By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Konishiki's pitch for Hawaii:"Big Relax, Big Hawaii."

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Konishiki making
isle tourism pitch
with Japan ads

The promotions are part of
HVCB's 1999 marketing plan

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Retired sumo star Konishiki is putting his weight behind Hawaii's $10.4 million 1999 tourism promotion in Japan.

The HVCB started tapping Konishiki's huge popularity by airing television commercials this week introducing him as Hawaii's spokesman. City billboards will show the 500-pound-plus star floating in a giant red inner tube in balmy Hawaii waters and lying on his side on an island beach. He later will appear in railway-station posters, magazine inserts and newspaper advertisements pushing the theme "Big Relax, Big Hawaii."

The campaign's goal is to show that Hawaii is big enough, cosmopolitan enough and sufficiently diversified to satisfy Japanese visitors, said Tony Vericella, HVCB president and chief executive officer.

Konishiki, born Salevaa Atisanoe in Nanakuli, retired last year and has done some traveling with his wife Sumika, including Hawaii trips covered by national television in Japan.

The HVCB's Japan promotions were among a range of advertising and public relations efforts planned for the rest of this year, detailed at an HVCB membership meeting today at the Hawaii Convention Center.

One thrust of the meeting was to explain how Hawaii plans to make the most of the state's overall marketing budget of $47 million this year vs. $24 million in 1998.

The $10.4 million that the HVCB will spend in Japan compares with about $3 million last year.

The bureau's plans are aimed at increasing visitor arrivals by 1.9 percent this year, to 6.87 million, and raising visitor expenditures in the islands by 4.4 percent, to $11.2 billion.

The HVCB's targets include getting the private sector to put up 58 percent of the 1999 tourism promotion budget, by cooperative advertising and supplying services such as airline seats and hotel rooms.

In the North American leisure market, which provides approximately 60 percent of the tourist traffic, campaigns will push Hawaii's "diversity and aloha," to convince potential visitors that the islands offer many attractions, adventures and foods that they didn't know about.

The programs in Japan, which produces 24 percent of Hawaii's tourists, are aimed at four markets -- families, the older audience, the bridal-honeymoon sector and young adults.

A significant part of the international marketing effort will be targeted at the conventions and meetings audience, using the $350 million convention center to fill hotel rooms with visitors.