box when planning their day trip or stay. They encourage cat lovers to check out (or volunteer with) the Lānaʻi Cat Sanctuary, which is just a short drive from Lānaʻi City. Or, download the Lānaʻi Guide App, a free app created by the Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center, and is chock full of Lānaʻi history, culture, directions to self-guided driving tours and hikes, and augmented reality walking tour of Lānaʻi City itself. Groups and adventure seekers can rent e-bikes, zipline or challenge themselves on the aerial ropes course at the Lānaʻi Adventure Park. Or perhaps go hunting with High Adventure Company to reduce the invasive species count on Lānaʻi. Regardless of the activity, the Lānaʻi Advisory Group invites visitors to plan a stop in Lānaʻi City for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a latte, which can be enjoyed under the towering pines of Dole Park.
An important piece of changing visitor behavior on Lānaʻi is increasing awareness among visitors that transportation is easy to obtain on Lānaʻi. This allows visitors to plan a trip that takes the pressure off of the beach and instead, supports local merchants. Adding information about taxi, car rental options, shuttles, locally owned tour companies and Uber options to visitor-facing websites, as well as other information that enables visitors to plan a meaningful day trip is all vital to making change.
Community-driven rebranding efforts have included:
- Revising Expeditions Ferry website with community-supported messaging
- Revising Go Hawaiʻi website (in progress)
- Creating and distributing a new Lānaʻi brochure
- Creating a social media campaign with community-supported messaging
- Procuring new photo assets from a Lānaʻi-based photographer with a focus on Lānaʻi City and community-supported activities
- Producing 5, 3:00 minute, HI Now TV spots with a focus on Lānaʻi City, the Lānaʻi Guide App, Lānaʻi Cat Sanctuary, Lānaʻi Adventure Park and the Mālama Lānaʻi Day Trip