2026 Industry Status, Maui & Beyond

Since the Maui wildfires of 2023, priorities of re-housing the displaced, establishing new protocols for crises communication, planning and evacuations as well as the re-stabilizing the economy through the Emergency Marketing Plan for Maui (executed by HVCB) took precedence. With the recent political landscape our nation has established, tourism patterns have shifted with the domestic luxury traveler increasing over the previously predictable, middle class and corporate group projections. Overall, the market recovery for Maui’s visitor industry has been slow and Hawaii Tourism Authority data has also expressed some decline from previous benchmarks.

On a state level and county level, our legislative priorities have re-focused to find balance in community and tourism needs of Maui nui. MHLA therefore, attended the Hawaii legislature opening day, and shared our published Legislative Statements with Senators and Representatives at the capitol. Mahalo to the members of the House Tourism Committee and the Senate Economic Development and Tourism Committee who took time with us last week.

Our partners, the American Hotel & Lodging Association recently published the 2026 State of the Industry findings on January 27, 2026.

“The AHLA 2026 State of the Industry Report describes a hotel sector that remains fundamentally resilient while adapting quickly to economic, market, and political change. In 2025, U.S. hoteliers sought to realign their operations in response to a broad range of external challenges, demonstrating resilience across the industry.

Key findings from the 2026 State of the Industry report include:

• Hotels generated $85.1 billion in local, state, and federal taxes in 2025 (up $1.7 billion from 2024), and that total is projected to rise to nearly $87 billion in 2026.
• Hotel guest spending in 2026 is expected to reach nearly $805 billion, a 1.7% increase over 2025.
• Rising operating expenses were a primary factor keeping gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) at roughly 90% of 2019 levels.
• The industry paid nearly $128 billion in wages and benefits in 2025 and is projected to approach $131 billion in 2026.
• The hotel workforce is projected to grow by more than 30,000 jobs in 2026, bringing direct hotel operations employment to approximately 2.2 million.”

As yesterday marked the deadline for any new bills to be introduced into the 2026 session, we will be finalizing our 2026 Industry Bill Watch List by the next MHLA Town Hall on February 9^th. Some past concerns that will be discussed in this town hall includes the Maui Lighting Ordinance 5867 being implemented this year. Members will be updated in the weekly membership newsletter.

Photos include: Senator Glenn Wakai, Senator Carol Fukunaga, Senator Donna Mercado Kim, Senator Kurt Favella, Senator Troy Hashimoto, Senator Angus McKelvey, Representative Elle Cochran, Representative Mahina Poepoe, Representative Adrian Tam, Representative Shirley Ann Templo, Representative Daniel Holt, Representative Ikaika Hussey, and Representative Joe Gedeon.