Hawaiian Gift

Hawaii Gift & Apparel Retailers Expo Hawaii Gift & Apparel Retailers Expo EXPO: The Hawaii Gift & Apparel Retailers Expo is held anually in September. It is open exclusively to professional trade buyers representing established Hawaii retailers. Buyer badges are issued on this basis only, and buyer credentials are aggressively screened at the door. Selling on the exhibit hall floor is strictly limited to order writing. Sample selling and release of product on the floor by exhibitors is prohibite. ATTENDEES: Only professional trade buyers having primary purchasing authority and who represent established Hawaii retailers are invited to attend the Hawaii Gift & Apparel Retailers Expo. Buyers are invited from gift shops, department stores, discount outlets, chain stores, boutiques, tourist centers and more. PRODUCER: The Hawaii Gift & Apparel Retailers Expo is produced by Douglas Trade Shows. Now Hawaii's largest and oldest trade show production and management company, Douglas Trade Shows has been successfully producing trade events in Hawaii for the apparel, gift, jewelry, fashion accessory, lodging, hospitality, foodservice, hotel and restaurant industries since 1983. MARKETS: Hawaii is strategically situated in the Pacific between Asia and the mainland US. The state population has grown to nearly 1.2 million residents. Nearly 7 million tourists visit the Hawaiian Islands annually, and Honolulu is now one of the fifteen largest cities in the USA. With over 4,000 retail businesses, 70,000 resort lodging accommodations and 2,000 restaurants & foodservice establishments, Hawaii is one of the world's most dynamic retail shopping and resort hospitality markets. PRODUCTS EXHIBITED: Apparel and fashion accessories, beach-wear, beads, bowls, calendars, candy, candles, ceramics, Christmas gifts & ornaments, clocks, collectibles, decorative items, dolls, frames, holiday decor, leather goods, novelties, pens, photo albums, pottery, souvenirs, stationery, toys, vases, and much more. PROMOTION: Personalized invitations, buyer passbooks and official entry badges are sent to all pre-qualified buyers throughout the state of Hawaii. Display ads are placed in appropriate national and local trade publications, and exhibitors are provided invitational postcard mailers to invite their special preferred buyers. An Official Buyers Guide is handed out to all attendees upon entry to the show and special buyer promotions and travel packages are developed annually. FACILITY: The Hawaii Gift & Apparel Retailers Expo is held in the Hawaii Suites of the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, and is co-located with The Hawaii Market Trade Show, held in the adjacent Exhibition Hall. Entirely separate entrances, security and buyer admission credentials are maintained for each event. The Blaisdell Center is conveniently located just minutes between downtown Honolulu and Waikiki on the Island of Oahu. The Blaisdell Center is a non-union facility. Exhibitors may proceed on their own to move-in, install, dismantle and remove their exhibit materials and displays. There is also plenty of parking on-site. BOOTHS: 10' deep x 10' wide exhibit booths include a pipe & drapery style exhibit space, choice of free furniture packages including skirted display tables, side chairs, fashion racks and wastebaskets, one booth I.D. sign, 500 pounds of drayage handling, a listing in the Official Buyers Guide, one free-parking pass, and an on-site fax machine and copier. PRICES: $800.00 plus 4% for Hawaii general excise tax. A deposit of $350.00 is required with each application. The balance is due forty-five (45) days prior to the trade show. A full refund will be made for cancellations confirmed in writing more than 45 days prior to the trade show. Home Hawaii Market April Merchandise Expo Hawaii Lodging, Hospitality & Foodservice Expo Hawaii Market Trade Show Hawaii Gift & Apparel Retailers Expo Hawaii Market November Merchandise Expo Hawaii Market January Merchandise Expo Douglas Trade Shows P.O. Box 1247 Kaneohe HI 96744 Toll-Free: 800-525-5275 Telephone: 808-254-1773 Fax: 808-254-3324 dtsm@hawaii.rr.com

Waikiki beaches in over

