Drop in business trips levels field - Hawaii Business

The continuing drop in group travel business to Hawaii has put the big resort giants and the little guys head to head.

[john w bienko]

I recall with nostalgia, the great days on Waikiki Beach. The crowds were unbelievable. Many times there was no place to place your beachmat. The ocean front hotels were filled, A handsome, white uniformd doorman and beautiful gowned flower girls met the arrivals at the portico and the visitor sensed the Aloha spirit. All that is missing now. Aloha oe

[Gross]

Price deflation, wage deflation, more price deflation. Deflationary spiral.
When the Greatest depression hits The big resorts on the beach can still lower their rates, rely on the Japanese Yen, and cut wages. But the smaller hotels off the beach will all close down.

[Mike]

We can all thank President Obama and the Democratic Congress for the shibai grandstanding they have done (Class warfare) that has led to companies stopping incentive travel. While the crisis has led to the recession, NOT all companies have suffered thanks to capitalism. But those companies have been chastised for taking their best marketers on reward trips.(How dare they be successful!!! and relax while others have difficulty). Therefore, companies have stopped incentive travel fearing the backlash and political witch hunts that follow. And Hawaii gets the result, empty hotel rooms, layoffs, a depressed economy, so THANKS to our President and Congress!!!

[Keanuenue]

Mike wrote:

We can all thank President Obama and the Democratic Congress for the shibai grandstanding they have done (Class warfare) that has led to companies stopping incentive travel. While the crisis has led to the recession, NOT all companies have suffered thanks to capitalism. But those companies have been chastised for taking their best marketers on reward trips.(How dare they be successful!!! and relax while others have difficulty). Therefore, companies have stopped incentive travel fearing the backlash and political witch hunts that follow. And Hawaii gets the result, empty hotel rooms, layoffs, a depressed economy, so THANKS to our President and Congress!!!

You hit it right on the nose. It's all a perception game. We wont travel because its bad politics right now. Thanks to our wonderful leaders we all suffer.

Living the AMERICAN DREAM of taking risk and being successful is now gone. The new AMERICAN DREAM is to be a VICTIM - blame everyone and don't take responsiblity for your own future.( The goverment will take care of me.)

[aaliyah]

john w bienko wrote:

I recall with nostalgia, the great days on Waikiki Beach. The crowds were unbelievable. Many times there was no place to place your beachmat. The ocean front hotels were filled, A handsome, white uniformd doorman and beautiful gowned flower girls met the arrivals at the portico and the visitor sensed the Aloha spirit. All that is missing now. Aloha oe

Because in those days the Aloha Spirit lived, nowadays, everything is about money, how to make the big bucks, to heck with the spirit of aloha, how much you get and how much I can take, it sucks. You have all the "streeet entertainers" who want to skirt the tax man, the foreign vendors pulling you into their sleazy overpriced joints. It sucks.

[Kauakea]

Mike wrote:

We can all thank President Obama and the Democratic Congress for the shibai grandstanding they have done (Class warfare) that has led to companies stopping incentive travel. While the crisis has led to the recession, NOT all companies have suffered thanks to capitalism. But those companies have been chastised for taking their best marketers on reward trips.(How dare they be successful!!! and relax while others have difficulty). Therefore, companies have stopped incentive travel fearing the backlash and political witch hunts that follow. And Hawaii gets the result, empty hotel rooms, layoffs, a depressed economy, so THANKS to our President and Congress!!!

Exactly. He chastises those who travel to resorts for business yet flies to NYC for a dinner and a play and flies in a chef from Chicago to make him pizza. What is good for the "little people" is obviously not good for him. So hypocritical.

[Karen from Ewa Beach]

Local 5, the hotel worker's union, came out against B&Bs at the last Zoning Committee meeting. Ann Tolby Joyner, representing the hotel worker's union which she says has 10-15,000 workers, says B&Bs which are less than 2,000 strong, "will kill the entire hotel industry."

B&B don't/could never compete for Hawaii's group business, so why did Local 5 really come out against B&Bs?