Category: Hawaii Tourism News

DBEDT is the Department of Business, Economic, Development & Tourism in Hawaii and also responsible for the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA). Mike McCartney was head of HTA from 2009-2014 and was promoted to serve as the Governor’s Chief of Staff in 2014. As is par for the course for decades in the State of Hawaii, many leading positions are shifted around among the same individuals. Now McCartney will be in charge... Read More

Hawaiian Airlines Hawaiian Airlines today announced that it welcomed a record 11,840,178 guests in 2018, a 2.9 percent increase over the previous year. The record number of passengers in 2018 marks 14 straight years of growth as Hawaiian continues to expand its network and fleet, providing travelers with more options to fly to, from, and within the Hawaiian Islands than any other carrier. Announcing its system-wide traffic statistics for the month,... Read More

Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island of Hawaii welcomes a new tourism hotspot in the making. It’a new black sand beach located at Isaac Kepoʻokalani Hale Beach Park. The beach was created after the Kilauea Volcano erupted in May last year . eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: Hot molten lava interacting with cold ocean water produces explosions. Part of that is wave action breaking up the new... Read More

High bacteria levels in ocean water have caused the closing of three Hawaii tourist beaches in the Aloha State. In Waikiki, Queens Surf beach as well as the Ewa side of Ala Moana Beach Park have signs posted warning swimmers of the high bacteria levels. eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world: Both beaches recorded levels around 10 times beyond the threshold for enterococci, commonly found in the digestive... Read More

The Aloha State of Hawaii has had its challenges when it comes to tourism in 2018. From a volcano spewing lava and ash and opening fissures that caught the attention of the national media, to flooding and hurricanes and even rat lungworm disease. And that’s just the mother nature side of the story. Then there were the man-made challenges for the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) in the form a negative state... Read More

Hawaii visitor arrivals rise, spending remains flat Visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent a total of $1.29 billion in November 2018, which was nearly flat (-0.3%) compared to November 2017, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA). In November, growth in visitor spending from the U.S. West (+6.5% to $533.1 million), U.S. East (+9.3% to $292.3 million) and Canada (+2.6% to $99.6 million) markets was offset... Read More

Waikiki Beach Marriott workers ratify union contract UNITE HERE Local 5 members who work at Waikiki Beach Marriott voted overwhelmingly today to ratify a union contract that covers nearly 500 workers. The contract is modeled after the contract agreement that was reached on November 27 with Kyo-ya, which owns five Marriott-operated hotels that went on strike for 51 days with the demand that one job should be enough to live in... Read More

The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) has created a special Alert page on its website providing industry partners, visitors and residents with information and online resources about national parks, monuments and wildlife refuges in the Hawaiian Islands that could be affected by the partial federal government shutdown. The partial federal government shutdown, which took effect on Friday, December 21 at 7:00 p.m. HST, may result in closures at national parks, monuments, and... Read More