HawaiiStories: Waikiki to get more sand. January 29, 2004 Waikiki to get more sand. The state of Hawaii is looking for a private contractor to pump 10,000 cubic feet of sand from a site 2,000 feet offshore to replenish the beaches in Waikiki. It is going be the largest replenishment of Waikiki beaches in over 30 years. About a foot of the beach has eroded every year since 1985. The receding sand has filled the reefs creating shallow water and changing the way the surf breaks. The $700,000 project is expected to begin in March and will take a month and a half to be completed. I'm excited to see the new and bigger beaches of Waikiki. In the paper someone was quoted as saying they couldn't stick an umbrella into the sand without hitting concrete after an inch. I thought that was an exageration, I've seen little kids burrow 3 foot manholes into the sand. The beaches were a lot smaller than I expected them to be when I first saw them. More sand means more room for more people and can only be a benefit to the tourism industry. Posted by James at January 29, 2004 12:17 AM Comments Posted by Ryan on January 29, 2004 10:17 AM : The sand on Waikiki beach has been replenished before, and it probably will always require sand be brought from elsewhere to maintain the "beach." It's the most artificial of all shorelines, and yet the most famous - kind of like Disneyland. I agree it's good for business, but for the environment? Probably not. I don't think that beach will be looking or smelling its best for a few weeks after the project. So take your postcard photos now! Posted by Albert on January 29, 2004 03:22 PM : Can't expect the tourists to go all the way out to Makaha to get really big "white, sandy beaches of Hawaii". Posted by Linkmeister on January 30, 2004 03:41 PM : Or worse, Albert, go to the neighbor islands! :) Posted by Sin on February 3, 2004 08:48 PM : Big beach on Maui has the best white sandy beaches and beautiful blue water. Watch out for the shorebreak though, it's almost as rough as Sandy's on a big day. Posted by Gaye on February 5, 2004 08:02 PM : The 1951 Hawaii Superintendent of Public Works Annual Report outlined the first Waikiki Beach "Development" Project. A rocky shoreline that stretched from the Elks Club to Yacht Harbour Tower, often at a 45 degree incline, was widened and flattenedto 150 feet of white sand. Among more capitalist and colonial impulses, people sometimes came to Waikiki in the 20th century to witness or experience its natural environment. One was the lengendary classic Waikiki ride all the way from Steamers Lane to shore. Another was the wide coral reef that provided local people with an amazing fishing ground. The conjunction of sand and flat reef enabled squid, lobster, moi, papio, and a range of reef fish to flourish. The artificial 'beach' drifted into the reef and filled in the squid and lobster habitat. It also sectioned off the surf so the classic Waikiki ride is gone, gone, gone. This drift was noted in the 1951 annual report after only five months after dumping in the sand. The exact language was "As we expected, there was some drift of sand, generally in the ewa direction, but the percentage is reported small." It is interesting that James, who even seems to know a bit of this history, still is "excited to see the new and bigger beaches of Waikiki". The reason? He states,"More sand means more room for more people and can only be a benefit to the tourism industry." So... let me see if I understand James properly. Benefitting the tourist industry is benefitting us? Like if I let the guy across the street pour concrete over my vegetable garden maybe he will pay me $3 an hours to be his parking lot attendant... say for the rest of my life. So that I can go to Safeway to buy the food that I once grew myself. Boy, I have never been more excited to see the beach widened. There is nothing I love more than slicing off my limbs half an inch at a time. Posted by James on February 6, 2004 12:48 AM : WOW! Concrete over your vegetable garden? More sand means more room for more people. Whether I'm living here or visiting I'd rather go to a beach with lots of sand than to one with very little. More room is what I would like to see on the Waikiki beaches so people have space to spread out. I only heard good things about Waikiki beaches getting more sand. I never heard any opposition or arguments against the practice. But I'm always willing to listen if anyone knows of negative effects. What has already been done over the last 80 years can't be helped now. Are we to let the beaches in Waikiki shrink back and disappear? There are a lot of big beautiful beaches all over Oahu and the other islands but do locals want busloads of tourists filling them up? I prefer Ala Moana Beach for it's size and clean water. It seems to have a balanced mix of tourists and locals alike. I like a lot of the beaches on Windward side but proximity is key for me, Waikiki and Ala Moana. The damage to the reef fishing ground from 1951 is done. I don't think extending the beach now