Businesses in Maui are begging for tourists

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

A Maui boat captain and dive tour operator, Javier Cantellops, has an immediate message for tourists who are planning to visit this place, the famous vacation spot, and Hawaii’s second-biggest island.

The owners of local businesses have said that calls from the officials of the government airlines and celebrities to keep away from Maui after the devastating wildfires that heavily damaged Lahaina town, killing almost 114, were inapt. With several tourists calling off their scheduled trips, Maui’s small businesses are getting hurting like anything.  

Cantellops informed CBS MoneyWatch that the west side is damaged totally and Lahaina is closed off, however still Maui is opened for public, and proving number one way to help Maui at the time of the crisis to come back.

They need visitors to come back with their smiling faces. In the past week, Cantellops has estimated that his two businesses, Island Style Diving and Maui Dreams Dive Company in terms of revenue have jointly lost between $35,000 to $38,000 just from canceled bookings. Both of them are based in Kihei, which is on the southwest coastline, roughly located 20 miles from Lahaina.

He said that they are tremendously reliant on tourism and visitors returning and taking that basis of revenue away due to some tragedy that happened somewhere else is reckless.

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