Hawaii vacation deals & news: February 2, 2016

* Outrigger is hosting a sweepstakes with a grand prize of five-nights accommodation at Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort (see our review), roundtrip airfare for two, two VIP tickets to Blue Note Hawaii plus dining and spa credits. Note that this sweepstakes is open to legal U.S. residents. See the sweepstakes details here

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* The Pacific Whale Foundation is giving away roundtrip airfare for two to Maui from an major city in the U.S., Canada, Australia or New Zealand. See this link for entry details.

* TravelZoo has a couple of luxe, Waikiki, oceanfront Starwood hotel rooms on sale. See this link for the Royal Hawaii starting at $314 per night and this link

for the Moana Surfrider starting at $261 per night.

* Island Air announced that it will resume flights between Kauai and Honolulu starting March 15 per PBN. We have updated our inter-island travel guide accordingly.

* 2015 was a record year for Hawaii tourism. The HTA says 8.6 million people visited Hawaii last year. (Source)

* In a strange coincidence last week, two men from Minnesota had incidents with sharks in Hawaii — one on Maui and the other on Kauai. There was also another shark encounter yesterday with a local surfer in Kauai. Thankfully, all these people survived. See our post about sharks in Hawaii and how to reduce your chance of encountering one.