Hummer tour of movie and TV sets at Kualoa Ranch.

A surf school run by off-duty firefighters.

An eco-friendly boat tour business that specializes in whale, dolphin and turtle spotting and snorkeling with care.

While Hawai'i tourism overall bears the brunt of double-digit declines in visitors vacationing here, these three companies are among a number of smaller visitor-oriented businesses that have thrived by finding a niche that visitors value and catering to it.

In five years, Ed Kos has grown his Hummer tour business from one vehicle to three; from a solo business to himself plus two regular full-time drivers. He specializes in off-road tours of Windward O'ahu's Kualoa Ranch that focus on movie sets and the hit television series "Lost."

While larger companies need a higher volume of visitors to meet their monthly expenses, Kos' tours take up to four adults and two children on either half-day or longer treks. "I only need 16 people a day for my business plan to succeed," he said.

So far, it's working. "In November, we doubled the previous November," Kos said. And even with gas prices hitting hard earlier this year, he said he's done better with each year.

Kos, 45, gets some referrals from hotels and other people he's worked with in the past but most of his work comes through the Internet, he said.

His tours attract movie fans, people who just want "off the beaten path," and many fans of "Lost."

He smiles appreciatively, standing in a meadow deep in Kualoa Ranch better known to the show's fans as Hurley's Golf Course.

" 'Lost' has like a cult following," Kos said. "It's huge internationally."

Arizona honeymooners Chris and Emily Kelly signed up for a Hummer tour, guided by Jeff Bush, after finding the company on the Internet and making some calls. "We're hooked on the show," Chris said.

Both enjoyed the chance to see the natural setting for many of the shows. "It's just really beautiful here; I'm just enjoying that as much," Emily said.

Chris said he had called another company and asked if they'd go to The Beach, a key location in the show. "When she said, 'Well, we go by a lot of beaches but don't swim there,' (he concluded) she's never seen the show; she doesn't know what she's talking about."

He works for a rental car company and she manages a doctor's office — both firmly middle-class and mid-20s — but they both thought the $129 each for a five-hour tour was well worth the price.

"We had to learn how to surf, we had to go scuba diving or snorkeling and we had to go on a 'Lost' tour," he said.

Kos said he's seeing many more European visitors and Australian customers as their currency strengthened. "To them, going on my tour is cheap."

Kos served 21 years in the Marine Corps working in aviation maintenance. When he retired, he wanted to find something interesting and stay in Hawai'i.

He first got to know Kualoa Ranch by playing a movie extra in the film "Windtalkers." After exploring a few options in adventure tourism, he settled on the Hummers and worked out an agreement with the ranch's John Morgan.

"I work harder now than I ever have in my life," Kos said, as he drove the Hummer through some large puddles and small ruts that pass for roads. "But it's a fun industry. It's not like going to work and sitting in a cubicle."

WHAT VISITORS WANT

At Hawai'i Tourism Authority, David Uchiyama serves as marketing chief, tracking trends large and small and working to nurture the industry.

Uchiyama said businesses that survive in this tough environment connect with visitors looking for a special Hawai'i vacation, different from what they'd find in any other warm-weather destination.

"They're looking for things that are truly Hawaiian. They're looking for things that are new that people haven't experienced before," he said.

Hawai'i gets a large percentage of return visitors and hotel guests who become annual visitors when they buy into time-share developments.

"They've done the lu'aus; they've gone to the Arizona Memorial; they've circled the island," Uchiyama said.

And sometimes they find that through a tour that connects and sometimes by getting involved in the community, seeing how local folks live.

Uchiyama points to an unlikely link to tourism. Kaua'i's Hanalei community center hosts kanikapila Fridays, weekly jam sessions with music and dance by residents. Though it's a community event, visitors are welcome to stop by and listen.

Uchiyama said many do and then write that that was the best part of their vacation.

SURF BUSINESS ON FIRE

Across the island, Hawaiian Fire is another small company thriving with personalized attention for visitors.

