In 1945, the Hawaii Visitors Bureau was launched. Major Mark Egan was named secretary, and a whole new era of Hawaii tourism promotion began.

A group of businessmen borrowed $20,000 and launched Aloha Week in 1947 to boost tourism in the otherwise slow fall season.

An important priority was to get the ocean liner Lurline back in the passenger business after her wartime duty. It cost Matson $19 million, but in the spring of 1948, with an exuberant welcome by some 150,000 people and an 80 vessel escort arranged by the HVB, she steamed into Honolulu Harbor to reclaim her title as "glamour girl of the Pacific."

In 1948, American President Lines resumed plying the Pacific and scheduled air service was inaugurated to Hawaii.

A long maritime strike in 1949 cut Hawaii tourism in half, to 25,000 visitors and the Legislature agreed to match private contributions to the tourism promotion budget. That made it a million-dollar proposition over two years: Advertising on the Mainland; transmitting and financing Hawaii Calls; special displays; Mainland offices; movies; publicity; literature; guides; warrior markers; music and hula to greet arriving ships and planes, and an HVB flower lei for every visitor!

Special people got special greetings. The Lurline herself got a steamship sized lei, 80 feet of orange crepe paper, during the 1948 reception. Actor Joe E. Brown (and his invisible rabbit co-star) came to play in Harvey in 1950 and was greeted by the HVB with a lei of carrots. In 1953, the HVB held a pretty face contest and selected hula dancer Mae Beimes as the first official HVB Poster Girl. Her sweet smile and proffered plumeria lei adorned a poster that is still a part of Hawaii history.

Beimes was succeeded later by Beverly Rivera Noa, and Rose Marie Alvaro, a dancer who posed for four posters, and followed by Liz Logue, Tracy Monsarrat and Zoe Ann Roach, they became Hawaii's best known representatives around the world.

Statehood in 1959 brought with it the arrival of the first jet service to Honolulu. Tourism exploded. Waikīkī began to build up (and up). Sheer numbers eroded some of the personal touch like a lei greeting for every arriving visitor. But the Bureau hit the road. Hawaiian entertainers and promotion experts circled the globe to spread the Island word.

The HVB metamorphosed again in 1961, when it began doing business under contract to the State Department of Planning and Economic Development. Private contributions had slacked off--industry leaders were spending more on their own advertising--while government funding increased. The 50-50 funding became two-thirds state, and one-third private financing of HVB efforts.

In the mid 1960's, for the first time, advertisements circulated at home in Hawaii pointing out the benefits of tourism to the community.

At the same time other Pacific Rim nations were sending emissaries to the HVB to get the experts' advice and training on how to set up a tourism bureau. They included Australia, