 Good afternoon and happy new year. This is the first show of this series, Business in Hawaii. And it's the year of the wild boar. But today we're going to be stimulated, excited, always looking for new business ideas, entrepreneurship and how small business people really create, really value in the economy and bring forth innovation for the people and community of Hawaii and globally, how to spread that around. And today, as your host, Ray Tuchiyama, we have a guest, Andrew Lockwood, he is CEO and president of Pacific Islands Institute with quite an innovative business model in travel. And it's more than just travel, and it encompasses education, it encompasses really getting into the trenches and interacting with people, cultures in a community all around the Pacific region and more. Welcome to the show, Andrew. Thank you. Now, you're the head of a company that actually is a family business or inter-generation. Tell me who started it. OK. Our company is called Pacific Islands Institute. We're a tour operator based in Kaimuki. I was founded by my mother, Diana Lockwood, back in 1989. And when she started this company, Tours and Tourism, but she must have had a different vision or kind of, what makes your company unique? There are tour companies that do tours for people who want to see new places and things and cultures. What is it so unique about your company, Pacific Islands Institute? So our company is designed to allow people to experience a deeper experience of the places that they visit. It's not for people that are coming for just kind of what I call sunburn and Mai Tai tourism, but people that really want to engage with the culture, with the environment and are usually traveling with a purpose. So we customize tours around that purpose. And when you say customization, you have a request for such a tour and you talk to the people, engage with the tour attendees first, or do you propose that this is a tour that you should take and kind of shape it? What does that process look like? So actually most of our clients are organizations. So we work with a lot of non-profit organizations that have educational missions that they want to extend by traveling into the Pacific. We specialize throughout Oceania, Polynesia, Milanese, Micronesia, etc. And so when they want to come into our area or are looking for ideas from our part of the world, we propose to them, we collaborate with that organization to find something that will be meaningful to them and make sense to do in our part of the world. Well why don't we begin with the backdrop? This backdrop is a really exciting place. What does this kind of tell the viewers out there what your company is about by looking at this? Well this is kind of a multi-layered photo. This is from the island of Ofu in American Samoa in a difficult to reach part of Samoa called the Manua group. And we're looking towards the island of Olo-Singha, that's what you see behind my head. And the reef in the foreground is part of a reef flat that's actually part of American Samoa National Park. So this photo was taken as part of one of our programs that we do for the National Parks Conservation Association where they take their members to various national parks. That's great. Can we have the first photo please, Rich? And this is an organization, where did this organization come from and how did they shape this experience with you? Okay, terrific. So what you see here is a group of students from, I believe it's the University of Arizona and in particular their Asia Pacific American Student Services organization with inclusion of people from their Native American Student Affairs. So what we're doing here is we're visiting a fish pond, Heia fish pond on Oahu to be specific. And as you can see they're learning from one of the caretakers of the pond about the history of the place and the concept behind Hawaiian use of fish ponds. Now before they came here did they study at all about Hawaiian history or fish ponds in general or specific ones? You know honestly I think that's a nut that we're still trying to crack a little better. They're discussing I think more broadly Native cultures back at the University and they really get their whole experience in depth when they arrive. And regarding how did they come to have this particular program, the goal of this program that they're participating on, it's a five night program, would be longer but students only have so much money. And they're experiencing Hawaiian culture through service. So they actually here are learning about the pond but they also worked at the pond. We met through our friend Professor Buckley, Patrick Buckley at the University of Bellingham, Western Washington where I'm a alum and I advise the group. And he takes about 10 students here and gives them a very in depth, in the trenches kind of immersion in Hawaii society, politics, economics, all kinds of issues but they do study before coming here and they do some post trip analysis and papers and so forth. So it is a whole course but it includes travel. So why don't we have the next one up. Okay, so here we have a family program so it's designed for people, these are clients are primarily from North America. It's designed for grandparents, the parent generation and the kid generation through one of our clients called Rhodes Scholar which is a lifelong learning organization that focuses on people that are typically 40 plus. And so here we are actually doing a make your own laulau as part of an experience that also included time