By Staff Reports
(Maui) – The Office of Economic Development today announced that the Maui County booth won the Mayor’s Choice award for Best Booth at the Goyang International Flower Festival in South Korea. The flower festival coincided with the 600th anniversary celebration of Goyang City, and is expected to draw more than 1.2 million people during the festival, which ends May 12.
Goyang Mayor Choi Sung announced Sunday that Maui County was selected for the Mayor’s Choice Award for Best Booth, an award that was judged by an independent group of flower experts and members of the Goyang Flower Foundation.
The booth, presented in partnership with Maui Visitors Bureau (MVB), featured a joint contingent including floral designer Asa Ige, MVB’s international team of Sherry Duong and Jeremiah Savage, OED Director Teena Rasmussen, a Tihati Hula Halau and their musicians, and ‘ukulele soloist Derick Sebastian.
The show took place in an exhibition hall surrounded by 10 acres of outdoor pavilions, stages and gardens in an area of the city called Lake Park. According to OED Director Teena Rasmussen, “Our halau and musicians performed twice daily on the main stage, and six to seven times each day within the booth through May 1st. The Korean people were delighted by the performances and formed huge crowds each time our Hawaii performers were on stage.“
Rasmussen went on to say that “the Maui County booth was decorated with panoramic photos of Maui Nui, and filled with tropical flowers from Hana and Protea from upcountry Maui. The Korean people had never seen many of the flowers we brought, and they took thousands of pictures in our booth.” Also in the booth, MVB passed out its newly printed Korean language brochure called “Maui’s Top 12” which describes 12 of the most popular things to do on Maui.
Some costs for the booth were covered by Hawaiian Airlines, which waived the air freight charges for the flowers and provided a Korean staff member to help run the booth each day; the cost of the 450 sq. ft. booth also was waived by Goyang City. “Only through these great partnerships were we able to pull off this huge project,” said Sherry Duong of MVB.
“Knowing how enchanted the Korean attendees of the show were with Maui County’s booth, our flowers and our performers, we definitely want to return next year,” said Rasmussen. We have been offered several more opportunities next year that will create even more awareness of Maui in this important Asian market.”
Rasmussen and Savage also attended Goyang’s 600th anniversary celebration, Mayor Choi’s Global Youth Leadership Conference with 1,400 students from Goyang schools and met with numerous government and tourism officials to explore new ways for Maui to partner with this important Sister City.