 Good afternoon and Aloha Kako from the community out there watching us today on ThinkTech Global Connectors. I'm your host Ray Tsuchiyama. And to my left is Russell Liu, my partner in this exciting show. And we're gonna take a look at the whole world of airports. And this is something that Russell and I have great experience in since we've traveled all of the world. Myself, I lived 20 years in Tokyo and had business operations in greater China, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Russia, Latin America, all over to Russia and Turkey and beyond. And of course Russell has lived 13 years in Beijing as an attorney and an instructor and has many experiences traveling within Asia Pacific and beyond. And the theme is here, of course, everything is local. How does Honolulu International Airport compete or really stand out in the global airport competition? And there's a lot going on out there with countries that we thought were kind of behind, but their airports are kind of moving up and becoming the gold standard or platinum standard in the world. So I'll just ask Russell a simple question. What are your favorite airports and why? I think there are three favorite airports that I have. Of course I'm in Beijing, so Beijing I'm always awed by the airport, the services, the content that they provide in their experience and the enormous breadth of size. And then I really like Honolulu because I stop over many times in Tokyo. They really see, read, model their whole airport and I find it very friendly, smaller scale, but really friendly and the food is there, restaurants are great, stores so forth. And then my favorite on the whole time was really Incheon. Incheon is modern, it's exciting. And that's North Seoul, right? South Korea for our viewers. And I actually, whenever I book my flights, I want to be there no longer in layover, maybe six hours, it gives me time to get off the plane, rest, have a nice meal and then with the free internet I get on the internet. Well you mentioned an interesting thing of staying at an airport because most of the time we look at airports as just an extension of the transportation hub or journey that you want to go to your next destination immediately and get out of the airport, not stay there, but an airport could be an attraction by itself. And I think that's exactly the right rate. I think really the word airport has changed, the definition has changed. It is not just an airport, it is a community itself, it's a city itself and it's a reflection of the greater city. So for example, Hawaii, we're known for our hospitality and that airport here should be a place of hospitality, a gathering place for people from different cultures to join experience. And I'll talk a little bit more about when I talk about enjoying the experience, what does it mean? Because there are different kinds of passengers. But you're referring to something that people overlook, that it could be a place, a micro city, a place that even residents here would like to go and enjoy as well as visitors. And of course visitors could be business visitors, right, looking for new investments and of course tourists. And really when they come off the plane, that's the first time that they see a reflection of a new place. That's the airport. And what does the airport symbolize or define or what does it give some meaning and experiences so when they go back to their homes in Beijing or Peoria or New York or London, they'll say excitedly, oh, I saw something great in the city. I want to go again. That's exactly right, Ray. And remember, anybody stops over here, makes a connected flight or comes into a leisure destination, the first and last place in their mind, in their memory will be the airport. And that's how you get the repeat visitor. And that's very important because it is the soul of a city, the soul of a place. So we have to think, I was at the Hawaii Tourism Authority conference and we had an executive from the city travel group and he said something so perfect. He said the Chinese way is yin and yang. And the yang is the physical improvements and the yin is going to be the content. So this airport has to have a content and what the content, we need to look at the airports around the world and kind of understand what they are. We don't need to study that, but it's a feeling that you have when you come to a place where you want to come again and you go back to Peoria, Kansas and you say, wow, I want to go Hawaii again, but I want to spend a couple hours in the airport because it was shopping, it was eating. For example, I'm amazed at Li'l-Bakri on Nimitz. I think that's a great place to have Li'l-Bakri 24 hours. And I'll talk later about what I think how you can make the airport should be a place of accountability. It's a revenue center, it's a city itself. Well, going back to what you just said, to me, my two great airports in the world are Amsterdam, Schiphol and Singapore, Changi Airport. And Amsterdam, I'm always amazed at how much, like you said, culture there is. There's extension of the Rijksmuseum at the airport. So it makes me want to go into the city if I was transferring or going through to look at the museum, for example. It is a place that you can have weddings at the airport. So again, local people can enjoy the airport and of course there's shopping and all kinds of restaurants. And also, interestingly enough, there's a little casino at the airport. Going back to what you just said, a revenue generator. It provides money to the local city through taxing the tourists in a fun way. Fun way, that's right. And going back to the next one, Singapore, Changi, if you have more than five hours layover, they go out of their way to arrange a city tour. They arrange everything, a visa, a story of bags and load you on a bus, take you around, see the Merlion, Linnah, India and Chinatown and so forth and take you back. And of course, you want to come back as a tourist. So these