Road closure planned in Keanae

Construction on Keanae Road from the Hana Highway intersection to the shoreline will require full road closures from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays starting Monday, the Department of Public Works announced.

The project includes pavement reconstruction and resurfacing, regrading, installation of guardrails and roadway signs, relocation of standpipes, pavement striping and markers and other work, with closures occurring over the course of two weeks.

For more information, call the department’s Engineering Office at 270-7745.

Illegal vacation rentals on notice

The county Department of Planning reports it issued more than 180 notices of warning and 80 notices of violation to illegal vacation rental operators in 2019. Stiffer fines of $20,000 plus $10,000 a day for operating unpermitted bed-and-breakfast home and other transient vacation rentals went into effect Dec. 22.

The county uses special software to analyze ads on various internet platforms to produce a list of potential scofflaws, with enforcement staff following up to determine whether any of operations are illegal. Officials also acknowledged the public for reporting suspected illegal rentals.

Visitor spending, arrivals climb

Tourism remained strong on Maui in January, with visitor spending rising 7.7% to $510.7 million from the same month a year ago and increases in visitor arrivals (up 3.6% to 242,472) and daily visitor spending (up 6.3% to $233 per person), according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

There were more visitors to Maui from the U.S. West and East (up 9.3% and 7.9%, respectively) in January, offsetting the drop in visitors from Japan and Canada (down 10.6% and 6.7%, respectively). The average daily census grew 1.3% to 70,806 visitors. Maui also led the state in air seat capacity, with Kahului seeing an increase of 15.1%.

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