Dana Bilbao-Miller should be packing suitcases for her family’s annual trip to Kona Village Resort and finding respite from the harsh Boise, Idaho, winters.

"We would leave at 5 a.m. in a foot of snow, and by noon we were playing in the ocean. This was our paradise," said Bilbao-Miller, who has wintered at the resort every year since 1999.

When the resort closed on March 11 after a devastating tsunami, the family’s tradition was broken.

The tsunami temporarily closed the neighboring Four Seasons Resort Hualalai and damaged King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. It’s effect on the three hotels cost hundreds of employees their jobs, at least temporarily, and dampened tourism along the Kona-Kohala Coast, a region that accounts for more than 80 percent of Hawaii island’s visitor arrivals. It also caused the island’s average daily hotel rate and its revenue per available room to plummet by 14 percent in April, according to Hospitality Advisors LLC.

Nine months have passed since an earthquake off the coast of Japan sent the waves hurtling across the Pacific Ocean.

While the Four Seasons has reopened, and Kona Beach Hotel has been repaired, the Kona Village is still closed.

To many the Kona Village is a resort unlike any other in Hawaii, and its fans would be dismayed if it isn’t revived. The circa-1965 property was known for its unplugged Polynesian-style, thatched-hut hales that had no door locks or telephones, TV or Wi-Fi. Celebrities often arrived by private plane to vacation at Kona Village because it was the antithesis of the concrete-and-marble mega-resorts that more commonly dot Hawaii’s hotel landscapes.

Patrick Fitzgerald, president and chief executive officer of Kona Village and the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, said it is 99 percent certain that Kona Village will reopen.

"We have the potential to resolve our insurance issues within the next 60 to 90 days and start construction with the hope of finishing by the end of 2013," Fitzgerald said.

While the dated resort will have to comply with county codes, Fitzgerald said it’s his understanding that any structure that was in place before the tsunami could be rebuilt in the same location.

The tsunami is still fresh for Maureen Rubin, a Canadian visitor whose Kona Village vacation was shortened by the natural disaster.

Rubin said she and her husband, Barrie, dubbed the honorary mayor of Kona Village for his enthusiasm over 25 years of vacationing there, were safely evacuated. However, the first glimpse of the resort afterward was horrific, she said.

"They had to repair the staircase to our hale so that we could go inside and get our belongings," Rubin said. "Everything in front of us was ruined. The hale where (the late Apple Inc. co-founder) Steve Jobs had stayed the week before was destroyed."

"I feel awful about what happened in Japan, and I know, in comparison, this is minor, but the emotional trauma and damage to a place that I really love is painful," she said. "I sure hope that Kona Village reopens. A lot of people are waiting to heal."

While Kona Village’s reopening is years away, Kona tourism is getting healthier, said Jack Richards, president and chief executive of Hawaii’s largest wholesaler, Pleasant Holidays LLC.

"Kona business is coming back through November of 2011, and in the first quarter of 2012 they are doing better," Richards said.

King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel and the Four Seasons, which sustained millions of dollars in damage, report that business is more robust than pre-tsunami levels.

"We saw a big uptick due to the economy right after our reopening (on April 30)," said Robert Whitfield, Four Seasons Resort Hualalai general manager.

Year-over-year resort occupancy has improved, Whitfield said on a recent walk at the now serenely beautiful resort.

Four Seasons has added about 65 new jobs beyond its pre-tsunami total, Whitfield said. Some of the new hires were among the 200 Kona Village employees who lost their jobs, he said.

The Four Seasons is entering the first quarter of 2012 with more than 60 percent occupancy on the books, said Brad Packer, Four Seasons Resort Hualalai spokesman.

"This is obviously a nice base that will grow," Packer said.

Four Seasons’ reopening has improved business for Paul Johnston, who owns Kekala Farms and like many other local farmers depends on Kona-Kohala hotels.

"Four Seasons is one of my top three buyers. I grow certain produce for them," Johnston said. "I probably lost $10,000 while they were closed."

The Four Seasons took advantage of the closing to invest an additional $1.5 million in its Palm Grove Pool, the Surf Shack and an oceanfront lawn.

King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel, which had completed a $35 million renovation before the tsunami, also treated the catastrophic event as an opportunity for improvements, said Deanna Isbister, Kona Beach sales director.

"Our luau stage faced town before. Now guests are looking at ocean," she said. "We added a new indoor-outdoor dining area and were able to upgrade to custom carpets."

While other hotels have rebounded, Kona Village’s prolonged shutdown continues to cost the island’s visitor industry.

"When we had to tell people it was closed, most of ours canceled. There is nothing else like it," said Richards from Pleasant Holidays.

"We didn’t want to rebook at another Hawaii hotel. We just want to go back to Kona Village," said Bilbao-Miller from Boise.

Bilboa-Miller’s family will be pleased if Kona Village does reopen in 2013.

It would also be good news for former employees, contractors, farmers and the many fans of the hotel, which next to the long-shuttered Coco Palms on Kauai — a victim of the 1992 Hurricane Iniki — was among the most distinct properties in the state.

"Kona Village Resort was the closest thing to the fantasy that the Hawaii travel board puts out about white sands, palm trees, perfect weather and aloha," said Sacramento-based attorney Bill Partmann, who has visited the resort 12 times.

After the tsunami, Partmann co-founded Save Kona Village, which was part of an effort that raised more than $320,000 to aid the 200 employees that lost their jobs. The group is also strongly lobbying for the resort’s prompt reopening.

Kona Village supporters, more than 2,000 of whom are active on Facebook, say its reopening is vital to the Big Island, whose regional economic recovery across all major sectors — construction, real estate, retail, services, arts and culture — depends on improved tourism. One in 10 residents were struggling to find work when Kona Village closed.

"More than half have not found jobs," Partmann said.

Before the Kona Village’s owners can reopen the resort, they must first reach agreement on tens of millions in damage with their insurer and possibly with the county regarding bringing the property up to code, Partmann said.

"I don’t think that they’ll rebuild until they have the insurance," Partmann said.

While most former guests are confident that majority owners MSD Capital, a company formed by computer magnate Michael Dell, and Rockport Group will support reopening, others worry that Kona Village could become another Coco Palms.

That landmark hotel made famous as the primary setting for Elvis Presley’s "Blue Hawaii" movie has continued to deteriorate in the two decades since Hurricane Iniki expunged it from Kauai’s hotel inventory.

Even if Kona Village is rebuilt, some fear that the resort’s character will change if owners capitulate to the demands of a modern era or fail to bring back the long-time staff, who befriended guests and learned every name, Partmann said.

The value of the oceanfront land under Kona Village as well as its positioning by default within the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai master plan distinguishes it from Coco Palms, whose reopening was complicated because it was built on state-leased land across from the beach in a secondary market, said Joe Toy, Hospitality Advisors’ president and chief executive.

"Classic hotels are hard to replicate," Toy said. "Still, Kona Village will be a great location even if its character changes or they set its waterfront hales back."

No matter what, Bilbao-Miller and her family will return if the resort reopens.

"It’s the most magical place," she said.

Across the stretch of lava rock and powdery sand beach fronting the now-busy Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, the empty Kona Village Resort rises up like the mirage of a long-forgotten paradise.