The distinction is clear between Oahu’s bustling oceanfront tourist drag of Waikiki and Kauai’s serene beachside resort communities, yet each island has its own appeal for groups, whether it’s a medical convention in Honolulu or a board retreat in Princeville.
Like the rest of the state, both islands are still feeling the economic squeeze, but according to Michael Murray, vice president of sales and marketing for the corporate, meetings and incentives division of the Hawaii VCB, there are positive signs that meetings business is making a comeback. In February the state saw an uptick compared to the same time last year; the incentive market rose 20 percent, convention business was up 5 percent, and the corporate meetings market is starting to come back.
"Incentive was up substantially; we’re very encouraged about that," Murray says. "We remain one of the top incentive destinations in the world. The most recent numbers are reflective of that."
In addition, the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting will be held at Oahu’s Hawaii Convention Center in November 2011 and is expected to draw more than 10,000 people to Honolulu.
"APEC, which is hosted by our president, is a testament that not only are we a great leisure destination, but also a serious destination for serious, productive meetings and conventions," Murray says. "Oahu will be the primary island for APEC, but there will be pre and post meetings on neighbor islands. We will have 21 economies represented here with presidents and prime ministers."
Oahu
Touting itself as the Heart of Hawaii, Oahu certainly acts as the heartbeat of the Aloha State’s meetings industry. Home to Honolulu—the 13th largest city in the country—and the Hawaii Convention Center, which features a rooftop terrace as well as a 200-square-foot exhibit hall, 35,000-square-foot ballroom and nearly 50 meeting rooms, Oahu stands well equipped for large groups .
Island Helicopters
Waikiki, a 450-acre manmade peninsula, serves as the island’s main tourist draw, with over 30,000 hotel rooms, upscale shopping and close to 1,000 restaurants, nightclubs and bars. Its sprawling beaches and postcard sunsets are quintessential Hawaii.
"The Waikiki area has gone through several years of revitalization," Murray says. "Ten years ago is the difference between night and day. A lot of properties and guests benefit from the renovations. There is free entertainment, lei making and ukele lessons, hula shows every evening, the lighting of tiki torches and conch shell blowers all through the Waikiki area. Meanwhile, you can step outside to the warmth of the island, the backdrop of the mountains, and the ocean is right there."
Guests interested in the region’s past can follow the Waikiki Historic Trail’s 21 markers, which point out historic sites and tell the story of old Waikiki, from its days as a playground of royalty through its development.
At the center of Waikiki’s upgrades is the $585 million Waikiki Beach Walk, with two levels of restaurants, specialty shops, hotels and entertainment venues along Lewers Street. The area will soon include a new Hard Rock Cafe.
Recent openings include the Trump International Hotel & Tower Waikiki Beach Walk, a 460-room hotel that opened last fall. The property offers a boardroom.
"They are more of an overflow property or for incentive types of programs because of the uniqueness of the location of the property—right in the heart of Waikiki," Murray says. "A majority of their hotel accommodations have partial or full ocean views."
The Sheraton Waikiki, which recently completed a $187 million transformation featuring new facilities and resort amenities, is a magnet for groups. The historic Royal Hawaiian Hotel, now a Starwood Hotels and Resorts Hawaii property, reopened in March 2009 after a six-month renovation that redesigned the lobby and refurbished the 529 guest rooms.
Other Starwood properties in the vicinity include the 793-room Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort. The property’s Diamond Head Tower will be redeveloped into a new 184-room hotel tentatively under Starwood’s W Hotel brand.
Meanwhile, the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, which will continue to be branded as a Sheraton hotel, will redesign all 660 rooms in the 28-story Ainahau Tower. All other structures on the property will be removed to make way for the 34-story Pikake Tower, a new hotel that will be branded under the Westin flag and have 210 hotel-condo units.
Other prominent meetings hotels in Waikiki include the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which is planning to build two new timeshare towers. In 2013, construction will start on the first tower, which will be 37 stories and include 300 units. The completion date is slated for 2015, while construction of the second tower, a 250-unit building, is projected to begin about five years after the first tower opens. New swimming pools and a two-story retail complex will be part of the project.
