Group heading for Japan is diverse
Advertiser Staff
Gov. Linda Lingle will travel with a Hawai'i delegation this weekend to Japan to meet with government and tourism officials, make TV appearances and attempt to improve interest in Hawai'i as a destination for Japanese travelers.
The governor departs on the seven-day, $200,000 trip Saturday, accompanied by several dozen state and county government officials, tourism executives, beauty queens and entertainers. Stops are planned in Tokyo and Osaka.
Lingle plans to meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other government officials, including the mayor of Tokyo, and with key tourism and business officials from Sony Corp., Japan Airlines, and other companies.
The trip is the first official visit to Japan by a Hawai'i governor since Gov. Ben Cayetano went with a business and government group after the Sept. 11 attacks. Japanese tourism has recovered somewhat from its post-Sept. 11 lows, but plunged again in early 2003 because of the war with Iraq and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome fears.
Traveling with Lingle will be her administration's tourism liaison, Marsha Weinert, and communications adviser Lenny Klompus; Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa and Kaua'i Mayor Bryan Baptiste.
Others on the trip include Benjamin Lee, city managing director; Andrew Levin, Hawai'i County executive director; and Robert Lee, the state's adjutant general, who is traveling with the delegation to discuss military issues with the Japanese government.
Tourism executives include Rex Johnson, president of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority; Tony S. Vericella, president of the Hawai'i Visitors & Conventions Bureau; and Kiyoshi Mukumoto, the bureau's vice president for Japan. Also coming are the four executive directors of each county's tourism bureaus; three staff members of the HVCB and the O'ahu Visitors Bureau; and the spouses of three officials.
Justine Michioka, Miss Hawaii USA 2004; Mahealani Kamau, Miss Hawaiian Islands 2002; and retired sumo wrestler Konishiki and his band also will be part of the delegation.
