Although Oahu is enjoying the most visitor activity, the neighbor islands are also seeing an uptick in group business from all parts of the globe.
“Our numbers are up, which is being helped by the fact that the number of direct flights to Hawaii are better than ever,” says Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kauai Visitors Bureau.
“We’re seeing more interest in international meetings. We recently had a business owners’ incentive program from Taiwan. They chartered a plane out of Shanghai and brought two groups in for a week in Kauai.”
In Maui, corporate incentive programs are emerging as the strongest segment of its meetings business this year, according to Sherry Duong, director of meetings, conventions, incentives and international sales for the Maui Visitors Bureau.
“We’re seeing a steady increase in this from past years,” she says. “We’re drawing in a variety of companies, including pharmaceuticals, banking, financial, sports, electronics and technology.”
While APEC is expected to most directly benefit Oahu, its success will benefit the neighbor islands as well, according to Duong.
“We feel that it will have a positive impact for Hawaii and Maui,” she says. “It shows that we can provide an ideal setting for meetings of all kinds.”
Meetings business is also up for the Big Island, although it is trending toward smaller groups and shorter-term bookings, according to Debbie Hogan, director of sales for the Big Island Visitors Bureau. While the island’s biggest group segment remains incentives, associations are emerging as a strong source, she says.
“We’re especially seeing interest from niche associations that are drawn to the resources we have here, including areas such as agriculture, geothermal and ocean sciences,” she says. “We have specialty companies on the island in those realms that groups can visit and meet with.”
Inspired by the success of APEC, Hogan says the visitors bureau is actively encouraging more international meetings.
“I was recently in China, where I met with a company that wants to do training meetings on the Big Island,” she says. “With the visa situation getting easier for China and South Korea, we definitely see a lot of potential there.”
Meetings with a corporate social responsibility angle are another area ideal for Hawaii, according to Hogan. The bureau recently worked with Hawaiian Legacy, a company dedicated to rebuilding the koa wood forests on the Big Island, to showcase an activity to meeting planners during a recent fam trip.
“We took the planners up to the Hamakua Coast to plant seedlings, and each planner got a planted seedling in their name,” she says. “They also got a GPS coordinate, so they could watch their seedling grow after they returned home.”
