June 2007 Archives

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is negotiating to purchase or jointly operate the Turtle Bay Resort, the lone resort on Oahu's North Shore, officials said.

Some community members and environmental groups have been campaigning against Kuilima Resort Co.'s plans to build as many as five new hotels on the 860-acre property.

They say the development would destroy the rural character of the area, disturb Native Hawaiian burial grounds and increase traffic congestion.

Backers say the project will bring thousands of jobs to an area with few employment opportunities and generate more tax revenues for the state.

Book your reservation at the Turtle Bay Resort at Travel-Hawaii.

Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - June 22, 2007
by Chad Blair

Thousands of techies hunched over their laptops at the Hawaii Convention Center is a sign to Joe Davis that a marketing strategy to attract major groups like engineering associations is paying off.

Providing free Internet access upon request is just part of an overall strategy to seek new business and nurture repeat bookings, said Davis, general manager of SMG, which manages and markets the center. He calls 2007 "a banner year" for engineering conferences in Honolulu, a rare bright spot in a market that has been soft in Hawaii and on the Mainland.

From February of this year through May 2008, at least 10 engineering or tech-related groups with an estimated 21,000-plus attendees either have held meetings or booked convention space at the center. That compares with three similar groups and 8,000 delegates from July 2005 through all of 2006.

The laptop scene happened at the center in early June, at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' international microwave symposium. Between meetings, practically the only sound to be heard outside the ground-floor exhibition hall and the third-floor meeting rooms was the clackity clack of fingers on keyboards.

"It was great to be able to keep in touch with my home office," said Mali Mahalingam, who manages a business called Freescale Semiconductor in Tempe, Ariz. "Free broadband is not commonplace yet. I commend the center for providing it."

The IEEE's acoustic speech and signal-processing branch brought 2,000 to the convention center in April, while its electromagnetic compatibility society branch will bring 1,500 next month.

It's not just the convention center. An IEEE neural engineering symposium met at The Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island's Kohala Coast in early May, while IEEE held an antennas and propagation symposium at the Sheraton Waikiki in mid-June.

Wayne Shiroma, an engineering professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who was chairman of the microwave conference, said the recent spate of conferences brings a new dimension to how UH can serve as an economic engine for the state.

"Not only can UH increase the work force and produce technological innovations, but that bolsters Hawaii's top industry, tourism," he said.

Peter Crouch, dean of the UH engineering school, echoed that view.

The Alakai, Hawaii Superferry's first vessel serving the islands of Maui, Kauai and Oahu, traveled through the Panama Canal late Monday night. The Alakai's progress can be tracked online at Hawaii Superferry's Web site: www.HawaiiSuperferry.com.

The Alakai is scheduled to arrive in Hawaii in early July.

Hawaii Superferry's director of marine operations and 12 officers and crew members are among those on board. Seven of the crew are Hawaii residents.

Prior to the start of service, the crew will conduct route familiarization and training voyages for certification by the U.S. Coast Guard. The community will also have the opportunity to board the Alakai during free community preview events while the vessel is in port on the islands of Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii.

Hawaii Superferry will offer daily service between Maui and Oahu and between Kauai and Oahu six days a week, Sundays through Fridays. A second ferry is scheduled for 2009 with service between the Island of Hawaii and Oahu, and a second daily Oahu-Maui roundtrip will be offered.

Lava oozed from a new location on Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, scientists said Tuesday (June 19).

Researchers on the Big Island had been on the lookout for a new lava breakout point after hundreds of small earthquakes were recorded Sunday (June 17), suggesting magma, or underground lava, was shifting beneath the surface.

The small outbreak oozed about 150 feet from a 600-foot-long fissure in a forest about eight miles southeast of Kilauea’s summit, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said on its Web site. When a field crew arrived, lava was moving sluggishly and the fissure was emitting heavy smoke and steam.

Part of the park on the Big Island remained closed to protect public safety while researchers examined the latest lava breakout. By the time the crew left four hours later, the lava had stopped flowing and the smoke and steam had decreased significantly.
Kilauea has been erupting continuously since Jan. 3, 1983, sending lava from the Pu’u ‘O’o cone
through a system of tubes to the ocean where it forms new land over time.

