The Chinese are invading Oahu with big money, but not only as tourists

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The Chinese are one out of many reasons for anyone interested in Hawaii Tourism to attend the upcoming Hawaii Tourism Conference at the Convention Center in Honolulu from September 26-30.

The Chinese are one out of many reasons for anyone interested in Hawaii Tourism to attend the upcoming Hawaii Tourism Conference at the Convention Center in Honolulu from September 26-30.

The Chinese are coming to Hawaii in big numbers, and these are not only money-spending tourists. China can be seen in Africa, in Cuba, in Central and East Asia taking charge of tourist investments, becoming a world power in tourism. It covers investments, development and of course outbound tourists. As said by many experts in the global travel and tourism industry. China are always the biggest and greatest these days – it’s a numbers game.


Earlier this year a senior government official in Cuba told eTN under condition of confidentiality, Cuba is more interested in having future American Tourists staying in Chinese owned hotels, compared to have large U.S. developers invade the communist country.

1800 new jobs in Hawaii is good, but as it always is, profits will not stay in the financially hurting state. Profits will go to China for some new giant projects in development on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

In April Honolulu based Pacific Business News (PBN) reported, a Chinese company that plans to develop a luxury hotel and residential condominium on 23 acres of land in West Oahu is buying a planned 516-acre master-planned golf course community from James Campbell Co. that would connect the City of Kapolei with Ko Olina Resort, the seller confirmed to PBN.

Steve Kelly, an executive with James Campbell Co., one of the largest landowners in Hawaii and the master developer of Kapolei, told PBN Tuesday that the company has an agreement with China Oceanwide Holdings Ltd. for “potential property and infrastructure investments in the Kapolei Westโ€ property.

Today the Honolulu Star Advertiser reports, the Chinese company is doubling down on Ko Olina Resort & Marina with a $280 million deal to buy more beachfront land for development at the West Oahu resort eight months after spending $200 million for a similar but smaller property nearby.

China Oceanwide Holdings Ltd. has signed an agreement to buy three parcels totaling 26 acres fronting portions of two lagoons between Disneyโ€™s Aulani Resort and a luxury condominium complex named Beach Villas at Ko Olina.

Jeff Stone, Ko Olinaโ€™s master developer who orchestrated the sale, told the Advertiser, China Oceanwide is expected to spend roughly $1.5 billion developing a hotel on the site. Stone said construction could start in mid-2017 and be finished two years later. The resort could employ 1,800 people.

The land purchase, if completed as scheduled by Sept. 15, will give China Oceanwide control over the four remaining undeveloped hotel sites fronting the master-planned resortโ€™s four oceanfront lagoons, and possibly make the company the biggest hotel operator at Ko Olina.

Details of the purchase agreement were disclosed by China Oceanwide in a regulatory filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange this month.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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