The problem with calls to return to tourism on Maui is that the issue is complex. On the one hand, you have people whose entire livelihoods are tied to tourism (I don't count vacation rental "investors" in this equation, because they can go fuck themselves--especially the ones going online and saying things like "we need to stop the self pitty" [sic] and "how am I going to pay the mortgage on my Airbnb?"). The people I care about set up small businesses, sometimes as small as a fruit stand near a popular beach outside the resort zones, and probably need the income to afford skyrocketing property taxes that get funneled into feeding tourism subsidies. These are the people who aren't going to get anything from FEMA if business completely dries up and they're either forced to move to the PNW against their will (like me) or die in a tent when the next inevitable wildfire rips through the next local community that’s become tinderbox dry thanks to water diversion to the nearby golf course.
On the other hand, tourists in general are absolute fucking assholes--anyone who grew up in a tourist destination has an exhausting array of stories about how shitty tourists are--even the nicer ones (read Jamaica Kincaid's "The Ugly Tourist"). Everywhere you go, there they are--overcrowding everything, trashing the place, treating anyone they see like servants. Some of the places I used to go, that only people who grew up on Maui knew about, have installed tourist-friendly infrastructure or have beat up trails with trash on them and are filled with so many people that it's almost like you're standing in line to wait your turn to swim around in dirty water or take the identical Instagram influencer picture all the fucking "travel blogger/smash the subscribe" people take in the exact same spot. They park illegally, walk right into private property, and will tell you to your face that they have a right to be wherever they go. I often wonder how it is that so few of them are shot.
Around here is no better. When I moved to the PNW, there were pleasant hikes nearby if you needed a break from the city, or it got too hot and you didn't feel like getting wasted at the Sandy river. Now the entire Gorge is a place to avoid. I can't remember the last time you could hike into pretty much anywhere without being nose-to-butthole the whole time with people bitching about their itineraries, dropping dogshit bags and energy drink cans everywhere, and getting mad because everyone is apparently only there to fuck up each other's "pristine nature" pictures. Anyplace in the area that’s deemed “noteworthy” by travel bloggers has a 2-4 hour wait to get in. I don’t know any area locals who set foot in these areas anymore.
Which has always been part of the problem. Travel publications making their coin on telling the tourists to check out places previously known only to locals. I remember being frustrated at the tourist channel on Maui (Ch. 7) running Didi Ah Yo “Away We Go!” segments that gave precise instructions on how to find places tourists would typically race past in rented Mustang convertibles on their way to The Big Photo Op.
The “best” people aren’t doing most of the traveling—certainly not since 2020—and massive regulatory change about tourism is long overdue. We can try to teach people to be better visitors, but have you MET a wealthy white person doing a “spiritual retreat” near Pā'ia? Nobody is more condescending or rude and those are the people allegedly trying to become better humans. If that crowd can’t be trusted to visit in a way that benefits a place, who can?
Visit/don't visit--everything is more complicated than that. All tourists are shitty at some point, even you and me. Learn to mitigate your own damage and remember to tip fat. Better yet, try to learn how to be a tourist that gives back (your cash and your presence don’t count), leaving the place in a better condition than you found it. And never ever be one of those people who acts like they deserve an award for spending a couple of grand wiping the dust off your third eye. If you had to spend that much money to reach enlightenment, you are not enlightened.