is going to make a differance either way. And I hope the widening of Waikiki beaches does not result in the loss of any limbs. Posted by James on February 6, 2004 01:03 AM : Does tourism not benefit the state of Hawaii or the people living here? I thought it provided a lot of jobs and income for local families. I know it is not the only thing driving the economy here but I'm pretty sure they always make a big deal when Japanese or Mainland tourists drop a few percentage points. The Honolulu Marathon, the town of Hale'iwa and all the surfing competitions on the North Shore. And the streams of tourists pouring into Waikiki every single day just to spend their money. Do some people resent tourism and the whole scene here in Waikiki? Posted by Glen Miyashiro on February 6, 2004 09:36 AM : James -- "I prefer Ala Moana Beach for it's size and clean water." Excuse me, are we looking at the same beach? Maybe it's because you didn't grow up here, but Ala Moana Beach is nowhere near what I would call a good beach. Its only redeeming qualities are (1) easy access from town and (2) calm water for little kids to splash in. But the sand is low-quality imported stuff, the water quality is lousy, and the fish diversity is almost zero. I'll take Kailua Beach, or Waimea Beach, or Nanakuli Beach, any day over Ala Moana Beach. Posted by gaye on February 6, 2004 12:50 PM : James said, "The damage to the reef fishing ground from 1951 is done. I don't think extending the beach now is going to make a differance either way." One must understand that beaches are part of the living environment. Things that are alive can always be damaged further. Conversely, they can always have the potential to revive themselves. It is obvious what dumping sand on Waikiki beach in 1951 did. Dumping sand more now will increase the damage. The sand is NOT going to stay on the shore. It will drift into the reef. Everyone knows that. Only some folks seem not to care about anything beyond whether they can stick umbrellas (or heads) in the sand. Seeing sunbathing as the only way humans can engage with beaches only reveals our collective paucity of knowledge about nature, our relationship with nature, and our lack of imagination. One idea articulated by George Downing (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/07/05/waikiki.sand.ap/), part of the original Save Our Save folks, is to pump the sand out of the reefs instead of bringing in more sand. James also said, "And I hope the widening of Waikiki beaches does not result in the loss of any limbs." James, it has already. And it certainly will again. How about visiting www.downwindproductions.com? It might provide you with some information about what has occurred, and why it occurred. Remember that the beach, the land, the sea, the streams, the sky, the air.... are still alive. Nothing is a done deal. What we do today will determine what will happen tomorrow. Dumping sand on Waikiki Beach now will most definitely result in deaths to many many things -- perhaps even tourism. a better world is possible gaye Posted by JB on February 8, 2004 05:44 PM : At least Waikik won't face the almost yearly loss of sand experienced in places on East Coast due to Hurricanes. The city of Virginia Beach, VA lost Millions of $$$ to Hurriane Isabel last year after undertaking a project just like this. Since moving from Hawaii, I've experienced more Hurricanes (even living 100 miles inland) than I did there (Iniki and Iwa while I was there). Aloha, J Posted by gaye on February 9, 2004 12:51 PM : maybe the message here is to stop trying to artificially widen beaches. Posted by JB on February 10, 2004 08:55 PM : Gaye, I do not disagree. Anyplace that positions itself to tourism as an economic engine (forced upon the locale or not, typically the taste of money sets in) usually ends up playing this goose chase with no practical end in sight. I really can't say what a community like Honolulu would do if that engine failed. The problem with a place like Waikiki is it's romanticism with popular american (and local to an extent) culture. Being that Waikiki is a "name" of the same ilk as Golden Gate bridge, Hollywood, etc, things will be done to protect it's appeal and image. I will look more into what someone like George Downing has said about the situation as I know long-time waterfolk have likely thought the problem through. I suppose dumping sand in the wee hours is "easier" than suctioning out sand emplanted on the reef. We will see time and time again that, in a culture which primarily values "cheap, productive, easy" that an enlightened approach suggested