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HONOLULU—No other place in the world, it seems, can give
its visitors the same abundance of leis and floral
offerings as Hawaii can, although the island seems
lately to be running out of commercial plant life due to
mind-boggling daily demands.
Ever
since Hawaii came into my consciousness, I have
associated these Polynesian people with their tradition
of crowning their guests with a variety of garlands and
blossoms, a gesture that has been their trademark since
time immemorial.
Mere
dots in the expanse of the
Pacific Ocean, the eight main islands comprising
Hawaii
are known for the tranquility and the warmth of its
people, ready to embrace visitors with their songs and
flowery wreaths.
This
custom was made evident with the arrival here in Oahu
Island late Thursday of a Philippine delegation, about a
hundred guests of Hawaiian Airlines, who joined its
maiden flight to Manila on April 16. On its return trip,
the air carrier invited more than a hundred visitors,
among them Philippine Tourism Authority czar Robert Dean
Barbers, Manila airport general manager Alfonso Cusi,
Naia assistant manager for operations Bing Lina; the Air
Transportation Office’s officer in charge Daniel
Dimagiba; Reps. Victor Francisco Ortega and Raul del
Mar; Diosdado Macapagal International Airport head man
Ben Manga; and Transportation Assistant Secretary Cesar
Sarmiento.
Dozens
of travel agents from
Northern Luzon and a horde of journalists from various
Manila
publications were part of the mission.
At the
Honolulu airport, each of the guests was treated like
Hawaiian royalty, getting a neckful of dendrobium
orchids; this was topped by another lei of kukui nut, a
shiny black seed of a local tree as big as quail’s egg,
as we arrived at the Westin Moana Surfrider Hotel. By
the time we left the hotel for a reception at the
Hawaii State Art
Museum, a third layer of orchid had filled our necks up
to the chin.
On our
first day alone, our host gave away about 300 pieces of
leis to our group, sourced from a major supplier,
located on the island of Maui.
Out of
curiosity, I asked an airport tour guide, who only gave
his name as Lambert, what volume of garland is being
spent at the airport daily, and he said that on average
there are about 10,000 international passengers and
about the same number of domestic travelers who descend
on the Honolulu Airport every day.
Since
not everyone gets a lei—only those who are members of a
travel group are given this—Lambert estimates a
ball-park of 10,000 garlands are given away every day, a
number that doubles at the peak of the travel season. He
said each lei would cost an average of five dollars.
Imagine that: $50,000 just to say “welcome” each day.
Kimo,
our tour guide who is a member of the Wiels Associates,
said a supplier in Mauai Island, Alii Flowers and Leis,
delivers tons of the garlands to the airport and various
hotels in Hawaii every day.
Some
years back, the favorite blossom was frangipani, our
local kalachuchi, a flower growing in abundance
everywhere in the Philippines. Since it easily wilts,
frangipani has fallen in popularity and has been
replaced by the durable dendrobium, a purple blossom
which lasts for about a week but is odorless. Other
favorites are plumeria, seashells, various nuts and
seeds and anything that could be strung by a thread.
According to Kimo, the orchids that come from the Big
Island, one of eight islands comprising Hawaii, are not
enough to fill the demand so that the supplier gets part
of their blossoms from Thailand; while a family of
ginger, which is another flower decoration, comes from
Micronesia.
It
staggers the mind how much money this garland business
brings into the coffers of the Hawaiian economy,
considering they have 7.5 million visitors a year,
according to Hawaiian Airlines president and CEO Mark
Dunkerley. He said his carrier would focus on
Manila
as its prime destination in Asia, although a connection
to Macau, for the high-casino rollers in Hawaii, is in
the offing.
Manager
Cusi got curious about the garland thing, noting that at
the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), the
practice of giving away leis or garlands is reserved
only to a few VIPs (very important persons).
He said
sampaguita is the most common giveaway but even this is
given only on request and the big garlands are quite
expensive. The sampaguita’s sweet, subtle scent never
fails to prick the visitors’ curiosity; ditto the
ilang-ilang. But only a pitiful number of these blossoms
are available at the airport, and Cusi said some
entrepreneur could possibly exploit this gap, together
with various Philippine flowers and colorful flora, to
give Hawaii stiff competition in the garland-hospitality
department.
The
Philippines registered three million visitors last year.
How many of them should be given the welcome leis, and
how much would that business mean? As Mr. Cusi said, it
might be worth crunching the numbers.
Meanwhile, the dendrobiums on our necks are still bright
and crisp, a reminder of a lingering Hawaiian
experience. Aloha. |