The Outrigger Reef on the Beach recently unveiled the Voyager Conference Room, which seats 20 people and holds up to 60 people in banquet format. Combining the Voyager Conference Room with the outdoor Voyager Deck offers more than 6,000 square feet of oceanfront space. There are also two oceanfront Voyager Executive Boardrooms.
Also open to groups are the Hyatt Regency Waikiki, Halekulani, Waikiki Parc, Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort, The Ilikai, Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki and The Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber, which features the Honolulu Surfing Museum and Bar.
Waikiki has also benefited from the $115 million renovation of the Royal Hawaiian Center, which includes 310,000 square feet of new shops, restaurants and a nightclub. The complex encompasses the 30,000-square-foot Royal Grove, a botanical garden that is available for special events. Event spaces also include the Royal Hawaiian Center Lanai and Royal Hawaiian Center Rooftop.
Renowned merchant Hilo Hattie recently added two new meeting rooms to its flagship store on Nimitz Highway. Each room can accommodate up to 70 guests.
Murray notes ease of access to Oahu as a draw, with Honolulu International Airport served by over 20 North American gateway cities and a number of direct flights from the Pacific Rim, including Japan, Taiwan and Australia. Later this year, Allegiant Air will begin service to Hawaii from secondary markets on the West Coast currently not serving Hawaii. Delta Airlines will add daily service from San Diego to Honolulu in June and direct flights from Detroit to Honolulu.
Aside from myriad properties, Honolulu and its surrounding areas are stacked with off-site venues, festivals and activities, from climbing Diamond Head volcano to perusing the Honolulu Academy of Arts. First Friday Honolulu is centered in Chinatown and downtown, drawing locals to its many unique galleries, boutiques, cafes and restaurants for art exhibits and free entertainment.
"Tourists like that interaction. They can get away from tourist hangouts and go where locals hang out," Murray says. "A lot of restaurants bring in entertainment. There are food stands and vendors on the street selling clothes. There is everything from Chinese acrobats to mimes."
Pearl Harbor lures groups as both a sightseeing attraction and event venue. Sites include the USS Arizona Memorial as well as the Battleship Missouri Memorial, where the formal surrender of the Japanese took place in 1945.The battleship can host board meetings, receptions and a variety of events. Groups can arrange to bring in a retired officer who experienced the attack on Pearl Harbor to speak or host a theme party featuring the music of that era.
The site is undergoing some renovations. Phase I of the $58 million renovation of the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center has been completed. By the end of the year, the visitor center will include a new museum and expanded landscaped grounds.
Honolulu’s Bishop Museum and its recently renovated Hawaiian Hall is a showcase for the world’s largest collection of Hawaiian and Pacific area artifacts. The Bishop Museum is adding a new outdoor exhibit focused on Hawaii’s indigenous plants. The Native Hawaiian Garden is slated for completion this summer, at which time the museum will offer daily educational programming and garden tours. Groups can host events at the museum as well as at the Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on U.S. soil.
Oahu offers much more to explore than Waikiki and Honolulu’s business sector. On the leeward side of the island, the resort area of Ko Olina is home to the Ko Olina Golf Club as well as the 387-room JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa. Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, is under construction in Ko Olina. The 21-acre resort set on the Waianae Coast will consist of 360 guest rooms, 481 Disney Vacation Club Villas, pools, hot tubs, a snorkeling lagoon, a river, meeting rooms, an 18,000-square-foot spa and two restaurants. The first phase of the resort is scheduled to open in fall 2011. Paradise Cove Luau in Ko Olina can customize luau packages for groups.
The North Shore is also a surfing mecca, especially in winter. The most famous surf breaks are the Banzai Pipeline and Waimea Bay. Visitors can also partake of local tradition at Matsumoto’s Shave Ice in Haleiwa, or at one of the popular shrimp trucks scattered between Kahuku and Haleiwa.
The 443-room Turtle Bay Resort is the main property on the North Shore.
Off-site venues include the popular Polynesian Cultural Center.
