Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Monday, June 2, 1997
Bank of Hawaii will convert its First Federal Savings & Loan Association branch on Lanai into a Bank of Hawaii branch on July 4. The new Lanai branch will become Bank of Hawaii's first on the Pineapple Isle. Bank of Hawaii to have
first branch on LanaiThe company also said that it will close First Fed branches in Lahaina, Kailua-Kona and Kukui Grove on Kauai on July 4. Customer accounts and branch employees will be transfered to nearby Bank of Hawaii branches. Ron Schmid, Bank of Hawaii executive vice president, said the First Fed branches are near Bank of Hawaii branches.
The company said that First Fed employees on Lanai will continue to work at the new Bank of Hawaii branch.
TOKYO -- Japan approved several new routes today between the United States and Asia for air freight carrier Federal Express Corp., but did not relax overall restrictions on flights between Tokyo and the rest of Asia. Japan awards FedEx
several new routesA ministry official said the new air cargo routes will allow Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx to deliver U.S. packages to Tokyo and Naha -- the capital of southwestern Okinawa -- from New York, Chicago, Anchorage and Houston. The daily cargo flights then continue, as previously allowed, to Taipei, Manila and Subic in the Philippines, Singapore, Seoul, and Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia, as well as to Hong Kong.
It will be the first time a U.S. carrier has been allowed to pick up packages from the limited market of Naha and take them to Manila, said Transport Ministry official Toshiyuki Onuma. But the approval does not lift a ban on loading packages in Tokyo for delivery throughout Asia, or the reverse, he added.
The United States has been pushing Japan to conclude an "open skies" agreement that would allow U.S. carriers to load and unload during more than one stop in Japan and fly on to other countries, effectively opening Asian markets served through Japan.
WASHINGTON -- The number of international tourists visiting the United States hit an all-time high in 1996, the Commerce Department's Tourism Industries office said today. Foreign tourists
visit U.S. in record numbersAbout 46.3 million international travelers visited the United States last year, up 7 percent from 1995.
The increase can be partly attributed to improving economies in Canada and Mexico, two of the largest sources of U.S. visitors, Commerce said. More than 15 million Canadian and nearly 9 million Mexican tourists visited the United States in 1996. Japan remained the leader in overseas tourists to the United States, with more than 5 million last year.
Last year's surge follows three consecutive years of declining tourism from outside the United States, the department said.