Hawaiian Hospitality Group Sees Major Revenue Opportunity for New Acquisition Within Oahu's $5.1 Billion Tourism Market

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Oct 19, 2010, 08:00 ET

HALEIWA, Hawaii, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawaiian Hospitality Group, Inc. (Pink Sheets: HHGI), a growing provider of sustainable land use solutions and event services, is pursuing a significant opportunity to increase revenue by providing unique submarine tours of Hawaii's underwater ecosystems. Newly acquired Submersible Technical Services LLC will offer unforgettable diving experiences to visitors to the island of Oahu where more than 4 million visitors spent $5.1 billion last year.

Hawaiian Hospitality Group successfully closed the acquisition of Submersible Technical Services on September 15, 2010. Submersible will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary providing tours of Hawaii's breathtaking marine ecosystems in state-of-the-art submersible vessels. Submersible is a development-stage company engaged in the design, manufacture and operation of personal, one to three person submersible vehicles for diving, fishing and sightseeing excursions.

According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority's 2009 Annual Visitor Research Report released October 1, 2010, visitors to the Hawaiian Islands spent $9.9 billion in 2009. Oahu accounts for more than half of Hawaii's tourism revenue. Of the nearly $10 billion generated, $5.11 billion was spent on Oahu. Oahu hosted 4,119,517 tourists last year.

Hawaii has demonstrated clear signs that the economy has started to recover, according to the State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT). In its Quarterly Statistical and Economic Report released August 19, 2010, DBEDT asserts the most encouraging signs of recovery were in tourism. The total number of visitors arriving by air to Hawaii continued the upturn experienced since the third quarter of 2009 by posting a 7.1% increase in the second quarter of 2010 over the same quarter of 2009. Other visitor metrics such as the average daily visitor census and visitor spending were all positive compared with 2009. Visitor spending increased 10.4% in second quarter this year, the largest growth of visitor spending since the third quarter of 2005.

Submersible Technical Services will operate within the Sightseeing Boats subset of the Water Passenger Transportation industry. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the average business in this $148.8 million market has annual sales of $900,000 (Dun & Bradstreet, Industry Data for SIC 4489, August 2010).

Hawaiian Hospitality Group's primary business is operation of Loulu Palm Estate, a popular venue for weddings and events on Oahu's North Shore. Loulu Palm Estate began operations in 2009 as a destination wedding site with immediate cashflow from venue fees and event services. Sales for the flagship property rose significantly this year and bookings for 2011 signal further increases.

Ms. Renee Leong, CEO of Hawaiian Hospitality Group, commented: "We are pleased to be able to expand our offerings to visitors of the Hawaiian Islands. The acquisition of Submersible Technical Services enables us to enter a largely untapped niche market and provide an unforgettable way to experience Oahu's underwater vistas. We are seeing increasing signs of economic recovery and growth on the Islands and believe our newly acquired submarine tour business positions Hawaiian Hospitality Group for substantial increases in revenue and market share."

About Hawaiian Hospitality Group, Inc. (HHGI.PK)

Hawaiian Hospitality Group, Inc. is a growing provider of sustainable land use solutions and event services. The company draws on environmental engineering expertise to identify, design, develop and operate destination sites that provide environmental and commercial revitalization for Hawaii's coastal properties. Hawaiian Hospitality Group employs innovative approaches to land use that generate profitable enterprises while restoring and preserving the beauty and natural resources of the Hawaiian Islands. The company generates revenue from venue fees, catering services, wedding planning and other services on the destination sites it develops, maximizing value while minimizing the ecological footprint of its operations.

Except for statements of historical fact, some information in this announcement contains "forward-looking statements" that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," "would" or similar words. The statements that contain these or similar words should be read carefully because these statements discuss our future expectations, contain projections of our future results of operations or of our financial position, or state other forward-looking information. We believe that it is important to communicate our future expectations to our investors. However, there may be events in the future that we are not able accurately to predict or control.

Since our common stock is considered a "penny stock" we are ineligible to rely on the safe harbor for forward-looking statements provided in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act").

www.hawaiianhospitalitygroup.com

SOURCE Hawaiian Hospitality Group, Inc.