by the SOS foundation will usually be passed over. Getting communities in balance with ecosystems will either happen or not. You already have countries like the US and Russia essentially turning a bling eye to the fact that, perhaps in as early as 30 years, Waikiki beach will need the sand to create a New Orleans-style levee to keep an elevated sea-level at bay. We all know that Waikiki is essentially a pumped out marsh/swamp as it is. JB Posted by Jack1 on June 6, 2005 04:41 AM : filmiki erotyczne oferty ^2^ anal amatorki nimfomanki ^2^ lisa lipps ^2^ pizda sexy ^2^ mlodziutkie kayah ^2^ 17 letnie teen ^2^ kurwy prywatne ^2^ dupcie wyrywanie fetysz ^2^ szuczki foto cycate ^2^ hardcore full ^2^ lezbijki cipy nagie ^2^ 18 latki forsa ^2^ filmysex grupowy ^2^ sexlaski studentki nago ^2^ darmo wyjebane ^2^ ukryte kamery cipeczka ^2^ studentka modelki nagie ^2^ malutkie zdjecia ostry ^2^ latwe podryw 2pary ^2^ dziewice fetysze pijane ^2^ dziwki ruchana lezbijki ^2^ 18 latki pozowane ^2^ 18 latki przystojne ^2^ film trans ^2^ cipy ostra jazda ^2^ shemale filmy ^2^ lolidki igraszki ^2^ cycki nagie nastolatki ^2^ ogloszenia foki ^2^ wojskowe buty Post a Comment Name: Email Address: URL: Comments: Enter Security Code: Remember info? « Little Gold Statues | Dodge disses local diction » Main Page :: © 2002-2004 HawaiiStories :: E-Mail About Us Join Us Sync Us Syndicate Us Member Profiles The FAQ Contact Us Tenants Members Lost? -- -- -- -- -- Link Us More buttons... 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Oahu / Honolulu /

Exploring Oahu's Manoa Valley  You are here: About > Travel > Hawaii / South Pacific for Visitors Travel Go Hawaii Essentials Which Hawaiian Island Suits You Best? Clickable Map of the Hawaiian Islands Beach Guide Hawaii Pictures Clickable Map of Maui, Hawaii Topics A Hawaii Vacation Planner Big Island of Hawaii Kauai Maui / Molokai / Lanai Oahu / Honolulu / Waikiki South Pacific Culture, History & Language Hawaii Lodging Hula Luau Maps and Weather Pearl Harbor Photos, Video & Cams Recipes Shopping and Gifts Buyer's Guide Tastes of Paradise from Hilo Hattie HilHilo Hattie Dresses and Sarongs Multi-Day Guided Tours Top Hawaii Guidebooks Top Maui / Molokai / Lanai Guidebooks Forums Help FREE Newsletter Sign Up Now for the Hawaii / South Pacific for Visitors newsletter! See Online Courses   Search Hawaii / South Pacific for Visitors Exploring Oahu's Manoa Valley Hawaii/South Pacific for Visitors Blog « Shark Attack - The Facts Behind Shark Attacks in Hawaii | Main | Oahu is Home to More Than 125 Beaches » From John Fischer , Your Guide to Hawaii / South Pacific for Visitors . FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now! January 03, 2006 Exploring Oahu's Manoa Valley Oahu's Manoa Valley, although located within minutes of Waikiki by bus or car, is often totally overlooked by visitors. While the lack of heavy visitor traffic is surely appreciated by local residents, there is much to be appreciated in this secluded corner of Hawaii which makes a visit worthwhile. Check out our feature on Exploring Oahu's Manoa Valley , and be sure to check our our extensive Manoa Valley Photo Collection . Email to a Friend Display Latest Headlines | | | Read Archives powered by Movable Type Advertisement Most Popular Nudist Beaches in Hawaii Hawaii Photos Hawaii Pictures Life's a Beach in Hawaii - Our collection of photos of peopl... Hawaiian Island Scorecard What's Hot Top Picks in Hawaiian Coffee Kamehameha the Great Kalua Pig Waikiki Beach, Oahu - Life's a Beach in Hawaii - Hawaii Beac... Best Beaches 1999 Related Topics Air Travel Cruises Honeymoons / Romantic Getaways Surfing / Bodyboarding Travel with Kids   Topic Index | Email to a Friend Our Story | Be a Guide | Advertising Info | Work at About | Site Map | Icons | Help User Agreement | Ethics Policy | Patent Info. | Privacy Policy | Kids' Privacy Policy ©2006 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company . All rights reserved. Around About Tips to Losing Weight Guide to Distance Learning How to Travel for Less PHOTOS: Italy PHOTOS: Hybrid Cars What's Hot Top Picks in Hawaiian Coffee Kamehameha the Great Kalua Pig Waikiki Beach, Oahu - Life's a Beach in Hawaii - Hawaii Beac... Best Beaches 1999 Headlines 2006 Special Packages on Kauai For travelers considering a visit to the Garden Isle of... Plumeria Photos from Hawaii Plumeria is the most common flower that you'll find in... You Won't See This Sign at Home! This certainly isn't a sign that you've ever seen near... Atlantis Submarine Tour Maui Since I had just experienced the Atlantis Submarine Tour on...

