Hawaii's latest tourist trend is growing on Maui |
Maui’s lush landscapes have drawn visitors for decades, but now what comes from the aina (land) is also attracting attention. As the island continues to recover from the 2023 wildfires and a 20.7% drop in tourism between July 2023 and July 2025, more Maui farm owners are opening their fields and facilities to visitors. Farm tours offer educational, entertaining and enriching experiences that offset the high cost of farming and help stimulate the island’s economic recovery.
Interest in agricultural tourism, or agritourism, is surging across the country, generating $1.26 billion in revenue in 2022, and agritourism has the opportunity to reshape how tourists experience the Aloha State. On Maui, it gives visitors an opportunity to explore more rural parts of the island they may not otherwise see, plus a way of connecting to the island from the ground up.
In Lahaina, Maui Kuia Estate Chocolate offers tours of its cacao farm.
One of the most remote archipelagos on the planet, Hawaii imports approximately 85% of its food, according to a report by the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Yet myriad edible fruits, vegetables and plants grow across the Islands, many of which visitors may have never seen before.
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In Kula on Maui, Okoa Farms is new to agritourism. Owner Ryan Earehart recently opened a portion of his 46-acre upcountry farm for personally guided tours, along with farm-to-fork dinners served in an orchard teeming with figs, pomegranates, mangoes and more.
Opening the farm for tours was both a financial decision and one based on Earehart’s desire to share the diversity of agriculture with the community.
In Kula, Okoa Farms recently opened its farm to personally guided tours and farm-to-fork dinners.
“The economic side of it is that farming is so difficult and challenging that we need to have something that can help us also support our margin because the cost to produce food is so high in Hawaii in particular, and we can’t actually sell it for what we need to. The market kind of dictates what we can sell it for,” Earehart tells SFGATE. “So [tours] not only educate people to why things can be local and cost a bit more, because it’s done by hand, with care, but also they’re another opportunity for a stream of income for us that helps us achieve our goal of being sustainable.”
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Earehart’s acres boast hundreds of varieties of both familiar and obscure organic produce, ranging from rare radishes to indigenous ulu........