Lahaina Halloween Celebration Nixed - Is Maui Becoming a Visitor Unfriendly Island?

i love love love maui the halloween celebration and activities had gotten out of hand i would have avoided maui during this time of year
now i would feel safe bringing my family to the island during halloween. only wish i never had to go home from this paradise

While the ever increasing hotel and time share building is unfortunate let’s not forget — someone had to sell these “dirt pimps” the land. The developers are not taking the property by emminent domain, each parcel of land was sold by someone — and thus each seller shares in the blame. You can’t keep your paradise pristine when selling to the pimps…

Reading of what was being said, there was not enough information regarding why Maui is the lest friendly place.

DNR and OHA never really spilled the beans on the real reason. When you have politics and money mix in any community affair…not a whole lot of sense to cancel out a party!

It is interesting to read the writer’s perspective on the various issues. An area worth mentioning is that more job opportunities are available with construction of resorts and timeshares not only in West Maui but other areas too. Look at Molokai, with the shutdown of Molokai Ranch where many Molokai residents lost their jobs. Not surprisingly, several of them moved to West Maui and have found jobs here, making it easy to commute from West Maui to Molokai. While encouraging tourism in Maui, let’s care for the residents too who need to earn more to be able to afford the high cost of living here.

Maybe the visitor needs to be more aware of the local residents. We are seeing more and more visitors in places that are not ment for the them. Roads are crowded with sightseers who have no regard for the locals who drive them everyday. Books that put scenic sights in them without regard to private property signs only create anger with the locals. We continually sees cars parked on the side of the road where signs read no trespassing, yet the tourist disregards these signs and follows the directions of a guide book. It is becoming very hard to respect the everyday tourist when they do not respect the local residents as well.

We went to Hawaii in 1993 for our 10th anniversary and went to three islands, but not Moui. We heard it was the most expensive of all the islands, so opted not to go. We’d planned to go back again for another anniversary and include Moui then… But if this is true, we probably won’t go. After all, who goes on vacation to paradise just to be treated as if you’re unwelcome??

I went to Maui about a month ago and I have to agree with what I just read. We went a few years back and it was a much nicer and romantic place. You can not go to the beach witout having someone sit on the edge of your towel or be in the water without someone kicking you in the head with their flippers. I will not be returning, the expense and long flight do not add up to what your get in return. I will just go to Florida and spend much less for the same atmosphere.

ALOHA I Moved to the big island in the 70s we always knew maui was the cocaine tennis crowd high prices bad attitude towards lcals like the tourist poop didnt stink and i guess its still going on i an a union carpenter and like the work but not with out the proper roads and resect for the ania (Land) NOW TO HALLOWEEN I HAVE GOING TO MAUI FOR HALLOWEEN for years my wife and i ran into people from the main land we had know for years cancelling hallowen by the stupid maui county cultural commission is a slap in the face to all lahaina bussnisess its like canceling the ironman in kona thousands of $ are lost yes it gets a little wild but with all the fine maui police on the scene i have never seen a problem! in these tough times how can the MCCRC let people to lose money yes maui has nice art glleries and fine expesense resturants and high very high priced hotels and if so rich tourist dont like the home town feel of lahaina after dark lock yourself in your hotel room and drink at the mini bar god bless the children of our islands

I’m very disappointed to read this. My husband and I are leaving for Maui in a couple of weeks. We were married there and returned for a visit four years ago. We loved it then and are really looking forward to our visit this time around. I hope it hasn’t changed much–that would be a disappointment.

PS–chalk us up as two tourists with nothing but respect for the locals. We avoid the expensive restaurants, preferring to frequent the local fare (we love Da Kitchen!) and small independent shops. If those things disappear, it would certainly be sad indeed.

1. Surf competitions are held on Maui’s north shore. 2. Vacation rentals/inns owned by Maui residents provide accommodations. 3. They are banned. 4. Maui residents cannot earn money this way anymore. 5. Surf competitions are no longer held on the island due to lack of accommodations.

Who is happy here? Locals? Surfers? Maui residents? Tourists? I don’t think so. The hotels are, however. Their only interest is in making more money, and Charmaine Tavares is making sure that they get all the business on the island. This money goes to large chain corporations (hotel employees are not paid a lot, and their financial security is short-term). Families on Maui could have benefited from this source of revenue, but Charmaine thinks multi-million (and billion) dollar corporations should be taken care of instead.

Meanwhile, as we are arguably in the worst economic situation since the depression, we are turning business away in order to preserve the pristine and sacred stronghold of Hawaiian culture that is….FRONT STREET??? The place where America began its invasion and exploitation of Hawaii? Because we want to honor the early years of that invasion when it was being USED as a whaling port by FOREIGNERS who no doubt had a much less respectful attitude towards Hawaiian culture than people do today? The sacred memory we honor is of the destruction of a people who were too kind to say no? Lunatics.