in the lo'i and hula in more of kind of a backyard setting. And these are like three generations at once. Three generations, yes, traveling together, learning together. This is quite interesting because I can see even for tourists from Japan or Korea or Taiwan or many places in Asia Pacific would want to do this kind of, kind of not like you say a sun and surf relaxation vacation but to learn something new and be immersed in it. Now how do you find these places or do you have long relationships with groups that would host these groups when they come here? Yes, well we've been around for 30 years so we do have a lot of relationships that are 20 years plus and some frankly that predate our organization because my mother did similar things for 10 years prior to founding Pacific Islands Institute. And basically we just networked for the community. We ourselves in our head office do not have the expertise to do you know to demonstrate these things in most cases but our expertise is in knowing people that know these places and in having the core mission to do it in as beneficial a way as possible so that not only the visitors benefit but also the community benefits. Okay, well next photo please. Oh this looks and where is this? Yes, this is in Tahiti. I won't have a lot to say about this one but I will say that this is the University of Southern California that was doing a similar thing to what we do here in Hawaii where they were exploring Tahitian culture through service, yeah, through service. When you say service they're going to all kinds of sites, cultural sites and what do they do that's meaningful. Okay, so they did a variety of different things. One of the things they did was up in a historic, fantastically beautiful Papina O Valley in the middle of the Tahiti Nui portion of Tahiti. They helped pull Maikonia. They also helped tend some of the Iqalo or the taro terraces there including the one that was planted at the beginning of Malama Honua for the Hokulea Voyagers and that they you know they revisited Tahiti and were able to harvest on their way back. Another thing that they did it was around the New Year's timeframe. They participated in helping serve a local community, 200 people that were economically disadvantaged. There's an organization there that basically does in Hawaii what we would call like an imu down there on Ma'at Tahiti and they just help prepare and serve the food. You're coming up with a lot of Hawaiian historical cultural culinary terms and many of your destinations involve Pacific Islands which are in the group of Polynesia or Tonga and Osama and so forth. Does your upbringing and the fact that your organization institute is in beautiful Kaimuki in Honolulu and have a sense of Pacific Island and Polynesian culture does it help you and give you more leverage when you talk to these groups from the outside, outside of the meeting from the mainland or anywhere else, outside of Hawaii that are seeking these experiences? That's an interesting question. I think honestly most of the people that we work with outside Hawaii are not really knowledgeable enough to be able to make a decision based on the way we talk and communicate with them on how much we know what we know but it helps us when we're dealing with the communities because we do have an Oceania wide perspective. We can talk about, there are still certainly new places that we go to within the Oceania area although we've been to pretty much every place that there's regular plane service. There are always new opportunities there and we're not in every place every day or sometimes even every year but I think it does help when we work with community members for them to understand that our mission and our approach and our knowledge of the area is on firm footing, at least at our level. Again, the experts come from the communities. But when you go down to Tahiti or Samoa Tonga, there's a sense of feminine hierarchy that you say you're from Hawaii and therefore you know you may not be an expert in their cultures but you're grounded in Polynesia. We are of the Pacific, of the Pacific in many ways and really enjoy a lot of things that are culturally historically out there. But it's interesting to note that many of your organizations come from the mainland, from outside of Hawaii and they use you as a conduit, as a liaison, as a kind of middle person to really fulfill their objectives in travel and culture. Do you have or do you want more people from Hawaii and organizations to do this as well and go out to see our cousins in Rapa Nui or Tahiti or Samoa Tonga? Yes, I would love that. I have to say myself, I first went down to Fiji Tonga in Samoa on a three-week program that we were running for one of our clients and this was in 1998-91 and I came back from that experience having learned a lot about Hawaii and that was not something that I expected. But by being down there and seeing people where the language is strong and alive and well and seeing village-based communities and everything that that that means, learning about their history and their culture gave me a lot of perspective to reflect back upon Hawaii and I and I came back wanting to share specifically Hawaii's youth to share that experience with them. Let's hold that thought and explore it even further after we take this exciting break. