The September 11th attack
Revisiting tourism's frontlines
Advertiser Staff
A year after sharing their goals and dreams with The Advertiser's readers, new challenges face these visitor industry workers
Phoenix and Kim Dupree
Gifts with Aloha, Lana'i
Family-owned boutique quickly shifting gears
On the morning that terrorists took down the World Trade Center, Kim had one of the best days ever in the boutique, spurred along by a $5,000 sale of quilts and pillows to one woman.
"Her theory was 'I can't take it all with me, so I might as well spend it,'" Kim says.
Advertiser library photo • 2000
After that, the business turned spotty, and Kim has had to trim her already small sales force. The part-time high school hire who usually works three times a week hasn't been in since Sept. 11.
Kim estimates her sales are off 35 percent, but she chalks most of it up to the usual September doldrums. To get things moving, she's running a 50-percent-off sale, and for locals — who have been hard hit by cutbacks at the Manele Bay Hotel and the Lodge at Koele, the island's biggest employers — she offers some spontaneous discounts.
"For the locals, I've been giving them anywhere from 10 to 20 percent off on purchases," she says. "Because there's been a cutback on hours for all the workers."
To accommodate these new, more careful buyers, Kim has adjusted her prices, and will bring in more economical products. She'll cut her order with a high-end vendor roughly in half, and she's started talking to another supplier with medium-range goods.
The vendors are also feeling the crunch, she says.
"One of my vendors asked me to put half down," she says. "She was so embarrassed to ask."
For now, though, Kim says she and Phoenix aren't worried. On a recent trip to Honolulu, they treated themselves to a $160 dinner at L'Uraku. They've kept their housekeeper and yardman.
"Lana'i is historically more exclusive," Kim says. "The (visitors) who come here can afford to be here."
Steve and Susan Philips
Tropical colors, Hilo, Big Island
Big Island floral business makes new arrangements
When the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all planes in U.S. airspace, passengers weren't the only ones stranded.
"The orders we shipped out Monday — the day before — we shipped them out only to be grounded," Susan says. "We replaced them the next week."
Advertiser library photo • 2000
Susan says she doesn't know how much losing those 30 orders of anthurium, heliconia and other tropical blooms bound for the Mainland cost her, and doesn't want to know.
To make matters worse, when she and Steve visited the American Classic Voyages cruise ship that pulled into Hilo two days later, passengers were not in a buying mood.
"They were all somber," she says. "They were feeling guilty for being on vacation while all this was going on...It's been very slow since that happened."
And now there's a new obstacle. Heightened security has moved the ships farther down the pier, where the passengers disembark and get right into their tour buses and taxis. That means they have no time to linger by the Tropical Colors stand, where they can buy flowers for themselves or send them to friends and relatives on the Mainland.
Though the company now does a brisk telephone and Internet business, Susan says the cruise ships are crucial to their bottom line. She and Steve have to find a way to recapture that business she says — which would help them finish the half-stocked orchid house — but they're confident they can do it.
"I'm not convinced it's over yet. I'm not going down without a fight," Susan says. "You can't be complacent at this time. You have to change with the times."
Juvenal Hidalgo
Juvenal & Co., Maui
Downturn forces cuts for Wailea hairdresser
August was a record month for Juvenal , but it all stopped abruptly 2 1/2 weeks ago.
"It was a good run until Sept. 11," he says. "Everything came to a halt. Tourists dropped...People are not as willing to spend now."
Advertiser library photo • 2000
Business plunged 60 percent, forcing him to cut his staff from 11 to six. Those who remained had their hours trimmed, and new duties assigned: the receptionist has only six hours a day now, instead of eight, and she picks up the slack left by the janitors, who were cut from four days of a week to two.
Because of Juvenal's careful cultivation of local clientele, he has managed to remain fairly busy in the face of slumping visitor numbers. But even his locals are cutting back on services, he said, husbanding their cash for what they fear may be hard times ahead.
The other day, two clients who usually get haircuts and highlights — a $145 job — said they could afford only a haircut, that they'd be back later for the rest.
"I was lucky, because one came with a husband who needed a haircut, and somehow it balanced," Juvenal says. "People now are stretching it. Instead of coming every four to six weeks, they're coming every six to eight weeks. This morning I had a cancellation from another client who does financial services, and she postponed for a week and a half. That's the trend right now."
So far, Juvenal says he's breaking even, paying the bills, but not making any money. He'll get a bit more aggressive though, in coming days.
"In the next week or two, I'm going to do a little newsletter to give them some discounts, and to acknowledge the fact that we're all in this together," he says.
Billy Remular
Aloha Airlines Customer Service Agent, O'ahu
Airline worker unfazed by these turbulent times
The airline industry has been one of the hardest hit by the attacks of Sept. 11, which used hijacked passenger jets as weapons against New York and Washington, and Aloha has not been spared.
Billy, secure in his job after 12 years, said sad goodbyes to less senior friends last week who got caught in the airline's 250 layoffs.
