Southwest Airlines Promises Cheaper Fares to the Mainland
Get ready, Hawaiʻi: A new airline is preparing to enter the market and that means new local jobs, more options for travelers and additional support for local charities.
Tourism
Talk Story: Trevor Ozawa, Honolulu City Council
This talk story features Honolulu City Councilmember Trevor Ozawa, who received the inaugural Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association Award for Leadership In the Industry: Young Achiever It’s become a tradition for Honolulu City Councilmember Trevor Ozawa to volunteer his time to…
23rd Annual Kona Brewer's Fest Stimulates Local Economy And Unveils New Brewery Plan
Hotel occupancy is a metric that the Hawaii Tourism Authority likes to use to gauge the health of the visitor industry, so it's safe to say Hawaii Island's tourism was vivacious and spry last weekend for the Kona Brewer's Festival.…
Maternity Tourism in Hawaii
These two companies help pregnant Chinese women obtain visas and fly to Hawaii so their children are born here and get U.S. citizenship Goen Gao runs a tourism company for Chinese visitors called Hawaii Lulutrip, and a side business called HI…
Do B&Bs Help or Hurt Your Business?
Most business say neither, but there’s a shift over time among those who see an effect The BOSS survey asked 402 local business leaders about the impact on their companies of visitors who use B&Bs and other nonhotel accommodations outside…
Project Delays at Hawaii's Airports
Modernization and expansion projects at Hawaii’s airports are years behind schedule and tens of millions of dollars over budget. Some say the solution is an independent statewide airport authority. Twenty-one hours out of the day, Hawaii’s largest airport has enough…
Overtourism and Crowding at our Favorite Spots
The number of tourists coming to Hawaii keeps climbing and many are now crowding into places that were once reserved for locals. It’s a worldwide situation. However, the solution to “overtourism” may not be to cap the number of visitors…
Reviving a Legend: The Coco Palms Resort
After others failed over two decades, a new team is hoping to rebuild the Coco Palms Resort The once iconic Coco Palms resort is now a set of dilapidated brown buildings in the middle of a jungle. Guinea grass…
Hawaiian Airlines New Repair Hangar Can Hold 5 Jets at Once
Above: Rock Tang, Hawaiian Airlines’ managing director of corporate real estate, welcomes news media and airline retirees to the new repair hangar, which is almost the size of two football fields. The white doors and posts at left rise to…
Hawaiʻi is Home for Many Musicians and Kumu Hula, but Japan Pays the Bills
For many Hawaiian musicians and singers, performing is both their passion and their livelihood. So, when there's not enough places to perform locally, or the pay is too low, they have to improvise. Some work day jobs and perform at…
Big Hawaii Plans for Resort Developer China Oceanwide
Most people in Hawaii have never heard of China Oceanwide. They will soon enough. The little-known Chinese conglomerate has purchased $569 million of real estate in West Oahu, including the remaining oceanfront land between Aulani and the Beach Villas at…
With King Tides, Experts Predict Rising Sea Levels to Continue
King tides may come and go, but several experts say that rising sea levels in Hawaii are here to stay. And, according to Sam Lemmo of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, these king tides offer a glimpse…
Marketing Hawaii 3.0
A record-setting 8.9 million visitors came to Hawaii in 2016. Most were drawn by the Islands’ decades-old persona of sun, sand, surf and aloha, but some were lured by the artful use of creative technology: • A photo on the…
Talk Story: David Uchiyama
In April 2016, Uchiyama took over at Island Air after it was sold by billionaire Larry Ellison to local investors. Uchiyama has a long track record in the local visitor industry, including serving as VP for brand management at the…
Raising the Bar
When Sky Waikiki director of mixology Jen Ackrill debuted such wild ingredients as turmeric-infused vodka, spicy chili liqueur and absinthe spray as part of a new series of surf-inspired cocktails, we were impressed. Her innovative new take on cocktails was…
Talk Story: Jean Rolles
Jean Rolles, now 81 and daughter of Outrigger's founders, Roy and Estelle Kelly, has been named Salesperson of the Year for 2016 by the Honolulu chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives. SME Honolulu will honor her at its annual luncheon,…
Pedal Power
Will Mather has bike renting down to a science. He’s able to fit a customer with the right size bike, discuss safety and road rules, equip them with a helmet and lock, and take payment for the rental, all in…
How Hawaii's Beach Waters Rank
Was Your Beach Tested? The state uses a tiered system based on risk to determine which beach waters to sample for bacteria. Tier 1: These beaches take priority because they are heavily used and have factors that could influence higher…
New Way to Book Tours in Hawaii
ORIGIN: Like many origin stories, Activiter’s started in Vegas. Stuck on the Strip in the heat of the day, the company’s co-founders – Rob Lafontaine and Ikaika Sheehan – decided to see a show (mostly for the air conditioning) and waited in…
Shangri La: Hawaii's House of Treasures
At First, It doesn’t look like much. I’ve just parked in the driveway of Shangri La, which was once the home of Doris Duke, and I’m wondering where the house is. I see a small, plain, white windowless building nearby,…
An Innovation in Hotel Uniforms
In Hawaii, the business of hotel uniforms has traditionally been messy. A hotel would contract with a company to design and produce uniforms for its staff, but a different company would clean them. If the fabric shrank or threads came…
A Private Tour of Hawaii at Your Fingertips
ORIGINS: Husband and wife Andrew and Rita Fowers first met 11 years ago at Brigham Young University Hawaii in Laie, where their location inspired a company. “When I was a senior in college on the North Shore,” says Andrew Fowers,…
Made in Hawaii
Iolani Sportswear president Lloyd Kawakami remembers when aloha shirts were only made in Hawaii. Today, they are produced cheaply in Asia or sold under labels such as Tommy Bahama, which have no connection to the Islands. That competition has put…
From the Managing Editor: The World Is an Island
LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I think about money often. Not about what I can buy with it – though occasionally daydreaming about a shopping trip to Tokyo never hurt anybody. No, my preoccupation is with how money works and how it…