On the Scene with Paul Diller, Hawaii visitor-industry marketing consultant

Paul Diller was a successful entrepreneur when he moved to Hawaii in 1974. Born and raised in San Francisco, Diller had graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, enlisted in the army and returned to civilian life looking for something he could do to make a living in the city. In 1961 Diller and a friend started a nightclub tour business. They did so well they were bought out by a much larger company and then contracted back to operate it.

In 1974, one of Diller’s clients asked him if he could do the same thing in Waikiki. Diller said he could, and he did. He looked at the movers and shakers in the tour industry on Oahu, and decided that he wanted to be just like them — but bigger.

In the years that followed Diller built and sold several successful businesses. Along the way he partnered with Roy Tokujo. The two men brought new ideas to the visitor industry. Diller and Tokujo took the basic Waikiki “tourist luau” to a beach on Campbell Estate land at Ko Olina. They foresaw the boom in Asian tourism and put Japanese American illusionist John Hirokawa in the Hilton Hawaii Village Dome.

Forty-six years after he founded his first local company, Diller, 82, is a visitor-industry marketing consultant.

How did you get started here?

We worked very hard, seven days a week, operating the business, Holiday Tours of Hawaii, greeting people at the airport with leis, hosting them and bringing them to the hotels, and giving a briefing the next day about the tours. Doing the briefings is what got me into the briefing business, and I got pretty good at it. I sold the company in 1982 and started a company called ­Hawaii Paradise — it was just me doing briefings every morning. The (tour) companies would ask me to do briefings for them and before long I was briefing 1,000 people a day in the Hilton Dome. That’s when I met Roy Tokujo. He had a keen eye for the future.

How did you go from doing briefings to creating the Paradise Cove Luau?

We discussed going into the luau business. When tourists think about Hawaii they think about beaches, palm trees, surfing and people doing hula on the beach. At the time Chuck Machado had a luau, and the Royal Hawaiian had a luau, but we found a horseshoe-shaped beach which is now called Ko Olina. At the time there were no buildings, nothing, and we were able to secure the lease. Roy was the operator, and before long we were doing 1,000 people a night.

I remember people saying you guys were crazy to put John Hirokawa in the dome: “Who comes to Hawaii to see magic?” You certainly answered that question!

We wanted to branch out after we sold the luau. From the briefings we had the bodies to go — whether it was Nephi Hannemann or Dick Jensen or Iva Kinimaka or the Surfers or Don Ho, we had bodies. Roy thought (magic) would be a good idea, and I agreed, but it couldn’t be “just magic” because (visitors) could see magic in Vegas or in Florida. We built a nice ­Hawaiian show — “Magic of Polynesia” — hula dancers, and that fake volcano, and John Hirokawa. John was very good with the illusions and very good with the people, and it was a huge success. We sold the show to Roberts (Hawaii) and now it is at the Waikiki Beachcomber.

A lot of people look back at the 1970s as a “golden age” in Waikiki entertainment. How do you remember it?

The tourists loved Dick Jensen, and they loved Don Ho. Don Ho always had great dancers and great showmanship. He was a master entertainer. And Dick Jensen, who could do the splits and jump up and down, was a fabulous entertainer. Nephi Hannemann was a very good entertainer, and Iva had a sweet voice. All of them were different, but they knew how to get a lot of Hawaiiana into their shows, and all of them the tourists loved.

Is there something you miss?

Parking my car (in Waikiki) and walking down and seeing tutu wahines strumming a ukulele, weaving a lei, weaving a coconut hat and selling them as vendors on the street, and then having some shows on little stages where the Royal Hawaiian (shopping center) is now, and the stores selling surfboards and Hawaiian clothing. The old International Market Place had a great flavor. Tourists could walk through it and there were coconut trees and banyan trees and local vendors selling dolls and ukuleles. Now it’s a beautiful facility, but it’s lost its Hawaiian charm.

What was the “secret” to your success in the visitor ­industry — in addition to hard work?

The ability to see what the visitor would enjoy, and things that the tourist could identify with, through either television or movies or Elvis. That’s what we were selling — what they wanted.

Is there something about you that might surprise people?

I’ve spoken to over three-quarters of a million people in briefings.