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HAWAII
Travel agents like Hawaii even more in war time
In an online survey conducted by TravelAge West, a magazine for travel agents, Hawaii ranked as the No. 1 destination agents would recommend to their clients should the United States go to war with Iraq.Of the 301 survey respondents, 62 percent said they would suggest Hawaii vacations during wartime, compared with 52 percent for Alaska and 46 percent for Mexico. Half the respondents said the possibility of war with Iraq has already discouraged travel.
Hawaii is already the most-recommended destination among the respondents, with 78 percent saying they suggest it either very often or always.
Case buys more Maui Land & Pine
AOL Time Warner Inc. Chairman Steve Case, who paid $40 million to buy a 41.2 percent stake of Maui Land & Pineapple Co. three years ago, recently added to his stake by acquiring an additional 7,500 shares to bring his holdings to nearly 3 million shares.The Honolulu-born Case, whose family is a minority owner of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and MidWeek, spent $99,375 in purchasing the shares at $13.25 each.
HAWAII
Few junk e-mails reach workplace computers
WASHINGTON >> Despite a rising tide of get-rich-quick scams and herbal Viagra offers on people's home computers, American workers say they receive relatively little unwanted "spam" e-mail at work, according to a report released yesterday.Half of those surveyed by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project said e-mail was essential to their jobs, saving them time, improving teamwork and helping them to communicate with more people.
Few complained about the unwanted junk e-mail that has tripled in volume over the past year. More than half of the 1,003 Internet users surveyed said they received no spam at work. Another 19 percent reported that fewer than 1 in 10 messages were spam.
But while spam is a problem for Internet users' personal e-mail accounts, it is not slowing them down at work, the nonprofit Pew Foundation found.
ILWU caucus likely will be raucous
SAN FRANCISCO >> The bitter contract dispute that closed West Coast ports for 10 days this fall is not over yet.Members of the dockworkers union still must approve the tentative contract their representatives signed last month -- and going into a union caucus that begins here today, that is far from automatic.
That is because in the fiercely democratic International Longshore and Warehouse Union, such gatherings are traditionally raucous, ranging debates. What is more, this year's contract is a tinderbox because it would usher in new cargo-tracking technology that costs about 400 union jobs in the short term. About 80 delegates from will convene here to entertain their negotiating committee's explanation of the contract before they pelt them with questions.
JAPAN
Japan holiday travel is down
Tokyo >> JTB Corp., Japan's largest travel agency, said the number of reservations for trips during the Dec. 23-Jan. 3 New Year peak travel season fell 3 percent to 29.3 million.Reservations for domestic travel fell 3.6 percent to 28.7 million, the company said in a statement. Bookings for international holidays rose by a third to 667,000 compared with a year earlier when demand fell following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a Bloomberg News report.
Fewer Japanese consumers are booking holidays as a slowing economy pushes up the number of jobless. All Nippon Airways Co., the country's second largest carrier said last month it will report its ninth full year loss in a decade for the 12 months ending March 31.
The value of overall bookings for the holiday season fell 4.2 percent to &YEN1.16 trillion ($9.5 billion), JTB said.
Bookings for domestic travel fell 8.3 percent to &YEN1.01 trillion, while international bookings were up 38 percent to &YEN150 billion, according to the statement.
Japan's unemployment rate in October rose 0.1 percentage point to 5.5 percent matching a record high reached in December 2001, the government said last month.
CANADA
Manulife bids to buy Canada Life
TORONTO >> Manulife Financial Corp. announced a hostile bid today for rival Canada Life Financial Corp. in a C$6.4 billion ($4.1 billion) offer that would create Canada's biggest insurance company.Manulife, the country's second-largest insurer, lost its top ranking earlier this year when Sun Life Financial Services of Canada completed a C$6.8 billion merger with Clarica Life.
The proposal comes after talks Friday between the two chief executives, Manulife's Dominic D'Alessandro and Canada Life's David Nield, when Manulife tabled an offer of C$38 per Canada Life share.
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[ HAWAII INC. ]
NEW JOBS
>> The Honolulu Festival Foundation has named Leon Yoshida executive director. He will work with the foundation's officers and board of directors to oversee festival activities. This includes day-to-day management, fund-raising and community outreach for the ninth annual Honolulu Festival in March 2003. He has nearly 30 years of experience in Hawaii's visitor industry and is president of Japanese in-bound tour operator Sawayaka Hawaii.>> Island Insurance Cos. has named Glenn M. Motogawa vice president and chief technology information officer. He will be an executive committee member, responsible for developing and implementing the company's information technology strategy and managing the business partnership between Hoike, an IT company, and Island Insurance. Prior to joining Island, he was management information sciences manager and assistant vice president of National Mortgage & Finance Co.
PROMOTIONS
>> Jon Tapner, vice president and managing director of Arizona-based Fountains Retirement Communities Inc., will manage operations for a retirement condominium project in Waikiki. Formerly the Ohana Waikiki Hobron Hotel, the yet-to-be-renamed property is the first Fountains community in Hawaii. Tapner will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project, including staffing, customer service and budgetary and regulatory compliance. He joined Fountains as food service director in 1996, coming from the Westin Kauai Resort, where he was assistant director of food and beverage.
