The O‘ahu Visitors Bureau continues to round out 2003 with a variety of creative marketing strategies and programs.

O‘ahu Destination Specialist Reunion and O‘ahu’s First Royal Retreat

The North America sales team welcomed 48 ODS partners from across the U.S. to the 2nd Annual O‘ahu Destination Specialist Conference during September 12-17, 2003. The focus of this year's conference was aligning the ODS partners destination knowledge and sales skills with the potential of the romance and family market. The conference focused on these two key markets and included educational seminars featuring guest speakers from the various attractions around O‘ahu.

Fourteen of the mainland visitor industry’s top female partners joined OVB in the first "O‘ahu Shopping & Spa Gala" that took place September 9-14, 2003. During the Gala, OVB worked to cement its relationships with these key partners and to recognize them for their outstanding commitment in conjunction with our efforts to marketing O‘ahu.

The ODS partners have been busy participating in eleven Consumer Bridal Shows in Oregon, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and North Carolina. The OVB sales team is gearing up to conduct Level II on-island training of the ODS program for All About Hawaii and Apple Vacations. An estimated 50 agents in conjunction with All About Hawaii will be training on O‘ahu from October 15-20. And 50 agents from the South in conjunction with Apple Vacations will be training on O‘ahu from October 26-31, 2003. In addition to the on-island activities, OVB will be attending ASTA World Congress in Miami from October 21-26, 2003.

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OVB Japan Team Introduces Sony Leplane Project

The OVB Japan team held their OVB “Hui” meeting on September 10, during which OVB recapped the third and fourth quarters, discussed the 2004 marketing plan as it relates to the Dentsu contract, and introduced the SONY Leplane product which is scheduled to launch in December 2003.

On September 17, the OVB’s Japan team held another media gathering, bringing together approximately 40 Japanese media-related contacts and over 20 local vendors at the Hawaii Convention Center. The State and Honolulu film offices presented remarks and updates.

Closing out the month of September the Japan sales is back in Japan on a media blitz targeting 25 key media in the area and has also scheduled a meeting with Dentsu to discuss 2004 activities. Beginning of October, OVB’s Japan team will be attending World Travel Fair in Yokohama and conducting a sales blitz before returning to O‘ahu.

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OVB Supports The Arts and Culture

The OVB continues to support the arts and culture on O‘ahu by partnering with Arts With Aloha (AWA). Together with AWA, OVB brought four writers from the mainland and a couple of local writers who write for mainland publications on an arts and culture press trip from September 21-25, 2003. The writers were exposed to a variety of visual and performing arts on O‘ahu and introduced to the Hawaii Arts Season (HAS). To assist with marketing of HAS, a HTA supported program, the OVB launched a jump page on the www.visit-oahu.com site. Working closely with Tim Bostock, the jump page located in the Culture and Museums section of the OVB web page included information for events for the HAS. The information will be updated regularly.

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OVB works with Gay Australia Guide and the Sunday Times in the U.K.

The OVB Marketing team is assisting with the Gay Australia Guide in their 2004 America Guide Insert focusing on Honolulu and O‘ahu. The circulation of the guide is approximately 65,000 with an additional 6,000 subscribers to The Gay Travel Guides website.

In addition, the OVB marketing team also assisted travel writer Sally Emerson on an assignment for the Sunday Times in the U.K.“Tailor Made Holidays” is a feature to promote Jetsave's new tailor-made program available for vacations to America and Canada. The Sunday Times boasts a circulation of 1.3 million in the U.K.

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