Tag: Hilo

Merrie Monarch Festival returns, and with it spirit

The Merrie Monarch Festival begins on April 17, 2022. The beloved hula festival was begun in 1963, conceived as an effort to attract visitors to Hawaii Island. It celebrates the legacy of beloved King David Kalakaua, the Merrie Monarch himself, an elected king whose legacy of devotion to arts and culture and to the best […]

Hawaii Must Not Forget This Man

A true Hawaii tourism hero died earlier this month. His name was Richard Wassman Kimi. He did not do a specific heroic thing, but what he did lastingly affected Hawaii tourism. Back in the mid-1950s, Kimi, who lived in Hilo on the Big Island, noticed that the tourists who came to the island arrived on […]