In partnership with Aloha United Way, HLTA hosted its first annual HLTA AUW Fall Campaign Kick-off event on Tuesday, August 30th at Royal Hawaiian Center's The Royal Grove. Over a hundred industry members and AUW community partners attended the event, which featured live entertainment by Starr Kalahiki and friends, complimentary food and beverages, giveaways, a silent auction and more.

​This year, HLTA and AUW have joined together to partner on fundraising efforts, embodying the theme – "We're All in This Together." Kelly Hoen, General Manager at The Modern Honolulu, and Teri Orton, General Manager of the Hawaii Convention Center, are spearheading the Waikiki efforts of the campaign along with HLTA. The island-wide theme of this year's campaign is #JoinTheMovement.
AUW's mission is to encourage individuals of all walks of life to join together to create hope and change the landscape of our community for the better. AUW focuses on 3 impact areas - education, poverty prevention and safety net, which enables the organization to drive and support significant social change.

The campaign runs through Oct. 9. To Join the Movement, you can visit www.auw.org.

All hands were on deck this weekend as over 20 volunteers from HLTA’s Engineers Advisory Council, allied membership, and various hotel properties dedicated their Saturday morning to install 28 air conditioning units in 14 classrooms at Jefferson Elementary School. In a partnership with Charity Buy Line, a beneficiary of last year’s Charity Walk, HLTA was able to donate and retrofit 32 air conditioning units to beat the heat in Jefferson Elementary School classrooms. The community service initiative was called Project Cool and has been implemented in several phases, with the bulk of the project culminating this past Saturday.
In the first phase of installations, the HLTA volunteers led by Dennis Maher, Director of Facilities and Security at the Trump International Hotel Waikiki, installed four AC units in two classrooms.

Before Project Cool, classrooms in Jefferson Elementary School had reached highs of 87 degrees, so the students were very grateful to learn about HLTA’s generous contribution. When the volunteers arrived on Saturday morning, they found an AC box in one of the classrooms with several thank-you notes posted to it by the students! 
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"Projects such as this remind us how important it is for our visitor industry to give back to our youth and community,” said HLTA President & CEO Mufi Hannemann. “We are so grateful to all of our members, especially our Engineers Advisory Council, for their time and kokua with this project because it helps to make our islands a better place...After all, we’re all in this together!"

​On Friday, August 26, HLTA and IUCN recognized 22 hotels for their stellar sustainable efforts and pledge, in the words of HLTA President Mufi Hannemann, to practice "Green with Aloha" beyond the IUCN World Conservation Congress. The IUCN and the Department of Business and Economic Development created the Green Hotels Initiative in partnership with HLTA, the Hawaii State Energy Office, Hawaii Green Business Program, Kupu, HTA and Hawaiian Airlines Foundation. The initiative originated to support Hawaii’s hotels in meeting sustainability best practices and prepare the hotels in the WCC hotel room block, and was implemented by a three-level program to certify and recognize green practices in hotels. HLTA and IUCN recognized the 22 hotels that met one of the three levels in a brief ceremony at the HLTA office.
 
All 22 properties that were awarded completed a checklist of Hawaii Green Business Program’s ten entry-level green actions. These actions addressed sustainability categories including energy conservation, water conservation, solid waste reduction and recycling, and pollution prevention. Hotels that went a step beyond the green action checklist earned the level 2 Koki’ O’ ‘Ula recognition, or for those who went the extra mile, the level 3 Ma’o Hau Hele recognition. Achieving the highest level in the Green Hotels Initiative was the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, which was recognized as a Leader in Sustainability.
 
Congratulations to the following properties on earning their green certificate!
 
1.            Ala Moana Hotel
2.            Aqua Pacific Monarch
3.            Aqua Palms Hawaii
4.            Courtyard by Marriott Waikiki Beach
5.            Double Tree Alana Waikiki
6.            The Equus Hotel
7.            Ewa Hotel Waikiki
8.            Hawai‘i Prince Hotel Waikiki
9.            Hilton Hawaiian Village
10.          Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber Resort
11.          Luana Waikiki
12.          Pagoda Hotel
13.          Ohana Waikiki East
14.          Ohana Waikiki Malia
15.          Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach
16.          Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort
17.          The Royal Hawaiian
18.          Ramada Plaza Waikiki
19.          Sheraton Princess Kaiulani
20.          Sheraton Waikiki Hotel
21.          Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort
22.          White Sands Hotel

On Tuesday, August 16, HLTA's Oahu Chapter held an educational event on protecting our industry through tourism security with several speakers representing various government agencies. The speakers included Officer Shellen Ozaki from the Honolulu Police Department; Supervisory Special Agent Ryan Noonan from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Special Agent Marcus Ivey of the U.S. Secret Service, and Field Intelligence Officer Darrick White of TSA Homeland Security. The presentation was aimed to raise awareness and understanding of the potential threat of terrorism in our precious island state, and of how information is shared among those whose duty is to protect our homeland. It seems like every day there is a new act of terror somewhere in the world but when tragedy occurs in our homeland (i.e. Orlando), it hits home that we can never take our safety for granted. Recent tragedies and important upcoming events like the IUCN World Conservation Congress, which is to be attended by numerous heads of states and top leaders from various countries, remind us the importance of knowing how we can participate in protecting ourselves, fellow citizens, and our island’s tourism industry.  

It was a record-breaking year for HLTA’s 17th annual Scholarship Golf Tournament, held on Thursday, August 11 at the Hawaii Prince Golf Course. The tournament raised the most money and had the highest number of participants in HLTA history. 72 teams golfed on Hawaii Prince’s three courses raising over $60,000 to support HLTA scholarships and educational programs. Following a fun-filled day of golf and camaraderie, the banquet commenced with student speakers Adrienne Ishizu, a 2015 KCC Culinary Arts Scholarship Recipient, and HPU Hospitality and Tourism major, Miriam Rose Harrison, a 2015 Bob Holden recipient who chided and cheered the golfers, all in good humor, as they each expressed their appreciation and shared their stories of how being a scholarship recipient positively impacted their academic journey.   Mahalo to the HLTA Golf Committee, HLTA members, the Hawaii Prince Golf Club and the many sponsors and volunteers for making a difference in the lives of  our future industry leaders!

Mahalo to all those that were able to join us this week as we held our second Hospitality Industry Pau Hana (HIP) at Sky Waikiki!  HIP is our way of expressing our gratitude to our hard working hospitality employees in an atmosphere of fun and fellowship.  It also gives us an opportunity to highlight a stand-out individual from the world of tourism with our Kahiau Award (selfless generosity).  This month's recipient was Troy Hiura from the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, who is known for sharing his special brand of aloha with all those that he comes in contact with.  Thank you Troy for your 15 years of dedication to the visitor industry!

We hope you had a great time and can't wait to see you at our next event on Wednesday, September, 7! Remember, HIP will be held every first Wednesday of the month. Early birds can already register for the September HIP event here.