TheBuzz
Erika Engle
Community-sensitive
travel brochures prove
popular with visitorsThe newest drive guide not intended to be flashy, glossy or commercial details the Volcano Heritage Corridor on the Big Island. It will be launched April 24 in Keaau, the corridor's starting point, with a blessing and fanfare.
Beyond the well-traveled road to Volcano, which receives as many as 1 million visitors a year, the brochure encourages visitors to take the road less traveled.
This looped path will take them to Pahoa, Lava Tree State Park, Kapoho and the warm pond at Ahalanui Park before leading them to the historic Painted Church, turning a corner at Kalapana and then back to Pahoa village.
"We want to encourage people on this heritage highway to see both sides, the Eastern Rift Zone and the Kilauea route through the (Volcanoes National) Park," said Paula Helfrich, president of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board.
The Volcano-Puna brochure is modeled after the Hilo Hamakua Heritage Corridor brochure launched in 1997. It has increased individual visitor travel to the small-town Hawaii they might otherwise have missed.
The brochure is "community-convened, to discuss what they want to show. Equally important was to ask them what they want to keep for themselves and we must honor that," Helfrich said. The project will be monitored for six months and adjusted according to local community concerns and feedback.
The Hamakua Coast suffered huge economic declines following the demise of the sugar industry in the early 1990s. Now many of the small sugar towns are bustling with filled parking spaces fronting mom and pop general stores, bakeries and art galleries, Helfrich said.
"All those little concerns are just hopping, and they're all run by local people."
"There is no other more cohesive piece of literature related to tourism on that corridor, and this is the same effect we're hoping to get on (the new) one," she said.
The wild west image of Puna is outmoded, Helfrich said.
"They do have wonderful arts and crafts and cultural activities all through the Puna district and they don't get enough recognition," she said. "And the warm ponds are just exquisite."
Volcano brochure project manager Liz Barton expects high demand for the new brochure once it is placed at airports, visitor information centers and hotels, based on the success of its predecessor.
"Of all the brochures that have nice glossy pages and color, this is just a two-color and it's the one I have to replenish more often," she said.
"You can go use the brochure and still find restaurants and still find restrooms and have a pretty satisfactory experience," Barton said. It makes a Hawaii trip more meaningful for visitors and "it makes it more meaningful for Hawaii as well," she said.
As with a recently launched series of drive-guides for Windward Oahu, the Big Island brochures on Hamakua and Volcano and others in the works are intended for "FIT" visitors, or free and independent travelers, not tour-bus-loads.
The drive-guide information and maps are online at www.hawaii-culture.com, with support from the Big Island Visitors Bureau, the County of Hawaii and the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
In the interest of full disclosure: Your columnist is a proud graduate of Pahoa High and Elementary School in the heart of the Puna district. Never mind what year.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com