The largest convention in Hawaii this year starts today and it should be a roaring good time for the 20,000 or so people from around the world who are expected to attend.
This is the fourth time that Lions Clubs International is having its annual convention here. Besides seminars and business meetings, it will include a luau Friday at the Honolulu Zoo and a Waikiki parade on Saturday, starting at 9 a.m.
On its website, the group is advising its members, who include about 1,800 in Hawaii, that “Honolulu is paradise,” and that they can “visit a pineapple plantation or macadamia nut farm,” or “step back in time and visit Pearl Harbor’s USS Arizona Memorial and Battleship Missouri and learn about that fateful day on December 7, 1941.”
The conventioneers are expected to generate more than $84 million in total revenue while they’re here. Sounds good to us, and welcome to Hawaii.
Worst in business, best in lifestyles
There are a lot of reasons to cut Hawaii slack whenever the critique of its inhospitable business climate becomes a news item. We have built-in disadvantages, not the least of which is transportation costs.
But we’re 50th, the absolute bottom of the barrel, according to CNBC, which issued its rating this week. Hawaii ranked low for its poor infrastructure, access to capital and cost of doing business. It fails in most of the study’s metrics, save one: quality of life. There, we’re No. 1.
So, life is great, but we have trouble paying for it. Should we laugh, or cry?
