Associated Press– Tue May 31, 8:57 pm ET

HONOLULU – Visitor spending in Hawaii increased 17.8 percent to $4.1 billion in the first four months of the year compared with the same time last year, according to Hawaii Tourism Authority statistics released Tuesday.

Total visitor spending rose 20.2 percent to $920.7 million in April, representing the 12th consecutive month of double-digit increases, the authority said. Total arrivals grew 5.3 percent to 581,324 visitors. Average daily spending last month was $176 per person, up from $159 in April 2010.

April arrivals from Canada climbed 33.7 percent. Arrivals from the U.S. West Coast rose 10 percent while the East Coast remained stable, according to the data.

The strong month is attributed to increases from other markets that offset decreased numbers from Japan, tourism authority president and CEO Mike McCartney said in a statement. The American Academy of Neurology meeting also provided a boost.

"More importantly, this sustained momentum is being experienced on all islands, with arrivals and expenditures currently on pace with our peak years of 2006 and 2007," he said.

The authority expects May to be another strong month with charter flights for the string of national holidays in Japan known as "Golden Week," summer travel and the American Psychiatric Association meeting, McCartney said.

"While Hawaii's tourism economy is continuing its recovery, we must all be mindful of the effects of fluctuating oil prices, fuel surcharges, natural disasters and the many other impacts that can and will affect discretionary spending, including both leisure and business travel," he said.

Link to article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20110531/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_hawaii_tourism_april_1

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Governor Neil Abercrombie announced Thursday that more than 50 Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) have been initiated. It's all part of the governor's New Day Works Projects to create jobs and stimulate the state's economy. "This is just the beginning. Our New Day Work Projects will directly attack unemployment by putting people to work right away and jump start business activity," Abercrombie said. "It will provide an economic boost that will reverberate throughout the state and result in paychecks for Hawaii families." In the past four months, Abercrombie has released $300 million for these projects. He has also called for $1.7 billion in CIP funds for the biennium budget for future New Day Work Projects, which is moving through the legislature. Funding for projects include the following:

Schools

• $3,000,000 Farrington High School - Campus modernization planning
• $1,000,000 Salt Lake Elementary School - Classroom conversions
• $406,000 Kaimuki High School - Softball field improvements
• $1,940,000 Lahainaluna High School - Softball field improvements
• $450,000 Mauka Lani Elementary School - Evacuation route ramp installations
• $260,000 Honowai Elementary School - Classroom conversions
• $102,600 Kalani High School - Softball practice field
• $6,635,000 Kapaa Elementary School - New library building
• $440,871 Pahoa High/Intermediate School - ADA installations
• $600,000 Mililani Uka Elementary School - Erosion improvement
• $8,000,000 Keaukaha Elementary School - New cafeteria
• $578,000 Castle High School - Track field improvements
• $750,000 Molokai High School - Softball field improvements
• $300,000 Nanakuli High School - Softball field improvements
• $2,700,000 Mililani High School - Stadium improvements
• $100,000 Mililani Waena Elementary School - Parking lot expansion
• $100,000 Waikele Elementary School - Parking lot expansion
• $14,999,000 Various Schools - Electrical upgrades
• $252,500 Various Schools - Hazardous materials assessment and design
• $2,000,000 Various Schools - ADA compliance improvements
• $500,000 Various Maui Schools - Fire safety improvements
• $2,000,000 Various Schools - Transition plan improvements for public accommodation
• $500,000 Various Schools - Health and safety improvements
• $5,000,000 Various Schools - Design, construction, and/or relocation of temporary buildings
• $30,000,000 Various Schools - Building improvements, repair and maintenance

Transportation

• $1,505,000 Hana Highway Widening - design for widening from four to six lanes
• $422,000 Bridge Inspection and Appraisal, Statewide
• $16,792,450 DOT Highways Division CIP Staff Costs - positions for second-half of FY2011
• $3,599,502 Port Allen Small Boat Harbor & Pier - repairs
• $16,792,450 DOT Highways Project Funded Positions
• $45,915,979 Kaumualii Highway Improvements
• $605,000 Papaikou Mill Road Intersection Improvements
• $3,016,000 Kuhio Highway Intersection Improvements
• $2,940,000 Honoapiilani Highway Safety Improvements
• $2,000,000 Rockfall and flood mitigation, Statewide
• $778,820 Airport; Second level turnaround strengthening
• $665,000 Hilo International Airport - pavement improvements
• $26,426,148 Kaumalapau Harbor improvements
• $4,041,984 Airport Terminal Modernization
• $584,750 Lihue Airport improvements
• $603,750 Kona International Airport airfield improvements
• $5,805,000 Molokai Airport improvements
• $1,201,750 Lanai Airport - airfield lighting
• $3,422,200 Honolulu International Airport - runway lighting
• $3,168,250 Hilo International Airport - taxiway and airfield improvements
• $18,821,000 Honolulu International Airport - runway pavement improvements
• $13,765,500 Hilo International Airport - runway pavement improvementsÂ@

