Oahu Publications, Inc. — publisher of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, The Garden Island, Hawaii Tribune-Herald and West Hawaii Today newspapers — said Thursday it has revamped its Hawaii.com website to create a "one stop shop" for all things related to travel to, from and within Hawaii.
The relaunch of Hawaii.com followed a change in ownership of the website. Previously Hawaii.com was owned jointly by Oahu Publications and Las Vegas-based Stephens Media LLC. When Oahu Publications bought Stephens Media’s Hawaii assets in December, OPI also acquired Stephens Media’s half-interest in Hawaii.com. That enabled OPI to redesign the website.
Hawaii.com has consistently ranked among the top five Internet search results for "Hawaii travel." In July and August page views numbered more than a million each month. In addition, Hawaii.com had more than 162,000 members.
"We are delighted to relaunch Hawaii.com as Hawaii’s leading travel resource and commerce website," said Dennis Francis, Oahu Publications president. "I can think of no better way to showcase our island paradise and share OPI’s vast information and content resources with the world, while also making it easy for visitors to plan and book Hawaii experiences for themselves."
"We believe Hawaii.com will become the online starting point for anyone in the world planning a visit to our beautiful islands," said Francis. "With our advertising partners in Hawaii, across the country and around the world, Hawaii.com can literally offer any vacation package available with special discounts for visitors to the site."
One of those partners is the largest car rental provider in the world: Enterprise Holdings, known for its Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, Alamo Rent A Car and Enterprise CarShare brands. Enterprise has been integrated into Hawaii.com’s website as the lead partner in the car rental category.
"Our goal is to provide the best customer service experience in the car rental industry," said Chris Sbarbaro, vice president of sales and marketing for Enterprise Holdings in Hawaii. "Partnering with Hawaii.com ensures that we will have the largest global outreach for anyone anywhere considering a visit to Hawaii and looking for affordable, reliable transportation."
Francis stressed that Hawaii.com will complement, not compete against, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau’s GoHawaii.com site.
"GoHawaii is Hawaii’s official tourism site operated by a valued partner," Francis said. "As a commercial travel and activity booking site, we think Hawaii.com will enhance HVCB’s efforts. We both have the same goals: to ensure Hawaii remains the top visitor destination in the world."
Visitors to Hawaii.com will have access to Oahu Publications’ archive of local content generated by its Hawaii newspapers and magazines. The thousands of features, columns, reviews, photos and videos will enable visitors to research and customize their travel to the islands.
"Travelers using Hawaii.com will gain real ‘local’ knowledge about Hawaii," said Dave Kennedy, Oahu Publications chief revenue officer. "Hawaii.com not only offers reliable travel information about hotels, restaurants and attractions, but by accessing feature content from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, our neighbor island newspapers and our growing roster of visitor and lifestyle magazines, travelers are able to get a genuine feel for Hawaii as reported by local writers for local readers."
Hawaii.com has helped local activity businesses.
"Online marketing is playing an ever-increasing role in the leisure activities business, and we’re very excited to be working with Hawaii.com to increase our exposure," said John McCollum, general manager of Umauma Falls Zipline Experience on Hawaii island. "Being a part of this unique online environment has resulted in an uptick in bookings, and we look forward to delivering memorable experiences as we do our part to keep the islands a leading visitor destination."