are extremes in the use of an airport in many ways, but you can see that it does promote a place as a tourist destination and a revenue generator. Ray, I agree with that. It sounds wonderful. I think I was at the HHA, I keep going back to the HHA conference because I got new ideas. And for one, they had a, the whole concert conference was at Village Square and they had the different islands. So we could actually make an airport with different stations, different islands. And the different, for example, the Kawhi Visit Association and we can do things that are cultural. When I'm in Seoul, I enjoy seeing, they have a cultural show with the dress, the green dress and then they have another different time performances by people playing the piano and they have a great musical talent in Korea there. But I see a lot of interesting things that we can do and really, it's a memorable tour for people that says, okay, I remember, it's Red Forces of Hawaii Hospitality. You know, I was blown away because my last trip in Honolulu, I think HTA started this program where I saw Hawaiian music and Hula Dancers and with all these tourists from Japan, Korea, China taking pictures, it gave me pride. Local pride that are cultures there and this is Hawaii going back to like the old days of Lua Tower when they have Hula Dancers and music and something like this that's, that is very memorable. I mean, the first and last... Well, you're absolutely right. And, you know, taking it even a step further if you had some time on transfer or some time before your flight, for visitors who are hanging out at the airport, a Hula lesson. Or a ukulele lesson. That's exactly right. Or, you know, or in Honolulu, Hawaii to learn some language, you know, phrases in Hawaiian. You're absolutely right because, again, that's a value add. It's not like seeing scenery but really trying to come one with the culture and going back to Yin and Yang, what is the content, right? It's a content. It's a content in the airport that reflects the society and culture of a unique place. I think you said a word that was very important, Ray. And that's experience. It's really the experience that said, I want to come back. And, you know, in China, what many people don't see because I live there is all the local music shops around China, even the second tier cities in their local music stores, they sell ukuleles. They don't even know it's from Hawaii. The kids use, play it, they go to school and learn it because it's a small size that you can imagine, Kamaka Ukulele at the airport. Somebody's going to say, I want to buy that for my kid. But getting back to this, you know, like I said, we've got to think out of the box. And we have the destination, long call destination tours to come here and stay here. But you know what? Imagine if we increase the volume of the airport, bring in the business jets, the smaller jets, nicer ones, and they drop these guys off at 8 or 9 o'clock at night too late to go to the hotel. They have an airport hotel like in all the Asian cities. And their flight next morning connects at 9 o'clock. And so they stay and they get a real nice rest. They have a food to eat. They have cultural things. And that's going to be a wild experience because next time they're going to bring the families and stop over here. And what you want to do, I'm not an expert, but I would think economics, you give these airlines a motivation, for example, Air China, to come in two different airlines. And that business one will come at 8 o'clock and arrive here, releases the load. And remember, you're paying for motor and brakes. And you're paying for it, how do you do it? Well, schedule off timing. So they come in here, people stay here. And you charge your lower lighting fee. So all of these things are going to be great ways to bring in and develop new markets. That's absolutely great. And I think going back to your thinking on the hotel, I think there's an ideal place for it, which is the transit stop that they have planned there. And I've always thought that a hotel could be a teaching hotel that involves students from hospitality and tourism majors, from UH. And in this way, they will interact with visitors from Asia Pacific, Silicon Valley and so forth in Europe and really increase their awareness of what's happening in the world. But you're right in that we need a hub. We need a place that they can kind of get together and maybe have a small breakout rooms and little conference for a tiny, just-in-time kind of business meeting or a little technology or business conference there. And it'll be ideal. Again, the airport could function as a business meeting place, like you say, or a place to recharge or meet people from your joint venture partners in Asia and then go back or extend that with your family to our neighbor island and so forth. So that's very key to all this, that again an airport is not only a place to come and go, but really to have some enjoyment and also to be exposed to culture and to have a different type of experience, but it's a positive experience, not a hard-and-travel kind of long-haul, end-of-trip kind of tired experience. So going back to the airports, and you said that Incheon was your favorite there, was the things we talked about in the prize show, the global signage, the languages and so forth for Incheon, was that of a high standard also? I think it was a very high standard, but I like to, when I talk about signage and language, I think that my experience at Haneda or Loretta was even superb because the quality content, again, they have Japanese personnel and as well as native Chinese, for the Chinese tourist, the language capability is there, not only transition, but live people that are there that provide the capability and it was very friendly. And there's no reason why the Chinese tourist, it's one of the top five destinations for the Chinese is actually Tokyo now. And again, I would really think that it's important to make that visitor experience, whether it's the destination visitor or the business person. Hold your horses. We have a caller in the line. Go ahead and state your name and question. Hello, Ray, great show. I just want to ask you guys to address one thing, and that is we live in a world of threat and terrorism. We've had a number of real problems at airports. How do you integrate security, airport security with these great ideas for more friendly airports? I'll take my answer offline. