Local Industry News & Notes for Sunday, December 30, 2007

• Day spa open in Port Allen

• Chamber brings back Joe Constance workshops

• How to start a business on Kaua‘i

• Tourism numbers down, spending up

Day spa open in Port Allen

Tropics Day Spa is now open in Port Allen at the Marina Center. The spa features a team of trained therapists who offer lomilomi, massage, facials, waxing, body scrubs, wraps, couples treatments, spa parties and more.

The spa features an infrared sauna and shower facilities as well as complimentary product consultation for skin care, physioderme products and mineral-based makeup.

The spa is locally owned and operated by Charlene Lazaro and is open seven days a week.

For more information, call 335-2790 or 651-4195, e-mail relax@tropicsds.com or visit www.tropicsdayspa.com

Chamber brings back Joe Constance workshops

Back by popular demand, Joe Constance will host four workshops on Kaua‘i Jan. 16 and 17 at the Aloha Beach Resort.

The schedule for the two days is as follows:

• Jan. 16: Customer Service Excellence from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; Managing and Motivating Others from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

• Jan. 17: Communicating Effectively, 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; Dealing With Difficult People from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The cost to attend each session is $85 for Chamber members, $105 for non-members. There are discounts available for groups of four or more.

For more information, contact the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce via e-mail at info@kauaichamber.org or call 245-7363.

How to start a business on Kaua‘i

The Hawai‘i Small Business Development Center will host a series of workshops in the New Year on how to start a small business.

The seminars will cover what prospective business owners need to know before investing time and money into an idea.

The workshops will take place:

• Jan. 10, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

• Jan. 24, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

• Feb. 14, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

• Feb. 28, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Participants will learn about entrepreneurship, forms of business organization, key ingredients for business success, steps involved in starting a business, sources of capital and services offered by the Hawai‘i SBDC Network as well as other resources for start-ups.

There is no registration fee to attend, though pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, call 241-3148 or visit www.hawaii-sbdc.org

The Hawai‘i SBDC is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Tourism numbers down, spending up

Visitors coming to Hawai‘i spent $11 billion in the islands during the first 11 months of 2007, a 0.6 percent increase over the same period in 2006, state officials said last week.

The increased spending was tallied despite a 1.1 percent decline in visitor arrivals to 6.7 million, the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism said.

For November, arrivals dropped 1.6 percent compared with November 2006, while the month’s expenditures increased by $1.2 million, or 0.1 percent, to $933.8 million.

“Visitor spending remains strong and the overall condition of Hawai‘i’s visitor industry remains stable,” said state Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert.

“We are particularly pleased with the increase in the total number of visitors who came to honeymoon and get married in November and the continued strong growth in arrivals from the Pacific Northwest,” she said.

Honeymooners continued to make Hawai‘i a popular destination, with a 10.1 percent increase in November, while the number of visitors who came to the islands to get married increased 6.6 percent.

Alaska Airlines began direct flights linking Seattle with Honolulu and Kaua‘i in October, helping to boost November’s arrivals from Washington state by 32.8 percent. Arrivals from Washington have now grown every month since May 2006.

Meanwhile, arrivals from Oregon rose 2.3 percent in November to up the year-to-date total to 8.4 percent.

Figures from Hawai‘i’s top four visitor markets varied last month, with Canada and the U.S. West posting increases of 5.9 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Visitors from the U.S. East dropped 6.7 percent and the Japanese market fell off 6.7 percent.

— Staff and Associated Press reports