Honolulu is the economic center of Hawaii. It developed as a port city, serving first as a center of the sandalwood trade and later as a supply port for whaling vessels. Later, Honolulu became a shipping hub for Hawaii's sugar and pineapple crops. Today, the city's port has extensive shipping facilities and is located at the crossroads of transpacific passenger liners and cargo carriers.
Despite its role as a port, Honolulu's major industry is tourism. Every year millions of visitors from the U.S. mainland, Canada, Japan, and many other countries come to Honolulu, spending billions of dollars. The major tourist destination within Honolulu is Waikiki. Separated from the rest of Honolulu by the Ala Wai Canal, Waikiki encompasses an area of 182 hectares (450 acres) and contains the largest concentration of hotel rooms (over 30,000) in the state. However, since the 1970s many new hotels and resorts have been built outside the Waikiki area, and an increasing number of visitors have been traveling to these less populated and less developed destinations. The construction of the $350-million Hawaii Convention Center in Waikiki, completed in 1997, was justified as a necessary improvement to draw tourists back to the hotels and to improve the visitor industry in the area.
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Honolulu Information info
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