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry? To Russell. Oh, yes. So the caller is asking here, you know, we live in a dangerous world. We have threats of terrorism. We have security concerns. Of course, airports are like in Brussels, the tragedy of Brussels recently and others. There are, of course, all these threats going on. How can we really, I guess, do two things at once. Make a city, a micro city or airports, really a positive experiential place for visitors and business people and all kinds of families and so forth. At the same time, keep it a place free of violence or free of terrorism. Is there something in your experience that kind of points to any airport that does that well? Well, you know, it's amazing, and that's an excellent question to the caller. My experience is coming out of Asia, is that we actually do a good job because all the U.S. bound flights, not only do you have a security check at the gate when you check in. Recently, in fact, I had a little Mofi battery charger and I forgot, there was a sign, but I thought if I put it in my check-in luggage, it would be okay, but actually, you can carry that on because they check it through. And actually, the China authorities had opened my bag, put a note, and they took it out. I lost it. I lost a great Mofi charger for my iPhone. But you know what? That's how good the security is. Not only that is that you come to the gates, you have a pat-down, X-ray, and then at the gate on the U.S. flights or flights to Japan, they do another check-through before you get on the plane. I found that to be very great security. It's to my, I think, for the Asian vision knows that. And so I think we can't directly advertise it, but I think for the Asian bound travel, it gives more reason not to go to Europe but to fly over this way to track. It's one of the safest places to transit here for the business travel. Okay, well, we'll get back to this in a moment. This is ThinkTech Global Connectors, and we'll be back in a couple of minutes. Thank you very much. Welcome to Azure in Vivo. Looking forward to see you next month on October 13, Thursday at 11 o'clock. Aloha. My name is Danelia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. I'm the co-host of Keys to Success, which is live on ThinkTech live streaming network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m. Aloha. Aloha. Hi, I'm Jay Fidel. That's Ted Ralston. You know, Ted is the host of Where the Road Leads. It shows every Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. It's about technology. It's about how people are collaborating and solve problems with modern technology. It's Where the Road Leads. We all know that. We should all be listening. Join us there. 4 to 5 p.m. every Friday. Now, what about that you agree with? All of it. I knew we'd say that. Aloha. Say Aloha. Aloha. Good. Hi, we're back to a great and exciting conversation that we're having on a very essential part of our island, the Honolulu International Airport. And it's been around for a while, but in the past, even until the 30s and 40s, there were sea planes that came in and people actually came to Waikiki through little catamaran. So there was like, from plane to hotel directly. And of course in the 50s and 60s, even I came on a ship from Yokohama to Aloha Tower. So there's been a great change, a sea change ever since the 60s when the 707 came that can unload hundreds of visitors at a time. And of course the growing interdependence of long-haul flights to business and so forth. And now there's a lot of overflights over Hawaii to Asia from Silicon Valley on the West Coast. And so the business traveler is paramount to this discussion and also something that we should cover in this discussion who should leave this, you know, visioning the future for a more positive experience for visitors and business travelers alike at the Honolulu International Airport and how to get this dialogue going because it's not easy. There's many, many moving parts to an airport. It's not just transportation, but like you say, a micro city. There's little buses and cars, taxis and a parking lot and of course all the things that make us safe in the air. All the mechanics and engine repair and maintenance and so forth and the fueling and so forth. So there are many, many things that go on at the airport and I think the airport, of course, is vital. The operations, but again, that's not the only reason why it exists or could be exist like we discussed. It could be a revenues generator. It could be part of the promotion of a place. Like you said, neighbor islands, they should be promoted also at the airport. And what's intrinsic to all this is, of course, government, the private sector, hotels, airlines and transportation, you know, even the local transportation and of course the planes themselves. And the experience of the shopping experience, the retail restaurant experience is also there. It's led not by people who know about planes but people who know about consumers and what would they enjoy, you know, to shop or to eat or hear music or experience. Like even I've always thought of the environment, you know, Hawaii environment could be replicated in a part with all kinds of endangered species that we have to protect or aquarium at the airport, even again, extending experience into the airport and making it feel like they're in a forest on the island of Hawaii. So we come to this portion, business travelers and of