Hawaiian Shirt

Hawaiian S.H.I.R.T. '04 Hawaiian S.H.I.R.T Dance 2004 Hawaiian shirts with palm trees and flowers abound at the clubs Hawaiian S.H.I.R.T.theme Dance. The photos on this page provide just a hint of the color that appearson the dance floor. A few couples came in matching shirts, a few shirts matchedunintentionally, and one couple recently returned from Hawaii and had to buy outifits forthis occasion. This year's photo selection consists largely of matching shirtsand polka pals. Althea & Al Schuettpelz Alvin & Joyce Frost Carnetta & Don Vonder Haar Claire Andracsek & Fran Janik Irene & Gene Lawrence Wenzel & Freda Bradley Joyce Hoff & Emily Greulich Linda Schreier & Chris McKenna Lorraine Piascki & Lorene Gebler Stan & Dorothy Myrda Trude & Heinz Maurer Vern & Sylvia Heye Don't think about using a bicycle for exercise- just attend a polka dance - it's fun and aerobic! Lorene & Al Gebler, Margaret & Wayne Heinemeyer, Ralph & Joann Oelke, Helen Radamacher Carol Taake , Louise & Norman Kreitner, Frances Gajewski, Kathy & Sid Barone, Bob Galik & Theresa Jordan Frances Choat, Gene & Florence Telle, Paul & Dorothy Bierman Ron Andracsek, Joe Kuc, Manuel Lopez, Gerry Lopez, Jack Fedak, Chester Kopec, Marcie Kuc, Joann Fedak, Lil Kopec Lambert & Delores Krzyzanowski, Maxine & Al Czerniejewski, John Schuster, Larry Hallar Maryann& Leonard Frost, Thomas Sienkowski, Shirley & Frank Langenhorst, Mike Wisneski, Marcella & Charlie Jurkowski, Morris Keller Norman Kreitner, Lorraine Sisson, Wes Kaetzel Last modified 01/09/05 Back to St. Louis MetroPolka Home Page

Hawaiian Clothes

Honolulu Star-Bulletin Business — ADVERTISEMENT — Sunday, October 17, 2004 DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Yoshi Takahashi amuses his friends Kimi Toi and Michi Ogino with a wetsuit that's a little too small at the Xcel store in the Ward Village Shops. Hey! Big spenders New research shows just where tourists drop their money during stays in Hawaii By Allison Schaefers aschaefers@starbulletin.com ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRYANT FUKUTOMI / BFUKUTOMI@STARBULLETIN.COM China / South Korea travelers » More than 50 percent of these Asian visitors are first-timers and about a quarter of them come as part of a package tour. » Most come to visit friends or family (more than 28 percent), on business, or as part of a stopover, as stringent Visa requirements and a lack of flights has made Hawaii a difficult vacation destination. » In terms of activities, they are statistically similar to Americans, but plan to spend more money. » Most plan to attend a luau and 30 percent intend to play golf, the most of any other group surveyed. United States travelers » American travelers plan to stay longer and spend the least amount of money on retail and souvenirs. » They are most likely to engage in sports like running, scuba or going to the gym, but have the smallest percentage of people who planned to swim or sunbathe. » Americans are more likely to attend a luau, go to a Hawaiian history or cultural event and buy Hawaiian clothing and souvenirs than Japan or other Asian travelers. » They enjoy shopping at convenience stores, malls or hotel stores. They are also the most likely to go to a museum or art gallery or eat in high-end restaurants. Japan travelers » More than 60 percent of Japan travelers come to Hawaii as part of a package group. » These visitors plan to stay the least amount of time and spend the most money. » They are most likely to come to Hawaii to celebrate a wedding or honeymoon than any other group. » They are most interested in going to the beach and shopping while in Hawaii, but few plan to do any activities or eat in high-end restaurants. » They enjoy shopping across the board from outlet and discount stores to designer boutiques. While tourists from Japan and the mainland still pump plenty of money into Hawaii's retail stores, a more global mix of visitors is at the heart of Hawaii's improved tourism outlook, and their preferences are worlds apart. A new cross-cultural study from the University of Hawaii is available to help retailers take stock of what tourists buy, so local stores can match merchandise with spending habits. University of Hawaii marketing professor Mark Rosenbaum and travel industry management professor Dan Spears randomly surveyed more than 1,000 Waikiki tourists to determine cultural differences regarding their reasons for coming to Hawaii, their desire to shop and what purchases they planned to make during their stay. "Not all tourists are alike," Rosenbaum said. "Your target