In Hawaiian tradition, Kilauea is home to Pele, the volcano goddess. Lava is said to be her physical representation.

For Big Island accommodations,
click here for Big Island condos or
click here for Big Island hotels.

The response to Go Airline's one-day, $1 sale last week was so overwhelming that it caused the airline's web site to crash.

According to Mesa Air Group, Go's parent company, about 20,000 people visited iflygo.com in the first hour of the sale, and that Sabre, the Web site's booking engine provider, was unable to handle the volume. The Web site was down for several hours while Sabre conducted repairs, the company said.

The $1 fare was Mesa’s way of celebrating Go’s one-year anniversary. The airline had notified its regular customers on Monday of the sale, which was for midweek travel from June 11 through Dec. 15. The carrier, which operates interisland service in Hawaii, made 1,000 one-way tickets available for a buck each, giving online buyers a 12-hour window to purchase the tickets.

To make up for the computer glitch, Go added another 1,000 seats to the sale and extended the booking deadline five hours.

Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines did not match the anniversary fare. The legacy carriers have routinely matched Go's fares since the low-cost carrier launched.

ATA Airlines on Thursday launched two more daily flights to Hawaii. This ramp-up of service will connect the airline to all four major counties of Hawaii.

One of the flights will connect Kahului, Maui, with Las Vegas, while the other, from ATA's main West Coast hub in Oakland, will fly to Lihue four times a week and Kona three times a week.

Indianapolis-based ATA said the new routes give ATA service to more Hawaii airports than any other Mainland airline. United Airlines flies more seats to Hawaii than any other carrier but ATA is the only carrier linking the Mainland to Hilo.

Make your air reservations to Hawaii at Travel-Hawaii.com.

Travel-Hawaii.com, a Honolulu-based Internet booking service, has produced a comprehensive listing of resort fees at Hawaii hotels. According to company owner John Lindelow, the hotels' own online reservations systems don't make such fees apparent. Visit Travel-Hawaii.com.

According to Travel-Weekly.com, Robert Kritzman, NCL Corp.'s executive vice president and managing director of its Hawaii operations, will leave the company after 17 years, the company announced on May 24.

NCL appointed Hawaiian local Alan Yamamoto vice president for Hawaii operations, Travel-Weekly.com stated.

Yamamoto, who joined NCL the week of May 21, was formerly director of community and government relations with Hawaiian Electric Industries, the state's main power supply company.

Book your Hawaii cruise at Travel-Hawaii.com.

For the first time since 1993, Hawaii will host a professional sumo tournament. The Hawaii Grand Tournament will be held June 9-10 at the Neil Blasdell Center in Honolulu, and will feature the top 40 sumotori from Japan.

Sumo has grown global and there are now wrestlers in many countries in Asia and Europe.

Sumo was introduced in Hawaii about 120 years ago and was a popular recreational activity among Japanese plantation workers. Takmiyama was the 1st Hawaiian Sumo wrestler followed by Koniski, Akebono and Musashimaru.

Aqua Hotels & Resorts has named Alvida Surpia general manager of the 80-room Aqua Coconut Plaza, the Pacific Business News reported yesterday.

Most recently general manager of Aqua Bamboo & Spa, Surpia will oversee overall operations of the property including its upcoming renovation process.

Prior to joining Aqua, Surpia held management positions with Ala Moana Hotel and King George Hotel in San Francisco.

The company also announced Monday that Courtnay Koski had been named hotel manager of the Aloha Surf, the Pacific Business News reported.

Koski comes from Hersha Hospitality in Boston where she was director of sales. She previous worked in Hawaii for Starwood.

The Maui Ocean Center presents OceanFest, a unique ocean celebration! Activities will include ocean art displays, live music and hula performances, a remote radio broadcast, prize giveaways, booths by our partners and local environmental organizations, including Project SEAlink, Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Save Honolua and more!

June 9, 2007 to June 10, 2007

TIME: 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
PLACE: Maui Ocean Center
192 Maalaea Rd Wailuku, HI 96793
CONTACT: Lindsay Bradshaw (808) 270-7089