Hawaiian Fire got started in 1999 as a surf school with off-duty firefighters John Pregil, Kevin Miller and a third partner who got out later.

"We've probably taken about 50,000 people in the water," Pregil said.

Pregil, now a fire captain with 19 years with the Honolulu Fire Department, said the company first ran with firefighters who shared days off and his wife answering a cell phone steering customers to the times they were available.

"As we got busier, we started to hire office and beach staff and were able to expand the number of days running the tour," Pregil said.

Now, the company has five full-time staff and about 20 firefighters working part time for the company, helping teach. And the company is expanding with a retail store at the Campbell Avenue office in Kapahulu.

"When we're at the station, we're full-time firefighters and when we're not, we run Hawaiian Fire," Pregil said.

The company picks up visitors from Waikiki and drives them out to Kalaeloa for lessons down the beach from White Plains near the campgrounds.

They realized there was a market for fun but straightforward surfing lessons, he said. They found that their work emphasis on "trust, integrity, service" inspired confidence from visitors looking for an adventure that was still safe, something different from the old-fashioned reputation of laid-back beach boys offering surf lessons and chair rentals.

"It was slow-going at first," Pregil said. "We think we've carved a pretty nice niche for ourselves. But we know that we are fortunate. Anything can happen."

Like Kos, Hawaiian Fire gets most of its business from the Web and lots of referrals from Tripadvisor.com, where visitors can write their own review of their vacation experience.

"We've been the No. 1-ranked attraction in Honolulu for the last 6 months — of 157 attractions," Pregil said. "We've got about 80-something reviews."

In July, Pregil said the school counted more than a thousand students for the first time.

They hold the number in a van to 14 with a three-to-one student-teacher ratio for the $99 group lesson and $179 for adult private lessons, $129 for children.

"We run pretty much two tours a day," he said. "We're pretty much at the level that we don't want to grow any more."

ON THE WILD SIDE

Tori Cullins and her husband, Armin, run Wild Side Specialty Tours, a Wai'anae-based business offering boat tours that feature whale watching, dolphin encounters, and snorkeling with turtles tours.

Tori holds a degree in marine biology and environmental sciences. "Everybody on board has degrees in marine biology," she said.

The couple has sailed the Hawaiian Islands, the South Pacific and the West Coast of North America. They started the business in 1996 as a way to share their passion for sailing, marine mammal research and the natural beauty and culture of the Islands.

Like the other two companies, Wild Side charges more than $105 or $159 a person for their tours and also depends on lots of Internet reviews.

Cullins said it began with them charging enough to cover the gas, then slowly developing into what's now a successful niche business.

"It's pretty much word-of-mouth. We try to keep our overhead as low as possible," she said.

Cullins said their annual income is still increasing every year, but they laid off their office staff last year as business slowed.

"We started feeling the downturn back before everyone was talking about recession," she said.

Cullins said they rely on smaller groups and their Web site also focuses on the quality, not quantity: "Rare, remote, with purpose, and meaning. Warning — potentially life-changing. Certainly life-affirming."

They've toured on sailboats and, more recently, a 34-foot power catamaran. "We've been sailors for so long. You know, the pleasure is in the journey."

Cullins said they often focus on the spinner dolphins, which are active in the morning and resting in the afternoon.

"We do some afternoon whale-watching," she said. And more recently, they've done some celestial navigation, star gazing and meteor-shower watching

She said the tours often track what's going on in the community or the environment. "We're always very flexible."

With the evening cruises, "what people are really struck by is 'I haven't seen the Milky Way since I was 5 years old,' " she said.

Cullins thinks she and the other small but successful ventures are very involved in day-to-day operations. "The owners are hands-on. I think that makes a huge difference," she said.

After years of sailing and research, she and her husband came up with the idea while they were out on the water with very little wind and a half-full bottle of water, brainstorming about a way to pay for their passions.

It occurred to them: "We live in Hawai'i. What are we complaining about? Hey, maybe other people would pay to do this."