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. It's choose to treat it with the help of a physical therapist. Physical therapists treat pain through movement and exercise. No warning labels required and you get to actively participate in your care. Choose to improve your health without the risks of opioids. Choose physical therapy. Welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough where we motivate, educate, empower and inspire all women. We are live here every other Thursday at 4 p.m. and we welcome you to join us here at Sister Power. Aloha and thank you. Welcome back to our exciting show and we had this great statement and analysis by Andrew just before taking a break on the experiences he had when he went off to our cousins in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and other places and came back to Hawaii with new insights about Hawaii. What could have been or how Hawaii could have preserved or sustained some things and in society and culture environment but also other things that maybe other islands could learn as well from Hawaii and in terms of what we have and share and kind of cross I guess pollinate or have discussions on how Hawaii evolved and developed through the years. And so we go back isn't that will be a really exciting area to explore if people in Hawaii were motivated to take these trips and what you know this is a platform for you to really you know promote your business model but at the same time it's an educational model at the same time it's a political, social, cultural, it's an all-encompassing model that you go beyond just you know going there and looking at things but really deal with what you just said the experts in the community and they may have something that may have a great impact or a positive on Hawaii itself. What do you feel is lacking? What do you have to do you know to get this out there into the community? Oh well some of these are just basic business challenges that any business would face. For us it's that for the first 20 years of our existence we were basically just continuing to serve our existing client base picking up some additional ones by word of mouth but not putting any real effort into trying to to offer what we do more widely. About 10 years ago my wife Karen and I we owned the company together we decided that you know things were fine but that our community benefit that which is one of the driving forces behind what we do was going to be limited at a certain level unless we invested some money in trying to do more marketing and sales and we could bring it to another level in which case the communities would benefit more and there's a variety of other benefits as well. So frankly I think it's just we're lucky and that we're so busy that we're not growing the company more but at the same time we are taking steps to to try to do that so that we can meet our community benefit goal as well as work with more interesting people in places. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to continually meet new people and learn about new places and have a strong desire to want to work with them but to be limited by just not having enough clients so. Well you go back to like I just said earlier in the program about Asia Pacific tourists from Japan or Taiwan or Korea and other places or you know Australia New Zealand to Hawaii and there must be a strong desire to experience Hawaii at another level in the community that's number one and if it's all possible to raise you know the amount of spending per person so you don't have mass tourism and have less impacting less affecting the environment and also that we that other places also have promoted in Costa Rica and other countries sustainable eco tourism to really protect the environment but really give focused tours and I would say that this seems to be a great idea the HTA should think about what if HTA was sitting right here what would you say to them that's a great and politically charged question thanks for that okay I would just say that it is challenging I mean you know in Hawaii we deal with issues of community you know that we have communities on Oahu for example that that are basically trying to close beaches and close places to like Lonikai like Lonikai for example why Manalo or Halewa Bay was already restricted exactly been restricted for a while I used to go there camping when I was a kid so over tourism is a very very important issue that not just Hawaii but a lot of places are dealing with on the news just recently was Naples well Venice Venice thank you very big yes and short also in Japan right you're right and in fact they should look at Hawaii for as as we should be the leaders in trying to you know sustainable tourism yes because of you know 10 11 million visitors a year what kind of impact is that on the islands yeah and I will freely acknowledge that what we do is a very boutique kind of product we would face issues of scale for example if we take somebody to the national park Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with a volcanologist you can't have a volcanologist every single day of the year periodically you can there's a huge amount of planning and logistics to get to a tour that's what you're saying and the kind of experts that we employ have regular jobs right I mean we just we're in the visitor industry but but we pull from all industries and nonprofits etc schools to provide expert speakers as well as our group leaders that accompany people and and you can't do that every day so balancing that is very tricky is it is a big next next photo please if there's one out there still okay what's oh this is well here we are we're actually we're actually back on Ophu and this is just showing