Kiahuna® Castle RAB Blog: May 2015

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Mahalo to those that suported the Kauai Charity Walk :)

May 2015

Dear Kiahuna Plantation Ohana,

Thank you so much to those who supported the Kauai Charity Walk! Marianne has reported we had raised over $6000 in the name of Kiahuna Plantation!!!

Some owners supported our Kiahuna staff fundraising efforts by attending the Chili Cook-off and Farmer’s Market event. Delicious way to donate! Others decided chasing that little white ball across grassy fields was a fabulous way to help out! Some homeowners generously supported a Kiahuna staff member’s effort to raise money for the Walk.

Once again Judy donated 4 wonderful Hawaiian quilts for the silent auction and raised $470 for her beautiful quilts! Alan Hart and Roger Mullenhour donated 3 beautiful photographs for the silent auction helping me towards my fundraising goal!

The great news is I personally raised more than my last year’s total and this year’s goal of $2500! This would not be possible without the support of my own family and friends in California as well as your support and donations to my fundraising efforts or in some cases…being paid to leave you alone J

All the monies raised by the staff, golf teams, Judy and I will benefit the local non-profits on the island of Kauai. It was wonderful to meet some of the local charities while we were on the Charity Walk! The local Kauai Police department PAL group, Easter Seals, and Ronald McDonald House were a few of the groups giving walkers water and snacks on the walk. The final part of the walk had the Girl Scouts handing out cookies, Hula Dancers and the Kauai high school football team members high fiving us all and giving us our breakfast tickets. Makes us all feel good about raising money for the charities!

I have already plans in the making for 2016 Kauai Charity Walk so be forewarned! My goal is that 100% of our owners will get into the spirit of generosity and donate to the walk either by golfing, maybe a tennis fundraiser, supporting the staff or paying me off to leave them alone. I can handle getting up at 5:15am if it means raising more money for our friends on the island!

Mahalo for your support to our Kiahuna Plantation employees fundraising efforts. I truly appreciate all those who supported this year’s Walk!! See you at the meetings! (I’m the one with my hand out for money).

Marie Tiraschi

Unit 85

Sunday, May 17, 2015

The beach is back...

The beach is back....well, better than it was!
Many of you noticed last week that our beach was gone due to the tides and shift in sand. The good news is it looked better this morning as some sand has returned. The bad news is that it appears that the tides moved the sand from Koa Kea as more rocks are showing over there.
As we know things could all change in a day or so. I thought I would share these with you as many noticed the lack of beach during the meetings.

Aloha,
Denise

Photo as of May 15, 2015 - a lot of rocks!
This was taken at high tide but even earlier in the day
the beach was pretty rocky.

Photo as of May 15, 2015 - less rocks and more beach!
This was taken at low tide.

Photo as of May 17, 2015 - Koa Kea

Iniki Photo's

Aloha,
Please click the link below to see pictures of Kiahuna right after Iniki as well as during some of the reconstruction. I would like to thank the Mathesons as well as Bob and Dottie Carne for sharing these photos. I would also like to thank my husband, Alan, for transferring these photos to a dropbox so that I can share with all of you.

Mahalo,
Denise

Click below to view:
Iniki Photos

Monday, May 11, 2015

Hapas is Happening!

Alan and I went to Hapas yesterday for lunch. He ordered the Falafel burger with a pasta salad and I ordered the Vegetarian Wrap with a pasta salad as well. FABULOUS! The food not only tasted great but I loved the presentation. For those of you on Island you should go check it out.

Aloha,
Denise

Flying to Oakland, San Francisco, Portland or Seattle direct on Alaska?

An owner at the meetings this week showed me this program with the Kauai Humane Society. As many of you know I am a HUGE animal lover and thought I would share this with all of you that have that same passion. This seems like a great way to help a dog get a loving home.

Aloha,

Denise

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Good news! West coast arrivals are up, along with Canada!

For Immediate Release: May 8, 2015

Statement Attributable to Ronald Williams, Chief Executive Officer

Hawaii Tourism Authority

Visitor Arrivals up Three Percent during First Quarter

Visitor expenditures for the state's lead economic driver have plateaued during the first quarter of 2015 following three years of significant growth. However, with increased air seat inventory and spring break falling earlier this year, visitor arrivals increased three percent to 2.1 million visitors through March 2015.