Health Centers

• $2,093,000 Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind - ADA improvements
• $618,000 Hale Ho'ola Hamakua Hospital - repair and maintenance
• $550,000 Molokai Community Health Center - facility improvements
• $15,001,000 Maui Memorial Medical Center - renovations

Libraries

• $9,525,000 Aiea Public Library - design and construction
• $526,000 Mililani Public Library - parking lot expansion and site improvements
• $185,000 Hana Public and School Library - Air Conditioning replacement

Various Projects

• $476,560 Department of Agriculture, Animal Quarantine Station retrofit
• $125,000 Aloha Stadium, health and safety improvements
• $400,000 Hakioawa Shelter and Kitchen - construction
• $4,500,000 Various Public Buildings, Statewide - hurricane- protection retrofit
• $4,250,000 Planning and Research Program, Statewide
• $7,365,000 Capital Improvements Program staff costs
• $400,000 Ho'opono Maintenance Projects

Copyright 2011 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

Posted: Apr 07, 2011 2:01 AM RDT Updated: Apr 07, 2011 2:58 AM RDT

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The happiest place on earth is coming to paradise by boat.

For the first time, Disney Cruise Line plans to sail through the Hawaiian islands.

It's part of a special 15-night trip out of Los Angeles with 2,700 passengers.

The cruise will first stop in Hilo on April 29, 2012. From there, the Disney cruise will go on to visit Kahului, Honolulu, Nawailiwili on Kauai and finally back over to Ensenada, Mexico.

Copyright 2011 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

Link to article: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=14398750

HONOLULU (AP) - The drop in tourists from Japan to Hawaii may not be as severe as originally thought.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority is projecting an 18% decline in arrivals from Japan for the month of March, a smaller dip than the authority's initial 25% estimate.

The loss of Japanese travelers was expected to damage Hawaii's economy and government, both of which rely on tourism money.

The state Council on Revenues downgraded its forecast this week, in part due to the drop in Japanese visitors, to show the state government now has an estimated $1.3 billion shortfall over the next two years.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority also said it's hopeful that April flight reductions by Japan Airlines from Narita to Honolulu will be restored soon.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Link to article: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14371270

By Deena Beasley
LOS ANGELES | Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:52pm IST

(Reuters) - Hotel operator Marriott International Inc (MAR.N) said on Monday it plans to split into two publicly traded companies by spinning off its timeshare operations into a separate company, sending its shares up nearly 5 percent after hours.

Marriott also reported a higher quarterly profit as a strengthening economy enabled more companies to send employees back out on the road to do business.

"Historically, timeshare has been seen as a drag on the valuations of publicly traded companies," said Hudson Securities analyst Robert LaFleur. "It's a real estate-intensive business that was pretty severely impacted by the recession. Sales are not anywhere near where they were three or four years ago."

Marriott's shares were trading at $42.85 after closing at $41 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Under the spin-off plan, Marriott said, the new company will focus on the timeshare business under the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton brands. Marriott International will concentrate on the lodging management and franchise business.

The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $173 million, or 46 cents per share, compared with $106 million, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.

Adjusting for one-time items, Marriott earned 39 cents a share, beating the 36 cents a share expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"The numbers look OK, but they are not spectacular," said LaFleur, estimating that Marriott pocketed about 4 cents a share during the quarter due to a lower than expected taxes.

In 2010, Marriott said its timeshare segment reported revenue of around $1.5 billion. At the end of last year, it operated 71 timeshare and fractional resorts with more than 400,000 owners and some 10,000 employees -- it also held $1.5 billion in unsold inventory.

Marriott, the fourth-largest hotel company by room count, according to Smith Travel Research, serves more business than leisure travellers and has hotel brands such as Ritz-Carlton and Courtyard in all market categories with the exception of economy.

Like rival Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc (HOT.N), which is smaller but has a similar focus on the upscale and business traveller, Marriott benefited early from the business-led recovery in lodging. Business travel generates about 70 percent of Marriott's revenue, the company says.