market should greatly impact how you merchandise and what products you stock." Hawaii's retail history gives businesses strong reasons to diversify their customer base, said retail analyst Stephany Sofos. "In the 1980s, the Japanese people came fast and furious and those who didn't cater to them were left out. Now it's changing, and as visitor groups change, retailers are having to figure out what their market is from one day to the next," Sofos said. The University of Hawaii study can help tourist-dependent businesses identify how to best keep their customers happy and how to increase spending from other visitor groups, Spears said. Their research showed that Japanese tourists plan to spend $1,400 on gifts and souvenirs during their stay in Hawaii, which is substantially more than all other visitor groups. According to the study, Chinese and Koreans spend about $750 on retail items and Americans spend around $600. They also found differences when it came to purchasing local foods, clothing and engaging in outdoor activities as well as differences in why these tourists groups were coming to Hawaii. For example, Americans and Japanese came to Hawaii primarily to vacation, while the Chinese and South Korean visitors were in Hawaii primarily to visit family members. Chinese visitors can only travel for leisure to a few designations, which does not include Hawaii. "Most Japanese will spend their vacation shopping at both high-end and discount retailers," Rosenbaum said, adding that data also confirmed the love-affair Japanese have with designer items. Nearly 60 percent of the Japanese visitors surveyed planned to visit Hawaii's designer boutiques; in contrast, only 35 percent of Americans planned to do so. However, the number of Japan travelers who plan to purchase products made in Hawaii, such as coffee, food and clothing, is lower than other groups. "The Japanese are the answer to our luxury business - not our economy," Rosenbaum said, adding that purchases of locally made products create more jobs and ultimately bring more benefit to the state. Visitors, who spend about $3 billion annually on retail goods in Hawaii, make up about 15 percent of the state's $19 billion retail market, said Carol Pregill, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii. The islands drew 6.4 million visitors last year, about two-thirds of them from the mainland. "Shopping is the third largest expenditure, next to food and lodging, for visitors," Pregill said, adding that about 20 percent of visitor expenditures can be attributed to shopping. "That's huge when you consider that shopping is a discretionary expense," Pregill said, and is an important part of a visitor's experience. But to make Hawaii shopping attractive to visitors it has to be distinctive, said Frank Haas, marketing director for the Hawaii Tourism Authority. "You can shop in Hong Kong and Las Vegas; what we need to know is what's distinctive about shopping in Hawaii," Haas said. As Oahu's visitor market stays strong, many retailers are going to take advantage of more visitor-based opportunities, said Jeffrey Hall, senior director of research at CB Richard Ellis. "There's huge amount of interest in redoing resort retail, especially in Waikiki," Hall said. According to market reports, Waikiki has a high number of retail vacancies, but in three to four years the sector will be more bullish as Waikiki renovation projects come to fruition, Hall forecasts. "The Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center is rapidly changing. The Beach Walk and the International Market Place projects are just getting under way," Hall said. "Expect that in a few years Waikiki will be an entirely different place." Any shift in visitor demographics changes the way businesses advertise their products. "It's important to know who is coming and what you need for inventory," Pregill said. "Inventory is a huge expense and no one wants to be stuck with goods that no one want to buy." That's where the Rosenbaum and Spears study comes in, said Anne Murata, marketing director of the Festival Cos., which manages the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. Murata said she purchased the study because it's the first retail survey in Hawaii that breaks data into small categories such as visitors' reasons for traveling to Hawaii, ability to spend and where they spend their money. Retailers are especially interested on the data about Chinese and South Korean visitors, she said. While Chinese and Korean visitors have more in common with Americans in terms of overall spending, their