The softening of the market can be attributed to lower average daily spending (-4.2% to $189.8), as visitors within primary markets are adjusting their vacation budgets and length of stay to economic factors like fluctuating exchange rates.

Since the U.S. dollar remains strong in some of our major international markets, we continue to work with our global contractors to roll out innovative campaigns like airline mileage promotions and other brand partnerships to ease the cost of travel to Hawaii.

We are also pleased to welcome additional airlift from our core U.S. market with Virgin America's inaugural flights to Oahu and Maui this fall. These routes will help to increase access and arrivals to the state and enhance HTA's efforts to balance visitor distribution to all of the Hawaiian Islands. We continue to work with our global contractors and airline partners to sustain this boost in airlift and identify potential markets for growth.

# # #

Media Contact:

Angela Rodriguez

Hawaii Tourism Authority

(808) 973-2272

Angela@gohta.net

For Immediate Release: May 8, 2015

HTA Release (15-07)

TOTAL VISITOR ARRIVALS ROSE 7 PERCENT COMPARED TO MARCH 2014

Total Visitor Expenditures Grew 3 percent to $1.3 Billion

HONOLULU - Total visitor arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands in March 2015 rose seven percent to 780,056 visitors, according to preliminary statistics released today by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Arrivals by air increased 6.6 percent to 765,358 visitors, while arrivals by cruise ships were up 38.8 percent to 14,698 visitors. Despite lower average daily spending (-2.9% to $183 per person), total visitor expenditures grew three percent to $1.3 billion due to a 6.2 percent increase in total visitor days compared to March 2014.

For the U.S. West, arrivals by air climbed 13.3 percent to 303,827 visitors. Combined with increased daily spending (+1.3% to $161 per person), U.S. West visitor expenditures jumped 12.1 percent to $434.2 million.

U.S. East arrivals grew 2.6 percent to 170,013 visitors, but daily spending was down (-2.7% to $186 per person) compared to March 2014. This resulted in a 1.8 percent drop in visitor expenditures to $299.7 million.

Arrivals from Japan fell 5.7 percent to 127,400 visitors. Much lower daily spending (-14.9% to $223 per person) also contributed to a 21.7 percent decrease in visitor expenditures to $165.6 million.

Canadian arrivals grew 4.3 percent to 77,237 visitors in March 2015. Daily spending increased (+9.3% to $165 per person) and visitors stayed longer (+1.7% to 12.74 days) than last year. This led to a 15.9 percent growth in expenditures to $162.5 million.

Arrivals from All Other markets were up 15.7 percent to 86,880 visitors. Combined expenditures from All Other visitors rose 10.5 percent to $196 million.

Visitors days increased among the four larger Hawaiian Islands in comparison to March 2014: Oahu (+6%), Maui (+5.2%), Hawaii Island (+7.9%) and Kauai (+4.4%).

There were 1,046,467 total air seats to Hawaii in March 2015, up 6.5 percent from a year ago. Scheduled seats from Oceania (+25.7%), Canada (+14.1%), U.S. West (+10.1%) and U.S. East (+8.7%) increased, offsetting fewer seats from Japan (-7.8%) and Other Asia (-7.6%).

Year-to-Date 2015:

For the first quarter of 2015, total arrivals grew three percent to 2,120,673 visitors. However, total visitor expenditures were down 1.3 percent to $3.8 billion. Total visitor expenditures increased on Kauai (+8.1%) and Maui (+4.6%), but declined on Hawaii Island (-7.9%) and Oahu (-5.2%).

View Complete Release

HTA recognizes the use of the 'okina ['] or glottal stop, one of the eight consonants of the (modern) Hawaiian language; and the kahakō[ā] or macron (e.g., in place names of Hawai'i such as Lāna'i). However, HTA respects the individual use of these markings for names of organizations and businesses. Due to technological limitations, this current communication may not include all Hawaiian diacritical markings.