Groups can also tour the Dole Plantation. Dole Food Company also turned the former sugarcane lands on the Wahiawa Plateau into the Waialua Estate, growing coffee and cacao for chocolate.
For team-building options, the North Shore Surf Girls in Haleiwa offers lessons, or a number of outfitters and hotels provide surf lessons or paddle boarding instruction in Waikiki.
"We say that surfing was our gift to the world," Murray says. "There are unique surf schools on Oahu that can tailor a menu for you. Some can do surfing in the late afternoon and do a bonfire at sunset and cook for you. They can bring in stories, myths and legends of Hawaii."
Whale watching is another draw, though guests can enjoy the humpbacks from land.
"It’s unique here in Hawaii to see whales breech and you don’t have to go that far from your hotel," Murray says.
Kauai
While Oahu touts its cosmopolitan flair, Kauai appeals to visitors with its lush terrain and secluded beaches. Waimea Canyon, dubbed the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and neighboring Kokee State Park provide extensive hiking options, while the Napali Coast is a draw for its sailing, kayaking and snorkeling, as well as its dramatic 3,000-foot cliffs. Even Kauai’s largest towns, Kapaa and Lihue, each have populations with fewer than 10,000 people, while major resort destinations like Poipu and Princeville still feel a world away.
"For Kauai and the people that come, it’s the natural beauty," says Edie Hafdahl, senior director of sales for the Kauai Visitors Bureau. "You’ll get a true Hawaiian experience because it is so unspoiled and not as developed as the other islands. For incentives, just coming here is a reward itself—just being touched by the beauty of the island, how relaxed it is. I had a meeting planner tell me she rotates between islands. She said, ‘There is just a different kind of aloha here.’"
For all its charms, Kauai is not immune to the slow economy.
"Because of the economic situation, everyone is discounting their rates, so meeting planners are getting used to that," Hafdahl says. "They have a lot of leverage as far as booking. The hotels are answering that; they are putting out a lot of great rates for groups. It really is a great time to book right now."
On the bright side, the first quarter of 2011 looks very strong, according to Hafdahl. "But hotels still have hot dates and hot rates for 2011 shoulder periods."
One of the island’s latest properties is the newly reflagged, 252-room St. Regis Princeville Resort on the north shore’s Hanalei Bay, which reopened last year following an extensive renovation. The resort introduced a new spa, a signature restaurant and suites with butler service. The 27-hole Makai Golf Course, one of two courses at the resort, reopened last October.
There are numerous adventure companies on Kauai that can accommodate groups. Princeville Ranch Adventures recently introduced King Kong, a 1,200-foot zip line offering views of the Hihimanu Mountain. From Poipu Beach, Outfitters Kauai recently debuted its Zip Trek Nui Loa, an 1,800-foot zip line course that takes guests above a scenic forest canopy.
Kauai Backcountry Adventures also offers zip-line tours as well as mountain tubing through the historic irrigation system of the former Lihue Plantation. This ditch and tunnel system that once irrigated sugar crops had been unused since sugar was taken out of production in 2000 and is now used for the tour company’s exclusive tubing tours.
For an indoor activity, Koloa Rum Company is now offering Kauai’s first-ever homegrown rum made from molasses of high-quality sugar cane grown on the island. Groups can taste the rum at Kilohana Plantation in Lihue or the company can go to an event at any of the hotels and organize rum tasting for groups.
Team-building activities are popular as well, with DMCs like Chrysalis Events and Trade-Winds Management Group able to organize programs such as a road rally or a scavenger hunt.
"A lot of team-building events involve things that really highlight our culture," Hafdahl says.
Examples include learning hula or how to make your own gourd.
In Poipu, popular for its snorkeling options, the former Poipu Beach Hotel recently reopened as the Koa Kea Hotel & Resort, following a renovation of all 121 guest rooms and the addition of a restaurant and spa. Poipu is also home to two of the island’s major meetings hotels: the 602-room Grand Hyatt Kauai and the 394-room Sheraton Kauai Resort.
In Lihue, the 356-room Kauai Marriott Resort recently underwent a $50 million renovation. The 350-room Hilton Kauai Resort is another meetings property.
