12,000 Sign Up For Package Trip To Neighbor Islands

WAILUKU, Maui, June 1 » Low-cost package tours from the West Coast to the Neighbor Islands have proved so popular that businessmen handling them expect to more than double the number of tourists between August 31 and November 23.

More than 12,000 firm bookings have been made for 1961 and 1962, they have announced.

The stepped-up schedule of Ken Alford’s Universal Tours of Los Ange- les was announced today by Norman Hondo, Maui Palms Hotel manager, and Ernest Paschoal, owner of Paschoal’s Gray Line motor tours.

The 15-day tours cost $345 and include just about everything for travel from Los Angeles to Maui, the Big Island, Honolulu and back to California.

The tours have given an economic boost to Maui and the Big Island, which now have a steady flow of tourists arriving each week on a planned schedule.

The tours were established in March and since then have brought a planeload of 88 persons every Saturday to the Valley Isle.

The original tours bring in the 88 passengers Saturday mornings on direct Los Angeles-to-Maui World Airways DC-6B flights. They are the result of two years of planning by Alford and Paschoal.

The tours leave Maui Sunday nights for six days at Kona and Hilo on the Big Island and the visitors then spend the rest of the time at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel in Honolulu.

The new additional schedule calls for 99 passengers in World Airways Super Constellations to arrive in Honolulu Thursdays, starting August 31.

The new tours will go from Honolulu to the Big Island, winding up on Maui for a two-night, three-day stay.

When the 99-passenger tours are launched, Hondo plans Saturday night luaus with entertainment by Emma Sharpe’s troupe at the Maui Palms, to entertain both the arriving 88-passenger and the departing 99-passenger groups.

The 99-passenger tours will depart from Kahului Airport by Super Constellations direct for Los Angeles at 10:30 p.m. Satur- days, starting Sept. 2.

Plans are being worked on by Fred Ward, Maui H.V.B. chairman, to provide leis for the Mainland departures and a band to be on hand to help bid an airport aloha.