Growing Connections: Imua Joins HTA’s Community Tourism Collaborative

What if one of the most memorable things you did on Maui wasn’t something you simply saw, but something you helped care for?

That idea is at the heart of a new project taking shape at Imua Discovery Garden.

Imua Family Services has been selected as one of six Maui nonprofits participating in the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s 2026 Community Tourism Collaborative Community Stewardship program. Over the coming months, Imua will work alongside HTA and other community organizations to explore new ways for visitors, kamaaina and local businesses to connect with Maui through stewardship, culture and a deeper relationship with place.

For Imua, that work will center around the Pohakuokauhi Ethnobotanical Garden at Imua Discovery Garden.

The vision is to create a hands-on, aina-based stewardship experience where people can get their hands in the soil, learn about native and culturally significant plants, discover the history and stories of the area, and leave with a better understanding of the place they have spent time in.

In other words, this isn’t just about visiting Maui. It is about participating in Maui.

A Different Kind of Visitor Experience

The Community Tourism Collaboratives were created by HTA to help Maui organizations develop community-centered approaches to tourism. Imua is participating in the Community Stewardship cohort, which focuses specifically on nonprofit organizations caring for natural or cultural resources and exploring ways to thoughtfully engage visitors through voluntourism, managed access and other guided experiences.

The program runs from July through October and includes workshops, in-person training and opportunities for participating organizations to develop plans for visitor-engaged stewardship.

For Imua, the opportunity feels like a natural extension of what is already happening at Imua Discovery Garden.

Located on a historic six-acre property in Wailuku, the Garden has become a place where children, families and the broader community come together to play, learn, explore and connect with the natural world. The Pohakuokauhi Ethnobotanical Garden adds another layer to that experience by creating opportunities to learn from the plants, history and cultural significance of the land itself.

Through the Community Tourism Collaborative, Imua will begin developing ways to share that experience with a wider audience.

Come to Maui. Get Your Hands Dirty.

Imagine spending part of your Maui vacation learning about native plants while helping care for a garden. Or gathering your employees for a service day that is less about checking a volunteer box and more about understanding the place your company calls home.

The developing concept is intended to welcome visitors, residents and businesses alike.

Participants might contribute to the care of the garden while learning why particular plants matter, how they were traditionally used and what the surrounding area can teach us about Maui’s history. The experience can combine service, storytelling, education and connection, giving people an opportunity not simply to pass through a place, but to build a relationship with it.

That is the idea behind regenerative tourism: creating experiences that can contribute positively to the communities and places people visit.

It also fits naturally with Imua Family Services. For nearly 80 years, Imua has worked to support Maui County’s children and families. Today, Imua Discovery Garden has expanded that mission into a physical place built around inclusion, community, nature, culture and, of course, play.

The Pohakuokauhi project brings those ideas together in a new way.

Just Getting Started

There is still plenty to develop, and that is part of what makes this moment exciting.

The Community Tourism Collaborative is designed to help participating organizations build their ideas thoughtfully, strengthen operations and create plans that can grow into sustainable community stewardship experiences.

This week, Imua CEO Dean Wong and Communications Director Katie Mecklenburg will represent Imua at the 2026 Hawaii Tourism Conference on Oahu as part of that ongoing work. The September 24 and 25 conference brings together people from across Hawaii’s visitor industry, natural resource stewardship organizations and community tourism initiatives to explore the future of tourism in the islands.

As the Pohakuokauhi Ethnobotanical Garden experience develops, we will share much more about what participation will look like and how residents, visitors, businesses and community groups can get involved.

For now, we are planting the seeds.

And if all goes according to plan, what grows from them will be more than a garden. It will be another way to experience Maui through connection, contribution and care for the aina that makes this place so extraordinary.