course the importance of the public-private partnership and leadership and again, I want to go back to your recent HTA conference. Out of that conference, do you see a process of how do you change or get people together to start the dialogue? Did you see positive kind of things there? Well, you know, the saying goes, show me the money. That's what we would all say. But you know, the key here is that the key stakeholders for this public-private partnership are very important. We need the government, definitely. But think about it, the yin and the yang, the yin and the yang is content. Who provides the content the best? And that's going to be your industry. For example, the hotel industry, the food and beveragey. All this provides experience in the greater community because we're replicating what's out there in the greater community. It's a great way for them to promote themselves but also to create this environment so it reinforces to both the business traveler and to the leisure destiny traveler that this is a place we want to come back to. That's the first and last impression that anybody gets here. And so that partnership is very important. And who provides best, you know, the content, the service? It's going to be the hotel industry for a while. And I think that with this public-private partnership, it is essential, it is crucial. And the other part is that one makes quite very different. Well, you've got the shopping experience in Alamoana and the new shopping center is going to come in Kapolei, part of them to be NDFS. We have a great White Key Retail Merchant Association, Carefully Planned as a Key Stakeholder. And let's not forget at the White Tourism Authority event, Presidio was the Executive Summit. And I was born away to see Nino and Thompson. Everybody gave them a standard vision talking about the Hokaleo. And that's the pride of Polynesia. All of us, you know, and great to have a museum, the Hokaleo that's traveled the world, National Geographic, you know, a story about it. And it sort of reminds me like what makes it different than San Francisco? San Francisco has a lot of culture and art. So when you go through the terminal, you see all these nice paintings to give a sense of art and culture. But we have the culture and that experience. But you know in San Francisco, I have to say, yes, there's the extension of the museum there and the history of San Francisco. But there's also a sourdough bread, dim sum, San Francisco pizzas, wines, you know, local things of California. Exactly. And I just want to point out that, you know, even if you stake out, you know, a plant at a mall at Honolulu International Airport, we have to strike a balance between a mall where the brands are the same like any other. That's right. New York, Denver, or even Munich, or Beijing, or Singapore. But, you know, Tamiya papayas, mangoes, or mac chocolates, or, you know, certain pineapple, beef jerky. There's a lot of local products that we can really promote for, you know, local farmers and, you know, people on the shore. And maybe we have to think of, you know, restaurants that really highlight local ingredients. Exactly. Like in Liliha Bikry, which is a local kind of delicacy. Or Alan Wong. He's local in Shanghai. And I think it's a great opportunity to give visitors a preview of what's beyond the airport community, the city. What are you going to experience? Right. And when you're leaving, it reinforces Alan Wong's. It reinforces, like in San Francisco, I know at the airport where I'm going to stop right away, I'm going to stop at Klein Deli to get my pastrami and rye and cheese. Okay? I know that. And this is what you want that visitor to have that experience so that when he or she comes here, they're going to say, I'm going to stop at Liliha Deli at Bikry because, hey, they've got great local food. And it's only in Honolulu. In Honolulu. Yeah, just like I have my favorite smoked salmon sandwich in Skippo Airport in Amsterdam. Or Liliha Bikry. Yeah. Really high quality loco moco. Yeah. So it gives a signature for a place. Well, you're absolutely right. It is, again, the culinary delights and makes a person want to experience more, you know, come out into the town and go to the real, you know, restaurants and so forth. But again, you know, going back to the private, I think about the Hokulea is very vital to this dialogue also, maybe an exhibition about that sailing voyage at the airport, for example, a replica, a small, you know, scaled-out replica. There could be all kinds of, you know, artwork or music, of course, reflecting a sense of place. I think, you know, but back to the H.A., there must be people, did you sense that anybody were thinking about the airport at the conference? Definitely. Oh, okay. Definitely. The H.A. director, George Zagetti, he's thinking about it. He's talked about it. But I think more importantly is we need to come as a community and remember this, the hotel industry, for example, we're not asking you taxes. We're asking you to make an investment, an investment that gives you return of revenue. That's how we have to think about the airport. Not taxing people. But if you put this in, it's an investment. And that's critical. And you're getting a return of investment. You're not getting taxed for the government to do it. We're partnering with the government because we are stakeholders. We're key stakeholders. And look on the books, it's an investment. And there's a return of investment. That's how we look at it right now. And we're going to end this show on a very business ROI acronym, which is return of investment. But it's an investment for the future of Hawaii in many ways. And the airport is vital to the future and can reflect the essential greatness of our culture, society, music, art, and create new jobs that would really be beneficial for the economy. Thank you very much. And to my contributor, Russell, thank you. We're global connectors. Thank you. Thank you.