2. People Quick Facts Kauai County Hawaii Population, 2010 67,091 1,360,301 White 33.0% 24.7% Black 0.4% 1.6% American Indian/Alaska natives 0.4% 0.3% Asian 31.3% 38.6% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 9.0% 10.0% Bachelor's degree or higher 23.5% 29.2% Median value/housing $580,500 $521,500 # of Households 21,968 437,976 Median household income $55,723 $63,741 Retail sales per capita $16,730 $13,793 Accommodation and food services sales 591,483 8,042,210 Average temperature 75 °F 75 °F Unemployment rate 8.60% 6.60%
3. Kauai is a popular destination island. It is geologically the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands, the northernmost of all islands, and the 4 th largest out of 8 major islands. In 1778 Captain James Cook landed on a southwestern part of the island, now called Waimea Town. He called the Hawaiian Islands the “Sandwich Isles”, after Earl of Sandwich, and introduced Hawaii to the world. A statue of Captain Cook still stands in Waimea Town. Today, Kauai is called the Garden Isle.
4. In October 1992, the unemployment rate on Kauai spiked from 6.2% to 21.1%. There had to be a reason! There was: Hurricane Iniki. It made landfall on September 11, 1992 and was the strongest hurricane to hit Hawaii in recorded history. Hurricane Iniki caused damage to around 90% of the homes, buildings and structures in Kauai and the estimated damage was $7.4 billion dollars (2010 dollars). Several big hotels were rendered inoperable for years because of damage by winds, but mostly because of water damage/flooding. Unfortunately, the oldest hotel on the island, the Coco Palms, was destroyed and never did recover.
5. In post disaster studies done by the University of Hawaii-Manoa, sugar cane fields, dairy farms, plantations of macadamia nuts, coffee, guavas, bananas and tropical flowers- i.e. many of the things that bring visitors to the “Garden Isle”, were damaged and this heavily impacted the tourism industry in Kauai. Many hotels went out of business, travel to the area decreased significantly, and a year later about 10% of the population had left to go to other islands. But Kauai rebuilt. They recovered. They thrived. moo
6. There are five major resort destinations on Kauai: North Shore (Princeville), East Side (Coconut Coast), Lihue (Kalapaki), South Shore (Poipu), and West Side (Waimea). The East Side is the major commerce area of the island. Lihue is the county seat. One of the biggest attractions in the Lihue area is WAILUA FALLS, which is shown in the opening to the 1970's show, “Fantasy Island”. In fact, there have been many TV shows and movies filmed or partially filmed on Kauai, including Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley, King Kong, Jurassic Park, Avatar, Soul Surfer and Pirates of the Caribbean.
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8. Kauai is home to Mount Waialeale, in the center part of the island, also known as “the wettest place on earth” because of the average rainfall of 450” annually. On the south side of the island, there is a beach called Poipu. It's about a 20 minute drive from Lihue airport. There are many hotels and resorts on Poipu beach, such as the Sheraton, Hyatt and Marriott as well as Independent Hotels such as Koa Kea hotel and resort. Poipu was rated as best beach in America by the Travel channel
11. Kauai's busy season is during the summer months, Christmas time, and any time the kids are out of school. There are many many many websites and social networking sites about Kauai- it is easy to get lost in the information that you find, which I did. I think the Strengths of this island are it's people and their desire to make it through adversity. Weaknesses are pretty much natural disasters, i.e. hurricanes, overflow from tsunamis and floods. Opportunities are great in this state because of the beautiful scenery which makes it a great destination for a vacation or business trip. Threats would be, again, natural disasters.
12. Http://www.facebook.com/cocopalmshotel Http://www .thegardenisland.com Http://www .groceryguys.org Http://www .hawaiiweb.com Http://www .britannica.com Http://www .kauai.com Http://www .govisithawaii.com Http://www.kauai.gov Http://www.soest.hawaii.edu Hibiscus- State Flower of Hawaii
13. ` References John Heckathorn . (2010) "Will Kauai's legendary, long-shuttered Coco Palms Resort ever reopen?." HAWAII Magazine.com . PacificBasin Communications. March 30, 2010 Upspring Media. October 28, 2011 < http://www.hawaiimagazine.com >. Michael Levine. “Coco Palms up in the air." The Garden Island.com . February 11, 2009. October 28, 2011 < http://thegardenisland.com >. Pacific Business News. "10 years after Hurricane Iniki, Kauai remembers September 11 for a different tragedy." Pacific Business News . September 8, 2002. October 28, 2011