Growth of Marriott's revPAR -- a key industry measure that multiples occupancy by room rate -- turned positive in March 2010 after being decimated by recession. The industry ended 2010 with revPAR up 5.6 percent, but so far leisure travel has lagged the broader recovery.

For 2011, Marriott said it expects a strong pricing environment and assumes full-year systemwide revPAR will increase by between 6 percent and 8 percent on a North American and worldwide basis.

After a special dividend, the Marriott family is expected to hold around 21 percent of the outstanding common stock of each company. (Additional reporting by Helen Chernikoff; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Link to article: http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/02/15/uk-marriottinternational-idINLNE71E03N20110215

By Alan Yonan Jr.
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hilton has seen the future, and it is timeshare.

The global resort company said yesterday its planned two-tower, 550-room expansion at the Hilton Hawaiian Village will be devoted entirely to timeshare units, a fast-growing sector of the lodging industry.

Hilton officials cited the success of the company's Grand Waikikian Tower, a timeshare project completed in late 2008 on the 22-acre campus of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The tower, operated by Hilton Grand Vacation Club, recently eclipsed $1 billion in sales, and the company said it is looking to get more supply in the pipeline while demand is strong.

"This expansion will give us enough product to sell well into the next decade," said Ted Middleton, Hilton's senior vice president of development, the Americas. "It's very important to have new inventory to dovetail into the growing demand," he said at a news conference to announce the project.

Construction on the first tower, a 37-story, 300-unit building to be built on the site of a bus-loading area along Kalia Road, is expected to start sometime in 2013 and be completed in 2015. Construction on the second tower, a 25-story, 250-room building, is projected to start five years later on the site of the current Rainbow Bazaar shopping area next to the resort's parking garage.

The project also will include additional swimming pools and retail space. The project meets all current zoning and density requirements, but will have to undergo an environmental review, said Jerry Gibson, area vice president and managing director for Hilton Hawaii.

When completed, the expansion will result in 700 new jobs at the hotel, Gibson said. It also will generate an undetermined number of construction jobs as it is being built.

RISING POPULARITY

Hotel companies have been shifting their room mix to include a larger share of timeshare units in recent years. Because they are prepaid, timeshare memberships provide hotels with higher occupancy rates and a more steady stream of revenue, even during times when the visitor industry is slumping.

The Disney resort being built at the Ko Olina Resort will have a mix of 480 timeshare units and 350 traditional hotel rooms. And Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts says its redevelopment of the Princess Kaiulani hotel in Waikīkī will include a timeshare component.

The growth trajectory of Hawai'i's timeshare sector over the past decade has been steep. The number of timeshares has risen sharply from about 4,815 units in 2002 to more than 8,000 units today.

"Timeshare obviously is one of the growth areas for the state," said Joseph Toy, president and chief executive officer of Hospitality Advisors LLC, a local visitor industry consulting firm.

"Previously most of the timeshare inventory had been concentrated in Kaua'i, and indeed we're now seeing the expansion of the timeshare market to the other islands."

Toy said the the trend is healthy for the industry and the overall economy because it "diversifies our product base for the growing diverse demand from the visitor market."

The project will cost in the "hundreds of millions of dollars," Middleton said, but he did not provide a specific amount.

There will be no net loss of green space because the new towers will be built on existing developed areas, said Norman G.Y. Hong, chief executive officer of Group 70, the firm that is designing the project.

LATEST UPGRADE

The new rooms will be added to the resort's current inventory of 3,627 rooms. Existing floor space will increase to 3.8 million square feet from 3.2 million square feet. The density will increase, but will not exceed limits under Waikīkī Special Design District rules, Hong said.

Hilton executives are scheduled to make a presentation on May 11 to the Waikīkī Neighborhood Board.

"I'm very pleased it will be creating 700 new jobs," said Bob Finley, Waikīkī Neighborhood Board chairman. "I'm very pleased that the labor unions will have work for the next 10 years. I'm very pleased that we will be expanding the tax base. People are finally beginning to understand that Waikīkī businesses contribute so much to our vital services."

The Hilton facelift is the latest in a series of large-scale upgrades in Waikīkī over the past five years, including Outrigger's Beachwalk project along Lewers Street, Kyo-ya's renovation of the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton Waikiki hotels, and the Royal Hawaiian Center.

Additionally, Kyo-ya is preparing to launch a $700 million overhaul of its Princess Kaiulani complex that will include a new beachfront hotel.

Link to article: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2010/Apr/01/ln/hawaii4010369.html