spending habits are very similar to the Japanese visitor market when it was new, Murata said. In the 1990s, when the Japanese tourism boom to Hawaii was growing, the state's largest industry went to great lengths to cater to their needs. Japanese signs ruled Waikiki marketing; but then the bubble burst and retailers had to regroup to stay in business. "We've been trained to think only in terms of U.S. westbound and Japan travelers," she said. "But our retail market is becoming increasingly global and we're starting to see more travelers from China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the U.S. East." Japanese visitor arrivals to Hawaii, which peaked at 2.2 million in 1997, fell to 1.3 million last year in response to a weakened Japanese economy and geopolitical troubles. Retailers say the market has rebounded, but it's time for those eyeing Hawaii's improved market to use the isles' changing tourist patterns to help determine what's in store. Although the China travel market to Hawaii is small, representing less than 1 percent of Hawaii's total visitors in 2002, state officials have identified it as a market with enormous potential. New research shows that Chinese tourists are now the biggest spenders in the Asia-Pacific region by average credit card transaction size, according to a study released by Visa. The report, published last week in the Financial Times, said Chinese cardholders on average spent $253 per transaction while traveling. The World Tourism Organization has also estimated that China will produce 100 million outbound tourists by 2020 and members of Hawaii's public and private sector want their share. "Just like we geared retail to the Japan market in its heyday, someday I expect we'll see retail signs in Chinese and Korean, too," Murata said. According to the Rosenbaum and Spears survey, the Chinese, enjoy participating in new activities, but look for familiarity in restaurants - characteristics similar to Japanese visitors before Hawaii became a common destination, "They only want to eat in Chinese restaurants," Rosenbaum said. But, more important for retailers is that the Chinese also appear to have a taste for luxury goods. "The Chinese, like the Japanese, also want to purchase luxury goods as gifts to take home," Spears said. While retailers need accurate data to capture their audience, there is one sure plan that works across cultures, Murata said. "One thing you can always sell them is the aloha spirit - that's an approach that works with visitors from China to Lithuania," Murata said. BACK TO TOP | The Hawaii experience A new University of Hawaii study of tourist spending habits raised some interesting questions. For instance, do Japan travelers, who planned to spend $1,400 on gifts and souvenirs during their stay in Hawaii, really contribute the most money to Hawaii's economy? While Americans, who planned to spend about $600 on retail, and Chinese/ Koreans, who planned to spend about $750, lagged behind in overall spending, the data showed that these groups spent significantly more on made-in-Hawaii products. The percentage of visitors planning to buy each product: Items USA / Canada Japan China / South Korea Hawaiian coffee 53.1 38.4 70.8 Macadamia nuts 66.8 52.2 75.5 Pineapples 37.4 7.3 30.2 Hawaiian candies 35.7 12.3 35.8 Hawaiian clothing 47.3 21.7 43.4 Hawaiian souvenirs 60.9 41.1 58.5 Source: University of Hawaii marketing professor Mark Rosenbaum and travel industry management professor Dan Spears Where it all goes Percentage of visitors doing the following activities: Activities U.S. Japan China/Korea Honeymoon/wedding 6.8 18.2 4.7 Visit family/friends 13.4 3.8 28.3 Part of Packaged tour 15.8 61.3 25.5 Buying designer clothes 29.2 34.9 37.7 Golf 16.0 5.6 30.2 Tour bus 30.9 25.2 37.7 Beach 77.4 78.3 84.0 Fine dining 58.2 8.5 49.1 Culture/History 64.2 27.3 43.4 Luau 59.7 16.1 62.3 Designer boutiques 35.1 59.2 41.5 Mall 65.4 74.5 75.5 Characteristics of visitors' stays: Visit U.S. Japan China/Korea Planned Expenditures $644 $1,416 $745 Length of Stay in Hawaii 12 days 7 days 11 days Source: University of Hawaii marketing professor Mark Rosenbaum and travel industry management professor Dan Spears — ADVERTISEMENTS — — ADVERTISEMENTS — | | | PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION E-mail to Business Editor BACK TO TOP Text Site Directory: [News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Do It Electric!] [Classified Ads] [Search] [Subscribe] [Info] [Letter to Editor] [Feedback] © 2004 Honolulu Star-Bulletin -- http://starbulletin.com -Advertisement-