Hawaii officials are planning to install an online reservation system for Waianapanapa State Park, a popular spot in East Maui with camping facilities, a black-sand beach and a sea cave.
The system is expected to launch in mid-February and will require visitors and commercial vehicles to preregister to enter the park at a specific time.
The forthcoming reservation system and website are a response to complaints from residents of growing traffic on the picturesque Hana Highway and overcrowding at the park, state officials said during a Jan. 16 public meeting announcing the new system. At the onset of the pandemic, the Hana Highway was closed to nonresidents to prevent coronavirus spread and to also conduct work on the road.
The plan is for the system to be permanent, one that will remain beyond the pandemic as a means of controlling the size of crowds in the park.
"When we shut down the road, we kept on hearing from people, 'We don't want to go back to what it was' in other words, everybody just coming, thousands of cars a day," state Sen. J. Kalani English, who represents East Maui, said during the meeting, which was broadcast live on Facebook. "We took that to heart and said, 'OK when it does open up again, we have to put something in place to change from what it was,' so that is what this is."
Under the new system, visitors and commercial operators will pay fees online and be issued a QR code for entrance into Waianapanapa.
Entrance and parking will be free for Hawaii residents with valid identification; nonresidents will be charged $5 per person for entry and $10 per vehicle for parking. Commercial vehicle fees will range from $25 to $90 depending on number of passengers, according to the Division of State Parks website.
In addition to handling reservations, MauiWayfinding.com will also have sections for an online marketplace that area vendors, including food trucks and souvenir retailers, can use to promote their businesses.
"We are also then managing [the visitors'] time," English said. "You have a certain time frame to be, for example, at Waianapanapa, a certain time to pick up your lunch, a certain time to pick up their merchandise, which then helps us to manage the traffic flow."
The site will also be a home for community-generated content, such as photos, videos and articles, where residents can share information about the area, with the idea that it could help better educate tourists.
Cellphone service can be spotty in East Maui, and while English said at the meeting Spectrum and Hawaiian Telcom are working on providing internet service to the area the QR codes will not require internet service, and park visitors may bring a downloaded copy or a hard copy of the code.