Where have all the Tourists gone?
February 05, 2009 | 09:41 PM

I love Maui. I've been visiting 2 weeks at a time almost every year since 1990. 8 years ago I brought my mom and her partner with me. They now visit with me every year. We rent a condo from a wonderful woman who lives in California. We don't do a lot of the tourist activities any more, but we do support MACC, attend at least one of their shows every year, along with any other cultural events we can find and spend a lot of money shopping & eating out. We tip an average 25-30% at the restaurants knowing that these employees depend on tips to survive. We have made friends with locals and some even come to stay with us when they are in Washington. We also take it upon ourselves to help keep your beaches clean by walking with garbage bags and picking up fishing lines, food containers and even used condoms. We keep to ourselves and do not to interfere with any local customs or beach rights. We have always enjoyed the interractions with the locals and tried to be ever so unnoticable, unlike many tourists. We want to enjoy a couple of weeks of culture, beauty and tranquility. Year before last our contact with locals started to decline and people began to get nasty. Not the true Hawaiians, but some of the others. We attributed it to a busy season and people just being tired, which is totally understandable. In 2008 people were horrible. My mother is a very quiet reserved person and people treated her like crap. One time she wasn't quick enough to make her decision at a shave-ice shop and the person threw her paper and pad down and stormed off. She finally came back from bitching at her co-worker about how slow my mom was, was still so crappy that I had to step in and ask her if there was a problem or if they just didn't want to seve us. My mom attributed it to a bad day - we gave them a second chance, went back another day and same girl was there doing the same thing to the people in front of us. There were other times that these attitudes came from nowhere. We saw it happening to all sorts of people at different places so it wasn't affecting only us. I'm on the fence on whether I will return this year. I may try another island or a whole other state or country. Being treated like crap does not make for a relaxing vacation nor does it make me want to return. So just let it be known that not only the economy is the reason for less tourism, but the treatment of your tourists.

Pam