Local Industry for Sunday — December 08, 2006

• NEWS & NOTES

NEWS & NOTES

Kaua’i presence planned at trade shows

• Officials from the County of Kaua’i Office of Economic Development are inviting professionals in the visitor industry to participate in two of the largest consumer travel shows on the Mainland, states a press release. “We will have a presence at major shows in Los Angeles and New York, and would like to present brochures representing a wide variety of activities on Kaua’i,” states Beth Tokioka, director of the county Office of Economic Development, in the press release.

Officials at the OED and Kaua’i Visitors Bureau are providing representation at the LA Times Travel Show, Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, at the New York Times Travel Show, Feb. 24 to Feb. 26, states the press release.

“The LA show attracts roughly 13,000 travelers and 1,000 travel agents,” Tokioka said. “In New York, the show is much bigger, with about 26,000 attending, including 5,000 travel professionals.”

Representatives of interested companies must be willing to provide 350 brochures per show, boxed and ready to ship; and pay $200 per show to cover shipping and drayage charges no later than Jan. 16.

Inclusion is limited to the first 10 respondents, states the release. To reserve a space, company representatives should contact Brooke Miller at KVB, 245-3971, no later than Friday.

Goo promoted at Bank of Hawaii

• Representatives from Bank of Hawaii’s Investment Services Group announced the promotion of Anthony “Tony” D. Goo from vice president and department/portfolio manager to senior vice president and manager of fiduciary asset management, a press release states.

Goo, who joined the bank in 2004 as portfolio manager, will be responsible for managing, supervising and directing investments activities for trust and private clients, including coordinating trust investment policies and developing new business opportunities.

Before joining Bank of Hawaii, he was a portfolio manager for Affinity Asset Management LLP, and served as chief investment officer of trust and investments at Central Pacific Bank. Goo also worked at First Hawaiian Bank in various management positions, including senior vice president and chief investment officer.

A graduate of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Goo has a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

For more information about Bank of Hawaii Corporation, please see the company’s Web site, www.boh.com.

H&S makes offer to handle Kaua’i Made program

• Officials at H&S Publishing have offered to handle all aspects of the County of Kaua’i’s Kaua’i Made program at no cost to county leaders, taxpayers, retailers or producers of Kaua’i Made products, a press release states.

“Since our marketing channels, including Kauai magazine (published since 1980) and BestPlacesHawaii.com (online since 1995) are the ultimate Kaua’i-Made products, we already have everything in place to launch the Kaua’i Made program through established channels with existing audiences without delay, and at no cost to the county or to the people of Kaua’i,” said Rob Sanford, H&S Publishing’s chief executive officer.

“We believe that a Kaua’i company should handle the Kaua’i Made program, so we stepped up and made the free offer to Beth Tokioka (director of the county Office of Economic Development) to support the community effort,” Sanford said.

“I was born and raised on Kaua’i. You can’t get more Kaua’i made than that,” said Paul Spears, H&S Publishing distribution and delivery manager. “Besides, we already have the on-island distribution channel for Kauai magazine and our other publications to deliver the Kaua’i Made program print materials easily.

“And we do our own distribution on Kaua’i using our own employees, unlike other publications that outsource to a Maui service,” Spears said.

Knowing also that county officials planned a companion Web site, H&S Publishing leaders saw no need for the people of Kaua’i to spend their tax dollars on designing, building, launching and marketing a Web site, Sanford explained in the press release.

“Our Web site, BestPlacesHawaii.com, already appears on page one of the major search engines. In fact, we get more traffic and have more content than the Kaua’i Visitors Bureau’s Web site,” Sanford said.

“That’s not a criticism of the KVB. It’s just what we do,” he said. “So we asked ourselves, ‘why not leverage all this marketing infrastructure that we already have in place, as a Kaua’i company, to launch and manage the Kaua’i Made program?’ It’s just common sense, really, and not difficult or time-consuming for us to do, since it’s our business.”

Deadline coming for HTA culture proposals

• Rex Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), the state agency for tourism, has announced he and other HTA leaders are accepting requests for proposals (RFP) for the 2006 Hawaiian culture program. The RFP deadline is Jan. 17, according to a press release.

The program’s criteria are designed to address the goals and objectives identified in the Hawaii Tourism Strategic Plan: 2005-2015 for the Hawaiian culture initiative.

The objectives include: strengthening the relationship between those in the visitor industry and members of the Hawaiian community; nurturing the Hawaiian culture by creating visitor experience, activities and marketing programs that are respectful and accurate; and supporting Hawaiian programs and cultural practitioners, craftsmen, musicians and other artist that preserve and perpetuate the Hawaiian culture.

“We are pleased to launch the Hawaiian culture program that will help to increase collaboration between Hawai’i’s visitor industry and the Native Hawaiian community,” said Johnson.

“Through the guidance of our Hawaiian Culture Program Advisory Council, we will be supporting programs that provide both our residents and visitors with unique opportunities to experience our host culture and what makes Hawai’i special.”

The application and information packets are available at www.hawaii.gov.tourism.

Interested parties may also call 1-808-973-2258 to request a packet.