Maui small business owner: Stop telling tourists to stay away after fires

• Javier Cantellops has lived in Maui for eight years and owns three diving businesses.
• Cantellops told Insider it’s irresponsible to tell tourists to stay away from Maui after the fires.
• He said the rest of Maui can’t help devastated Lahaina if they lose their jobs or businesses.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with 41-year-old Javier Cantellops, who owns three businesses in Maui, Hawaii: Sting J Maui, Island Style Diving, and Maui Dreams Dive Co. His businesses are based in Kihei, where he also lives. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been on Maui for the last eight years. I’m actually a Puerto Rican kid, so I’m an island boy that’s traveled the world. I moved out here to live as a professional dive instructor.

I have a mini dive empire here. This is my dream: to live in Maui and showcase the underwater world and share my passion.

Although you are only hearing about the Lahaina fire, because obviously it was devastating, the Kula fire also damaged homes and damaged a lot of property, and made its way half a mile from my house. My family were in our house packing, preparing. We got evacuation notices that I ignored because I was like, “I’m not leaving here until I know my home is safe.” It was a very, very scary time for us.

My boat, the lifeline of my business, was three miles down the road. So I was driving back and forth from my boat and back to my home. My boat, because it’s surrounded by grassland, I would spray all the grass down, and I sprayed my boat down. Then I’d come home, keep up with my wife, and that’s what I did for two days basically.

All the dive companies in Lahaina, the dive shop owners, they’re all my close friends. Right after the fires, nobody knew anything. So I went out there and flew my drone and then gave away all the footage, so that the whole world could see what was going on. I continued doing supply runs and bringing people in and out of Lahaina as well.

Then all of a sudden people started being super irresponsible and saying, “Maui’s closed, don’t come to Maui, we need to grieve.” That’s not how life works. If there’s an earthquake in San Francisco, Los Angeles doesn’t shut down.

Telling tourists to stay away is not helping Maui

The news media and people out there make it sound like Maui burned down. Maui did not burn down. A town in Maui burned down. And yes, it was very culturally impactful and full of history. There are now tens of thousands of residents not directly impacted by the fires in a physical way, that are getting massively financially impacted by the fires.

A lot of tourists and visitors have left. Some have straight up canceled trips for October and November and late September. In three days, I refunded $45,000. [Editor’s note: Insider viewed documentation that showed more than $45,000 in refunds.]

I know three full businesses in the dive industry that have completely stopped, have furloughed their employees, and put them all on unemployment. And this has happened in two, three days. Unlike COVID where it was kind of this long drawn out thing, this was like, boom, immediately everyone canceled.

Then you have the Jason Momoas of the world and influencers thinking that they’re helping by speaking up for the Hawaiian community or for Maui by telling people to stay away. In reality, it was a humongous detriment to our community. They need to realize how impactful their messaging was in a negative way.

Although we appreciate what you’re trying to convey, this is not how you’re helping the community. Maui is not closed. Lahaina is closed, and we need to support them and we need to be here for them. But if you truly want to help Maui, then you need to tell people to come back to this beautiful island, bring back their smiling faces, and bring back their commerce.

We all have to move forward. We can’t help our community if we are all on unemployment, if businesses are shuttered.

Tourists need to be respectful when they come back to Maui

It’s a very sensitive and delicate subject that I’m willing to stand up and speak proudly about because that’s the reality. In Maui we’ve always had this conflicting reality denial that we’re not fully dependent on tourism. Yes, we are. We are fully dependent on tourism here.

My goal is to keep up with my employees and try to do the best I can for my community and try to pivot the message. Yes, in the immediate, if you have the means and the funding, then we have to help these displaced residents. We’ve got to help Lahaina during this extremely difficult, multi-year rebuild. All the displaced residents are going to need immediate aid from the government and from generous people throughout the country.

But the biggest way that people are going to be able to help Maui is by coming back to Maui.

We have to be sensitive. We have to be respectful. Please stay out of the west side. Book yourselves in the south side, in Wailea, Kihei, Paia, Makawao, and come be part of this beautiful island. Support the businesses here. Try to do as much local purchases as possible. And be kind. Be respectful. Don’t come down here with a highly entitled attitude. This is an even more sensitive time to come down.

I’m also still giving back to the community. I’m doing a night dive and the boat is full of dive professionals that lost everything in Lahaina, but they still want to go dive. Scuba diving is about tranquility and about peace, and it brings solace. So they are diving with me for free, obviously.

I think that if the community rallies around us, we’ll be okay in regards to the economic impact, but this messaging has to change.

I can’t help a single individual on this island if I’m having to furlough employees and put people on unemployment.

Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.