HTA Draft Big Island DMAP Identifies Three Priority Overtourism Hotspots
HTA’s draft 2026–2028 Big Island DMAP singles out Keaukaha (Hilo/Keaukaha), Kealakekua and Ka Lae (South Point) as priority overtourism hotspots after 2025 community engagement; public comments closed March 2, 2026.
The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s draft Destination Management Action Plan for Hawai‘i Island (2026–2028) identifies three priority overtourism hotspots — Keaukaha (Hilo/Keaukaha), Kealakekua and Ka Lae (also spelled Kalae, aka South Point) — following months of in-person and virtual community engagement in 2025. The draft is presented as a focused, three-year effort to address overcrowding and environmental impacts and to “undertake collaborative action to improve natural and cultural resources across the state.” Public comments on the draft were due by March 2 (end of day), with related statewide reporting dated March 2, 2026.
1. Keaukaha (Hilo / Keaukaha)
Keaukaha is listed in HTA’s draft Big Island DMAP as a priority hotspot, sometimes framed in source material as “Hilo/Keaukaha.” The planning document captured months of community engagement in 2025 to surface “sites under strain that are cherished by residents and visitors,” and the draft includes headings indicating the community identified priorities for Keaukaha and that HTA has proposed management actions and solutions. The available Big Island Now excerpt shows those priority and solution lists exist but the specific items are truncated in the public excerpt; the explicit fact is that the draft contains community-identified priorities and HTA-identified management actions for Keaukaha, though the exact measures are not present in the supplied text. As part of the 2026–2028 plan, HTA frames this work as narrower and time-limited compared with its 2021–2023 plans, with the stated intent that “these new draft plans are more narrowly focused in order to be able to take action that is achievable during the three years of the plan.”
2. Kealakekua
Kealakekua appears as one of the three named priority hotspots in the Big Island draft DMAP; source references list it alongside Keaukaha and Ka Lae (Kalae/South Point). The draft’s structure, as reproduced in the Big Island Now excerpt, includes a section where “the community identified the following priorities for Kealakekua” and a follow-on “Management actions for Kealakekua include:”, confirming HTA recorded both community concerns and proposed solutions. The excerpt does not include the specific community priorities or the HTA solutions for Kealakekua in the supplied material, so reporting must rely on the explicit fact that those lists are present in the draft rather than on their content. Across the island DMAPs, HTA sets the 2026–2028 timeframe to make targeted, achievable investments to address overcrowding and environmental impacts, and Kealakekua is a named focus within that constrained three-year window.
3. Ka Lae / Kalae (South Point)
Ka Lae — variably spelled Kalae and commonly called South Point in reporting — is the third priority hotspot flagged in HTA’s Big Island draft DMAP for 2026–2028. Big Island Now lists Ka Lae (South Point) among the three priority sites and the draft includes a heading reading “The community identified the following priorities for Ka Lae in South Point:” followed by HTA-identified solutions, but the specific lists and management actions are truncated in the available excerpt. The draft’s inclusion of Ka Lae confirms HTA’s intent to pair community-identified priorities with agency-proposed management actions for discrete locations on Hawai‘i Island, while acknowledging that the full text — including timelines, funding mechanisms, named stewards or enforcement measures — is not present in the supplied reporting excerpt and must be pulled from the full HTA draft for verification.
Statewide and procedural context HTA’s Big Island draft is part of a set of island-specific DMAP drafts for 2026–2028 developed after months of community engagement in 2025; comparable drafts for Maui and Kaua‘i hone in on their own local hotspots (Maui’s draft singles out the Road to Hāna and Honolua Bay and notes an emerging problem area in Kaupō, while Kaua‘i’s draft focuses on Kapaʻa–Wailua Corridor, Hoʻopiʻi Falls, and Kōkee/Waimea Canyon). Big Island Now describes the 2021–2023 DMAPs as “the first community-driven plans to rebuild, redefine and reset the direction of tourism in Hawaiʻi following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown that showed what the islands are like without visitors.” Unlike that broader effort, the 2026–2028 drafts are explicitly “more narrowly focused in order to be able to take action that is achievable during the three years of the plan.” Public input was solicited on the current drafts with a comments window that closed March 2 (end of day), as reflected in March 2, 2026 reporting.
Limits of reporting and next information steps The explicit facts available in the supplied excerpts confirm which three Big Island locations HTA has prioritized and outline the process and timeframe (community engagement in 2025; draft DMAP covering 2026–2028), but the specific community priorities and HTA management actions for Keaukaha, Kealakekua and Ka Lae are not included in the truncated Big Island Now text provided. Journalistic follow-up requires retrieving the full HTA Big Island DMAP and the complete Big Island Now article to extract the priority lists, proposed management actions (including any timelines, funding requests, and named stewards), and any data or maps HTA used to justify selection. HTA framed these hotspots as “sites under strain that are cherished by residents and visitors,” and the authority’s narrowed, three-year focus makes the coming months critical for understanding which interventions HTA will seek to fund and how local stewards will be engaged.
Conclusion HTA’s draft Big Island DMAP draws a tight spotlight on Keaukaha (Hilo/Keaukaha), Kealakekua and Ka Lae (Kalae/South Point) as priority hotspots for 2026–2028, reflecting the agency’s move from broader, sweeping post-pandemic plans toward targeted, achievable actions. With public comment windows now closed and the draft explicitly structured to match community priorities to HTA solutions, the next phase for residents, community stewards and policymakers is to review the full draft text to see which concrete steps, funding lines and monitoring measures HTA proposes for these three sites — and whether those steps align with the local priorities identified in 2025.
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