Advertiser library photo • 2000
But still working three jobs himself — he's also a swim instructor in Manoa and a Hawaiian studies teacher in Pearl City — Billy says he will not cut back on family outings, his priority in life.
"We're going to Vegas," he says.
Billy has already been to the gambling capital twice since Aloha started flying there in February, but next month's trip will be the first with the family.
"We'll make it a family trip," he says, "visit the amusement parks and do some shopping."
His wife, Shirley, wasn't crazy about traveling after the attacks, but said what the heck, he says. And the hotel room was already paid for.
The big impact of Sept. 11 on the family, Billy says, has been for his daughter Kanani. She's married to an active-duty airborne trooper stationed at Fort Bragg. Billy says he's not sure when his son-in-law might be deployed.
"I'm kind of worried," Billy says, "but he's dedicated to serve his country and protect everyone's freedom. That's what they prepared him for. But it's family, huh? And we've got a grandson, too."
As for the family's financial future, Billy says he's not worried.
"If anything ever happens, I can always go back to teaching full time," he says. "Special ed is wide open."
Florencia Daga
Housekeeper, Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel, O'ahu
Waikiki housekeeper faces uncertain future
As long as the Beachcomber's rooms were full of travelers stranded by the grounding of all planes in U.S. airspace, Florencia had a full schedule.
"They were stuck," she says. "Every day they tried to go out but there were no more airlines. So we still had work that week."
Advertiser library photo • 2000
But by last week, her hours had all but dried up, and even a dozen more senior workers were "on call," a kind of "wait-and-see" whether they'll work.
One day last week, housekeepers were operating at about two-thirds their normal work force, Florencia said, and unless someone senior took vacation or called in sick, she had almost no chance of getting any work.
"Everyone is really worried," she says. "The compensation place, where you go if you don't have enough hours, it's packed plenty people."
Florencia said she planned to join them at Honolulu's unemployment office if she ended the week with less than two days' work.
Two of Florencia's sisters, housekeepers at the Doubletree Alana Waikiki and the Halekulani, have also lost hours, and at home they have begun to cut back.
"We're telling ourselves that we got to be careful about money, so we're cutting some electricity," she says. "If it's not really hot, don't use aircon or electric fans. We have an extra freezer, but my sister said, 'Turn it off.' It's not really full."
And those are just the little things.
"Last month we were considering looking for a small house," she says. "But it's good we didn't go through with it... I put it off totally."
Kammy Purdy
Purdy's Natural Macadamia Nut Farm and Kamuela's Cook House Restaurant, Moloka'i
Courage, hope sustain entrepreneurial family
Kammy and her son Kamuela reopened the old Cook House restaurant late last year and business has been brisk, with a good mix of locals and visitors. They've even made a bit of money.
"We're not rich, but we're keeping up with the payroll and the taxes," she says. "And we have a little extra money to do this new venture. So I guess we're doing something right."
Advertiser library photo • 2000
Kammy attributes the recent slowdown to the end of summer, not Sept. 11, but she's had to cut workers' hours nonetheless.
"Me, and my daughter and my son, we go in and we work more hours — for free," she says.
Of the restaurant's 15 employees, nine are Purdys.
Kammy remains undaunted by the downturn, and along with her son she plans to open a second restaurant in Kaunakakai next month, Kamuela's Bar and Grill.
When quizzed about her courage in the fragile economic atmosphere, Kammy has a simple answer: "People still gotta eat."
Meanwhile, back on the farm, Tuddie minds the macadamia grove, greeting from two to two-dozen visitors a day or more. Since May, the Moloka'i Princess ferry has brought daytrippers from Maui, filling the farm.
"They automatically come to Tuddie's grove," Kammy says.
But as good as tourism has been to the Purdys, Kammy says the recent crisis should let Hawai'i know it cannot be so dependent on visitors. She is helping aspiring homesteaders win grants for farm businesses.
"Instead of putting all our eggs in one basket," she says, "the state better wake up and see we better diversify."
Momi Bean
Fishing boat captain, Kona, Big Island
Fishing boat captain angling a new course
Friends all said Momi would return to Kona shortly, that Hawai'i would lure him back. But since he left late last year to run a boat off California, he has not been back, said friend and sometime deckhand Del Wheaton.
Advertiser library photo • 2000
"He's touring around the Caribbean, working on some boats," said Del, who hasn't spoken to Momi in months, but heard the news through friends. As for business: "It's been really slow for charters," Del says.
Marnie Morgan
Kayak Kauai guide and office manager, Kaua'i
River guide leaves to pursue her passion
Marnie came to Kaua'i sight-unseen in 1994, and landed at Kayak Kauai, where she put food on the table for herself and her 3-year-old son Keanu by keeping the office and escorting visitors up the island's rivers.
Advertiser library photo • 2000
But Alaska was also one of her passions, and friends say she recently moved there. She is rumored to be living in the town of Ninilchik, south of Fairbanks, though she could not be reached for comment.
