A new system for entry to Kauai’s popular Ha‘ena State Park requires visitors to purchase tickets online in advance and limits visitation to 900 people a day, down from an estimated 3,000 daily before flooding closed the road leading to the park in April 2018.

Now there are reports that some tourists arriving without passes have attempted to bribe the parking vendor to allow them in.

“There have been credible reports of visitors attempting to bribe their way into the park,” said DLNR Division of State Parks Assistant Administrator Alan Carpenter in an email. “These were reported to us by our parking vendor — which makes the case for them (the bribes) not being accepted. You would have to contact the contracted parking vendor for specifics about any disciplinary actions, as they are not state parks employees.”

Reef Parking, formerly Republic Parking, is the vendor. It could not be reached late Tuesday.

The bribery problem resulted in personnel changes, said Hawaii Tourism Authority Chairman Rick Fried.

“Apparently, there was some problem with people sort of bribing,” Fried said at the July HTA board meeting. “It wasn’t being followed as it should, and there have been some changes in personnel, from what I’m told.”

There are three ways to enter the park with a pass:

>> By car, parking pass costs $5 for several hours or $15 for the whole day; Hawaii residents are free.

>> Walk in or be dropped off; pass costs $1.

>> Take a shuttle bus; costs $15 and includes entry fee.

Carpenter said parking and entry passes typically sell out.

He added that the Ha‘ena ticketing issues indicate the “high demand and perceived value of the experience in our parks” and that the “fees are too low, and we should be charging a more commensurate rate equal to the quality of the experience.”

“We will be proposing fee increases in the near future,” Carpenter said.

DLNR also began limiting on Aug. 26 the number of $1 walk-in or drop-off tickets to 100 down from the 200 that they’ve averaged since the park reopened. That move is designed to address complaints from residents about a spike in illegal parking throughout their community that coincided with the reopening of Kuhio Highway and the park.

Some residents and businesses have praised DLNR’s efforts to ease the reopening at Ha‘ena State Park. However, others are concerned that visitors are trying to get around the limits that were set for the park and its parking lot.

Fried, the HTA chairman, said he was concerned that the new reservation system and some of its beginning challenges had contributed to reduced visitor industry performance on Kauai. Through July, HTA reported that Kauai’s visitor spending had dropped more than 4% to $1.16 billion, and its arrivals had fallen more than 1% to 827,070.

DLNR has said the key to a positive experience for park visitors is to plan ahead. Reservations may be made up to 30 days in advance and no later than the day before a visit.

Joel Guy, executive director of the Hanalei Initiative, which runs the Kauai North Shore Shuttle, said limiting entry-only passes to the park will hopefully increase shuttle ridership, which reduces traffic, cuts down on illegal parking and helps prevent other community attractions from being overwhelmed.

“We went from selling 200 tickets (for the shuttle serv­ice) to 300 tickets a day in a month and a half, and we could add another 100 in frequency,” he said.

Community concerns

Megan Wong, a member of a Kauai community advocacy group called the Old Hanalei Court House hui, said parking woes and strain on infrastructure and resources have remained top concerns for the community since Kuhio Highway was reopened to tourist traffic earlier this year. Flooding and related complications had kept a 2-mile stretch of it closed to nonlocal traffic for more than a year.

It was already evident that some community members had passed their breaking point June 18 when they climbed onto visitors’ cars to block the entrance to Ha‘ena State Park and other community natural resources and popular attractions. Some residents who had gotten used to a nearly tourism-free existence were irked by speeding cars, tourists hogging one-lane bridges and parking illegally, and by seeing visitors walking on reefs.

These days community activists are taking a more peaceful approach by shifting their focus to educating tourists about how to behave. Some are asking visitors to take the Aloha Pledge, a promise that they’ll respect the people, the culture and the place. Wong said she and others are placing notifications on cars that are parked illegally since a recent increase in parking fines to $235 from $35 hasn’t brought much relief to the region.

“Visitors are parking right under the no-parking signs,” she said. “They just don’t seem to care.”

Wong said the timing of the reopening, which came before repair work had been completed on three bridges at Waioli, Waipa and Waikoko streams, continues to challenge the community, too. She said overnight closures for Kuhio Highway bridge work continue to leave tourists stranded every time they happen despite efforts to ensure that visitors are aware of the state’s construction schedules. DOT has scheduled night closures of Kuhio Highway at Waioli Bridge, which is between Anae and Kumu roads, from Tuesday to Thursday. Closures are from 7:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day.

“Somebody is probably going to get stuck,” Wong said. “It’s just so frustrating.”