Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Tuesday, May 6, 1997
Japanese tourist arrivals to Hawaii for this year's Golden Week holiday period were down substantially from last year, according to a survey of reservations for package tours. Japanese vacation week
less golden for islesThe daily arrivals were down an average of 23 percent for the April 26 through May 5 vacation period, according to the Japan Report, issued by Honolulu survey firm PR Japan.
However, the bookings for yesterday -- the last day of the break -- were nearly double what they were on the last day of last year's Golden Week, a period that combines two weekends with several national holidays in Japan.
Japanese travelers recently began shifting their vacations to before or after the holidays, when trip prices are cheaper, the firm said.
Honolulu has received two electric pickup trucks as part of a pilot program with the federal government. Honolulu receives
two electric pickup trucksThe U.S. Department of Energy paid $58,000 apiece for the trucks, and also designated Honolulu a test city for the electric vehicles.
The trucks were shown off yesterday at the Kakaako office of U.S. Electricar. The two pickups look like regular trucks, but are without gasoline engines. Instead they have 1,700 pounds of batteries and an electric motor.
The trucks can travel up to 70 miles per hour for about 70 miles before needing to be recharged. Recharging the trucks can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 10 hours, depending on how big the battery recharger is. The trucks don't use fuel and make no pollution. They also require less maintenance because the engine has fewer breakable parts.
WASHINGTON -- World Class Network has agreed to refund $3 million to more than 51,000 people who bought a $495 kit that was supposed to enable them to operate travel agencies from home. Feds force travel firm
to refund $3 millionThe Federal Trade Commission, which had shut down the Irvine, Calif.-based, multi-level marketing system in March, said few people were able to make profits because of inadequate training.
Under the settlement announced yesterday, World Class Network has to offer refunds to future buyers of the training kits who ask for them within 90 days of investing.
In an earlier Hawaii Circuit Court case brought by disgruntled would-be travel agents, World Class also made refunds.
America Online Inc., the nation's biggest online service, reported a surprise quarterly profit, buoyed by higher revenues from advertising and lower expenses for marketing its service. America Online
beats Wall St. expectationsThe profit was sharply lower compared with the inflated results of a year ago, before AOL changed a criticized method for calculating its marketing expenses. It also reflected higher costs for upgrading AOL's network as the nation's largest online service tried to accommodate a flood of new subscribers.
But the results pleasantly surprised analysts, who generally expected AOL to lose money.
The results were "fantastic," said Brian Oakes, a financial analyst at Lehman Brothers Inc. "They beat everyone on the Street."
AOL said it earned $2.64 million, or 2 cents a share, in its fiscal third-quarter ended March 31. That was down from profits of $15.1 million, or 14 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenues jumped 46 percent to $456.2 million from $312.3 million.
The results beat the average expectations of 13 analysts surveyed by I.B.E.S. International Inc., who predicted a loss of 6 cents a share.