Q. Explain the relationship between the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau and the O'ahu Visitors Bureau.

A. HVCB is what we call our central office. Their job is to market and promote the brand Hawai'i. Under HVCB, you've got island chapters: The Kaua'i Visitors Bureau, O'ahu Visitors Bureau, Maui Visitors Bureau and Big Island Visitors Bureau. We're a full-service visitors bureau, but our job is to market the sub-brand. It's like Procter & Gamble and Tide. But we work together. ... There's sort of a loose formula where about 10 percent (of HVCB's budget) goes to the island chapters. Out of that 10 percent, 30 percent comes to this island. Just a little under 30 goes to Maui; 22 and 18 or something goes to Big Island and Kaua'i respectively. When it really comes down to it, it's not a whole lot of dollars (about $3 million annually for the O'ahu Visitors Bureau). That covers everything. Unlike HVCB, our parent company, which only markets to North America, we market globally. We do market in Japan. We do market in Europe. The island chapters are really the only ones that do this."

Q. How do you market O'ahu to the world on a budget of $3 million?

A. We and the sister visitors bureaus work together, we go to trade shows together. I know other destinations look to us at how we do it and the answer is that we work together.

Q. As we start 2006, what's coming up for you?

A. We want to bring our Web site to a level that we haven't been able to do with limited resources. We're hoping to really build up our Web site to be more of an information resource that will entice prospective consumers to say, 'Hey, I didn't know that. I really need to go there.' We hope our Web site will be more aggressive than it has been. We want to really use the arts and culture to target the arts and culture market because these folks generally have more money, stay a bit longer, really get involved in the community. We work very closely with the arts and culture community on O'ahu. We're always looking for promotional opportunities.

Q. How much emphasis are you putting on trying to market O'ahu as an eco-tourism destination, or as a place where tourists can really see how local people live or generally get outside of Waikiki?

A. Part of our training with (Japanese and Mainland) travel agents is to make a point and stop at the fruit stands on the North Shore. We take them down to Chinatown and I say, 'Here's $5, pull a name and buy somebody a lei.' Ka-ching. That's when the lights go on as to what our destination is all about. They can experience an okazu-ya, because that's who we are. We have them go to Native Books and look at the products that are made here. We have them go to the Hawai'i State Art Museum. Our job is to ensure a nice balance. The Hawaiian value of pono is really important to us. And we want them to know what aloha really means when they're trying to sell O'ahu as a destination. ... When (the romantic-comedy movie) '50 First Dates' came out, we worked with Sony Pictures and we were able to leverage for nearly nothing a tremendous amount of media exposure in the country, by finding partners who would supply sweepstakes packages giveaways through radio stations, TV stations, newspapers. Hilton was a partner and Hawaiian Airlines was a partner. We did it in 12 or 15 cities and the value of that was incredible. We believe that when you do a promotion, you don't just look at what I can get out of it. Sony was ecstatic because they hadn't gotten that much traffic before for a sweepstakes for a romantic comedy.

Q. Over the last couple of years, O'ahu got a lot of buzz from television shows and movies that were being filmed here. Anything in the works that might be a potential partnership for the bureau?

A. I have to be PC here, but there are a couple of movies that are coming out. There was a movie that was partly filmed in the opening here, it's an Owen Wilson movie, 'You, Me and Dupree.' It's about a couple who are getting married and the wedding's here on O'ahu. Then they stay on for the honeymoon and the best man doesn't leave. When they go home, the best man still doesn't leave. It begins here, so if they're open to partnering with us. ... We did some promotions with 'Christmas With the Kranks.' That was not a Hawai'i movie and most people would say, 'That was not a Hawai'i movie so there aren't any opportunities.' It ends up with the family going on a cruise in the Caribbean. To me, it's about a couple trying to get away for the holidays. What do we sell? We sell vacations. I saw it as an opportunity to target all those people in America who are thinking about going away for the holidays. ... In about seven or eight cities, through radio, TV, going through Sony we were able to say, 'The perfect getaway for the holidays is O'ahu, the heart of Hawai'i.' It was a sweepstakes and we managed to get people thinking about our destination to get away for the holidays.

Q. Why would coordinating a promotion for a movie like 'Christmas With The Kranks,' which has no O'ahu connection, fall to the O'ahu Visitors Bureau and not one of the other sister bureaus or to the HVCB?

A. I saw an opportunity. My job and my loyalty are to this destination, this community and the economy of this island. If I didn't take that, nothing may have happened or another destination might have taken it or a cruise line might have taken it and a cruise liner was interested. I saw it as an opportunity to get exposure for our destination and tweak it to say, 'Thinking of a holiday destination? O'ahu is the place to come to.' Would you want me to take that opportunity or let it go? I have to take it.

Q. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, O'ahu benefited from the idea that Hawai'i is an exotic tourist destination within the relative safety of the United States. Does that perception still exist and is O'ahu still benefiting?

A. I think that's very true, not only for Americans but especially for the Japanese. That has helped us tremendously. Some of our other states have been plagued by natural disasters in the meantime that have also helped us. But in people's mind, Hawai'i's still Hawai'i and has allure in people's minds.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.