Word on the coconut wireless is that Halloween on Front Street 2008 is gonna be a wild rage this year: the lack of organization or “adult supervision” exciting all the local, youthful revelers with visions of an all-night anarhic bacchanalian orgy. We shall see; I’ll be there!

Tourism is indeed down on Maui, but far from out. Half the maximum number of arrivals is still alot of visitors! An upside of fewer visitors is that raffic hasn’t been bad here in months. Nobody complains about the traffic anymore. It’s just not a water cooler topic here like it was for a while: that’s a pleasure. For real!

As for crowds: uh uh. Not for six months: the beaches are again an uncrowded paradise; plenty of free beach parking everywhere; gorgeous weather; sunny days; balmy evenings. There seems to be enough visitor arrival to keep the wheels of industry churning around here- with some lamentable – and other not so lamentable – casualties of the slower economy; but it’ll packed to the rafters here at the holiday’s, no matter what, like always. So in my opinion, the pendulum just swings here: it never will actually stop.

We miss all of our friends and family in Lahaina, Napili, and Honokowai. We hope to see you all again soon! Aloha~ from Tom, Laurie, and the boys!

I agree with the original comment. I am currently in Maui with my wife. We also visited BI before coming to Maui. While the islands are wonderful, the people’s (esp locals) attitude is not. Locals are completely unfriendly and rude. Never once did we feel welcome on these islands. Having travelled several countries, we both are pretty humble and I do not go around with my tourist attitude. We do not expect locals to wave or smile or talk to us either. But at least in public places, stores, and even roads, they could act more accomodating about tourists. I hate to say, but tourism runs a large part of the economy and you have to throw that attitude away and be welcoming where it matters. I am surely not coming to Hawaiian islands again. I know that makes no difference, but in the long run it will. I’d rather go to other tropical paradise and wipe my original impressions of hawaiian islands. I hate it now when they talk about the aloha spirit. What about giving some back yourself.

The one thing I have learned in my years is always have your own experience. To paint the locals with a broad brush and call them rude is to be rude yourself. However, for the locals to treat visitors bad just because some of them are is also rude and karma will deal with violators on both sides of the fence. I have Polynesian neighbors here in the States. Should I tell them to move back to whatever island they came from? No. They have a right to live where they want and I have a right to travel where I want. Just show respect to everyone you come in contact with. If they do not return the respect, then adjust accordingly. I suggest some time in the Marines. It helped me make a not-so-friendly local a good friend. All it took was a slight chokehold when he threw a bottle at me.

Maui is a wonderful,beautiful place with very friendly locals. I don’t understand how you all are having experiences like you say.
My husband and I go there every year, and I can honestly say, that we have not one time, had any local be unfriendy. Quite the opposite.

And to cancel the Halloween celebration?! That would just be dumb. It’s ONE night people! That isn’t going to make or break the island.

I’m thinking it’s the snobby,rich NON locals with the attitude problem.

My husband and I came from Kansas in December of 2008 for our honeymoon. We are not 20 somethings who are insensitive to the island culture and the fact that we were visitors to other’s home. I felt that the whole trip was marred by how unfriendly the people who lived there were. I didn’t care how expensive things were, I was raised poor and saved for a long time for this trip. We are not rude people and we were totally excited about being somewhere so beautiful. Multiple people told me how unfriendly Maui was and I simply did not believe them. While we were there our rental car was sideswiped by someone who lived on the island. They were drunk at the time of the accident and when I got out of our car to determine the extent of the damage I was threatened by other local people to move or else. The person who hit us lied to the insurance company and said we hit them and that they were injured. None of this was true but you know what, that’s not the point of this opinion. I would never go back to the islands, not if you paid me to go and I will tell everyone who wants to know what Maui was like is that the island was beautiful but the people we came into contact with were mean and had mean spirits. I want to see the whole world because I am a whole world kind of person, but I hope that the next place I save up to see will have some love and friendliness in it. Kansas may be a little state in the middle of nowhere and I may hate our politics but the people here are totally evolved compared with those I met on Maui. The friendliest people we met were folks who were from “somewhere else”. Ironic huh?

My wife and I have been coming to Maui and the other Islands of Hawaii for over 30 yrs.
This year, we decided to come to Maui to enjoy the Halloween celebrations. Needless to say, we were extremely disappointed to find out that Celebration has been canceled because the Maui County Cultural Resources Commission denied permits for costume contests, live outdoor stages, and food and craft booths. We have always valued, enjoyed, and respected the Hawaiian culture as well as Lahaina’s cultural history.
I doubt if our feelings or opinion will make the slightest difference, and, we will not be in Maui next October.