you know here's our people having a kind of grassroots umu experience the above ground oven versus the imu we have here in Hawaii in grounds and you can see that the Pakao America Samoa American Samoa National Park and they were participating they had the opportunity to participate from the beginning the heating of the rocks all the way through the cooking and of course the dining and in the back you can see somebody scraping coconut either that or his cleaning colo my eyes are not as good as they used to be but you know when you look at this it's familiar but different all right from a Hawaii perspective absolutely we do these things but it's different yeah okay next one please oh okay and here's another university group actually in the lo'i um and they are probably helping weed here okay so is this the uh last one or do we have any i think we have a couple more okay last one here one more that's wonderful oh okay so here's one of our adult groups lest you think we only do student groups um and of course they're on Rapa Nui um the man on the front left with the white hat is famous Rapa Nui archaeologist Sergio Rappu who also has Ohana here in Hawaii they split time um and this is one of our groups that is uh just learning from the best about the traditions of Rapa Nui um and and on this particular program they spend um six days or or more there whereas at least in the past and still to some degree in the present um Rapa Nui is often viewed as a three-day stay uh Easter Island Rapa Nui yeah but um but to get in the kind of depth that that we want to get into not just been there done that take a picture but actually learn about the people that created this and and about their society and economy and everything as a whole we spend more time and what is your favorite place I have many favorite places okay it depends what you're looking for uh Rapa Nui I love Rapa Nui for its very tangible sense of mana you know the Hawaiian spiritual power uh and the accessibility of so many fascinating sites I love Papua Nuggini for the feeling of stepping back in time and going to a place that's incredibly culturally and ecologically diverse and then I love the Cook Islands for a classic uh just relax small scale spectacularly beautiful very friendly people but every place we go to I love for some reason so there they're you know one of the things we run into is people think the Pacific Islands are all kind of the same but of course we know living in Hawaii that they're all quite different but when but when you say we know you're making an assumption here I've never been to Samoa I've never been to Tonga I've never been to Rapa Nui I've never been to Tahiti okay I mean you know for a lot of people in Oahu the next stop after Diamond Head is San Francisco that's fair or Vegas on the direct flight or Vegas you know Clark County so uh you're you're right that um we should be part of this you know Pacific community I mean our ancestors came here from other islands to populate Hawaii Hawaii Nui but but there is that interest motivation really to study or really wrap your hands uh you know arms around other close close cultures much closer than yeah Arkansas or Montana they're much closer to us in many ways you're quite right I I think it is a a growing perception of being part of the of the Pacific community um but let's just say there's a lot of opportunity to continue to uh to do more growth in that area well that's that's terrific you know and how about for people in Hawaii are the things that we are missing that are in our backyard oh my gosh yes I have to say I feel very blessed to live in Hawaii of course among my favorite places Hawaii I'm not trying to live anywhere else Hawaii is awesome um Hawaii is such a rich place there's so much going on we get hints of it we hear about it we see it on tv we maybe read about it in a paper or something but there's an incredible amount I feel very lucky to be in the business I'm in because my day-to-day job is is learning about these different places of a person that seems you know that more people should be aware of and out there in in music or who love or culturally oh of a person oh that's too difficult there we let's just say we are we are rich in fascinating people in Hawaii uh doing fascinating things and so um you know read the Hanoho magazine I'll give them a plug I think they do a great job actually our neighbor in Kaimuki but but but I think they do a wonderful job for giving a taste of the things that are out there that's a good plug for my friend Chris Pierce is the publisher I've always published in that magazine several times uh so we're coming to the end and I think you know there's tantalizing bits in here that people should in Hawaii should think more of and that we could be doing a lot more in like you say intergenerational travel of course young people exploring on their own and coming to some great insights as part of as you say service oriented travel older people with a little more time on their hands could come back and see you know just say Rapa Nui or some really interesting fascinating slices of history and and and society so I think it really is a should be scaled up in many ways and and this is a model I think that could be of great interest in the future and how to make tourism much more sustainable in in in in many many ways and thank you for being on the show pleasure and we will have another show soon and this is a series for 2019 business in Hawaii I'm your host Retsu Chiyama thank you very much