A group of 30 Hawai'i tourism and trade specialists are heading for New York City and Los Angeles this week to promote Waikiki and recent improvements at the beachfront resort.

On Thursday, the group hosts a reception at Condé Nast magazine headquarters in New York for travel industry professionals representing wholesalers, national travel agencies, airlines, convention meetings and incentive planners, and travel media.

The message is that Waikiki is worth revisiting as more than $1 billion worth of renovations take shape. Mayor Mufi Hannemann will join the group in New York.

The road show will include musical entertainment by Jake Shimabukuro, 3 Scoops of Aloha, and Waikiki Nei as well as a new Cirque du Soleil-style show being introduced at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. Cultural adviser Ramsey Taum will talk about Waikiki's historical and cultural significance to the Native Hawaiians.

Chef Alan Wong will prepare local-style appetizers, while Ala Moana Center, Louis Vuitton, Mana Hawaii, Tori Richard and Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center will offer up contemporary fashion styles.

Jay Talwar, senior vice president of marketing for the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau, said the bureau is working cooperatively with its industry partners to meet travel editors and journalists throughout the week targeting some of the most influential.

Talwar said this is part of a multiyear marketing campaign to promote Waikiki.

Hannemann said that Waikiki is regaining its travel destination status with all the renovations. "If anyone hasn't been to Waikiki recently, it's time to come back," he said.

On April 24, the group will host a similar reception to promote Waikiki for key travel trade professionals and media in Southern California at The Peninsula Beverly Hills.

Waikiki's renewal is also the central theme for the upcoming Society of American Travel Writers' Western Chapter conference being held in Waikiki this June.