By Nancy Daniels   The Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach has welcomed many VIPs over the years. This past week was no exception when the Travelocity Roaming Gnome checked in for a few days during a whirlwind trip to Hawaii!

Like many Outrigger Waikiki guests, one of the first things the Roaming Gnome did was to get his feet wet with a surfing lesson courtesy of UV Rays beach services at the Outrigger Waikiki. It wasn’t long before he was “hanging ten” with the rest of the surfers enjoying the waves off Waikiki. Next on the agenda was outrigger canoe surfing, and once again the Roaming Gnome looked like a pro as he glided to shore. After drying off, he hit Duke’s Waikiki for a quick bite and a refreshing “Lava Flow” drink! Later that afternoon, he was off to Germaine’s Luau for an evening of ono food and lively entertainment!

The visit of the Travelocity Roaming Gnome to Hawaii was part of a six-week “Summer of Possibilities” promotion by Travelocity, one of the largest travel companies in the world. Throughout the promotion, Roaming Gnome fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter voted between rival summer destinations to decide on where he would travel for his next great adventure. During the fifth leg of the journey, Hawaii was up against Jamaica and Cancun, but the people of Hawaii voted furiously and came through in the end. After more than 100,000 votes, Hawaii beat out Jamaica and Cancun to host Travelocity’s Roaming Gnome.

It was great fun having the Travelocity Roaming Gnome at the Outrigger Waikiki. Not surprisingly, wherever he went, people knew who he was and would come up to have their picture taken with him. We applaud Travelocity and their marketing team for creating such a brilliant campaign, and congratulate the people of Hawaii for pulling together to bring the Roaming Gnome to our island state. The publicity generated locally, as well as world-wide through the social network sites of Twitter and Facebook, was tremendous in promoting travel to Hawaii.

As with any VIP visit, pre-planning and assistance during the visit is required, so I’d like to extend special thanks to a few people: Liz Lee of Travelocity and the Roaming Gnome escorts Regina Brizollara and Mona Hansan, Ross Anderson and the Duke’s Waikiki team; Jeff Smith of UV Rays and the Beachboys of Waikiki Beach Services; and finally, Outrigger’s Arhlene Honda, Kimberly Agas, Ethan Chang, Gay Shinbara, and Patsy Narimatsu.