F.O.P (Fresh Off da Plane)

Hard times in paradise

I hate to start anything I write with a question, but it seems to be one of those dilemmas on the minds of many lately. It's a question that can ignite conflicting feelings of sadness, guilt and optimism.

I've heard folks quietly talk about how nice it was that they were able to get almost all of Kamaole Beach Park III to themselves last weekend or made record time driving home to Hana (pau hana).

And compared to the same time last year, personally, I can pull out onto South Kihei Road and have to worry more about colliding with a pedestrian headed for the bus stop rather than a rented Wrangler or Mustang.

However, I am not advocating for less tourism or knocking tourists whatsoever. After living here for only 13 months, I practically am a tourist.

Why does a Minnesota boy care? Three reasons:

=Sympathy. I have heard too many sad stories from business owners struggling to make it, wait staff and hotel workers getting their shifts cut, construction workers on the bench and other visitor industry folks flat-out losing their jobs. I am sick of layoffs and the fear of layoffs

=Self preservation. Newspapers need healthy economies and advertising income to even survive in these uncertain times for our industry (Hey, I just used our Maui Scene entertainment section to make a dinner reservation for Sansei sushi tomorrow)

=Empathy. I was also born and raised in a tourist town, so I grew up with these conflicts; and I believe I understand them intimately

Duluth, Minn., gets 3.5 million tourists a year, believe it or not. That's one million more than Maui. Of course, most of Duluth's visitors are people just driving in for a weekend to check out the city's 6-mile long sandy beach, stay at a waterfront hotel, hit the casino downtown and head back to Minneapolis the next morning before getting an omelet at Perkin's.

The average length of stay in Maui is said to be 10 days. While tourism generates $700 million a year for my Northern hometown, it accounts for more than $3.3 billion here annually, not including the price of airfare. And those are the lower-than-usual numbers.

But wherever there is tourism, it comes at a cost to the locals. Hey, even those who benefit from it have to sit in traffic jams with the rest of us. Unless they've got their own helicopter (I'm still waiting for flying cars, myself.).

I watched as my favorite isolate bluffs along Lake Superior's North Shore got splattered with million-dollar second homes for suburbanites from the Twin Cities and Chicago. Then, I must also admit that it was always one of my dreams to own a house on a ridge overlooking the big lake.

Back home, I've also hiked my longtime favorite rocky beaches and filled my cargo pockets with wrappers and pop cans. The thing is I can't say for sure that garbage came from tourists or my own fishermen friends and family.

But it really hurts to suddenly face new fences and “No Trespassing” signs along trails to places you've known your entire life.

But I still say please, please, please visit Duluth.

And I still say please, please, please come to Maui.

We all have the hard-won right to travel freely in the United States. I believe we should also all be treated as welcomed guests wherever we go in our own country and try our best to return the kindness or politeness shown to us when we vacation or move.

It is no wonder this place was and will again be swelling with visitors. Maui is amazing (No duh). It's rainbow-and-sunset paradise. Perfect weather. It's mountains, jungles, farms, forests, deserts and, finally, beaches, history and aloha galore.

The food and the hotels are spectacular, or at the very least pretty darn good. Tourism professionals are exceptionally kind and attentive. And locals are, if not always outta-the-way nice, they are at least always genuine. Just give them and the island you're respect, and you'll get a pass, if not much more. The fact is that until the newly-shared visions of renewable energy and food sustainability in Hawaii become a reality, we will continue to depend on visitors -- like it or not -- to make this local economy hum.

Most financial indicators predict that the state and county budgets are gonna tank in the short term without the usual annual predictions of growth for overall revenue and the transient accommodation tax and general excise tax, which come from tourism-related businesses such as hotels, restaurants, spas, umbrella rentals, Molokini boat excursions, etc...

Apparently because tourism was so lucrative and reliable for so long -- almost entirely consistent growth rates since the 1970s -- Maui's political and business leaders made some boo boos. I guess some tried, but most must have decided to essentially ignore that pesky diversification rule of investing.

Now, the three legs of Maui's economy -- tourism, real estate and agriculture -- are wobblier than me on my 21st birthday.

Sure tourists can be obnoxious. And some of the garish or gargantuan development that has been built to accommodate visitors has caused plenty of headaches and heartaches for locals who fight and fight and often are left to just watch as their 'aina slowly disappears. Or Maui's shoreline puu are topped off with $7 million fourth homes. I hear the complaints.

I also have listened to calls for balance and reason when building homes or expanding resorts and improving infrastructure in order to provide the jobs people need right now before they're forced to move “The Ninth Hawaiian Island” Las Vegas.

Well, there's not much most of us can do about stagnant commodities prices or mortgage meltdowns. But we can all try in these difficult times not to leave tourists with a bad impression of Maui's people.

Otherwise, the island sells itself. It will be interesting to see in the next couple of years how much of Maui is literally sold off to keep the economy afloat.

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Suzanne
11-05-08 2:50 PM »Report Abuse	I would love to come back to Maui for at least two weeks. The problem is the economy in the U.S. or at least where I now live, in New Mexico. When we were coming to Hawaii (Maui), we were living in Alaska (more jobs & paid more). Moving to New Mexico - better weather than Alaska but job market is awful & does not pay well. I so want to go back to that beautiful place (Maui) for a vacation but it all depends on the economy of this area in particular.
DonDiego
11-02-08 3:23 PM »Report Abuse	Not True, all of the bar and club people who smoked were social drinkers. They still go. They just walk out side to have a smoke.
enoughalready
10-30-08 2:58 PM »Report Abuse	Sorry Diego, but that's just not true. Even California has figured out how to get around the smoking bans because their businesses were hurt. Smokers go elsewhere and it's a fact.
DonDiego
10-22-08 6:12 PM »Report Abuse	Nice article Chris! Mostly common sense and we all know on Maui that there's nothing common about common sense. We need to be excellent to the tourists and each other no matter what happens! For now, we desperately need them. Our attitude to tourists should be, Thank you for choosing to come Maui! Thank you for helping us put food on my families table! We don't just want you to come back, we want you to bring your grandchildren next time! And besides, it's SO MUCH easier to be nice to them! Good Karma too. Smokers? The restaurants and clubs on Maui showed an INCREASE in business after smoking was banned!
enoughalready
10-19-08 10:41 PM »Report Abuse	Hey Chris - Maui is suffering from lack of tourism like everyone else right now and yeah I have heard the same from some people that like it this way because they go crazy with the tourist population when they are in Maui. Yet, stores and restaurants close and people who live here do suffer from lack of tourism because well that's their main industry. Hawaii started cutting it's own throat when they made the smokers feel unwelcomed. That started the decline of the restaurant industry before people stopped traveling. The State doesn't get it both ways. I know people who are smokers and have chosen other travel destinations because Maui is not accomodating at all to people who smoke yet half their restaurants butt up to a street or parking lot. I guess car exhaust is better for you. Also people have gotten tired of hearing how many people don't like tourists. The word does get around after awhile. Maui will bounce back but I don't think it will be quite the same again.

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