Relaxed tropical ambience...

An acquaintance of mine is headed to Australia shortly and asked for some suggestions on the best ways to see the Great Barrier Reef. While I was suggesting places to go I thought I'd include a couple of websites so he could further investigate, find hotels, etc. One such website had a mention of Airlie Beach which is the launching off point for some sailing tours of the reef. Anyhow I found the description of Airlie to be somewhat misleading.
The description is as follows:
Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays, a colourful, cosmopolitan and inviting holiday town lying on the shores of a palm fringed beach and overlooking the calm waters of Pioneer Bay dotted with yachts.
As you drive into Airlie Beach through the neighbouring community of Cannonvale the road climbs above Abel Point Marina, providing expansive views of the indented coastline, the aquamarine sea and the shapes of distant islands on the horizon. You can't avoid the holiday feeling that scene evokes, nor the relaxed tropical ambiance as you wander around the village streets and down to the vast lagoon. (From Whitsundays Tourism website)

Now the part in red is the part that I take issue with, yes Airlie Beach is located in an idyllic setting, yes the water and lagoon is beautiful and yes the weather is always warm and yes it's right next to the reef, however this does not make for a "relaxed tropical ambiance" as you wander through the village streets. Unless by relaxed tropical ambiance you mean men running through the streets (in the early afternoon mind you) with blow up dolls, seeing girls throwing up outside restaurants, the recruiters for wet t-shirt contests wandering the streets, or at 9am lots and lots of drunk yachties and other sailboat workers sitting at the outside bars causing a ruckus(I mean granted they are only on shore like 1-2 days a week so they need to get their drinking in). Also I'm sure I myself even detracted from the relaxed tropical ambiance a time or two and I'm not saying I didn't have a blast in Airlie Beach, I'm merely saying that if you are up for a relaxing vacation spot with no hassles and peace and quiet, Airlie Beach ain't it! In fact it rather reminds me of the island of Tortuga in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, although instead of pirates running amok, it's backpackers.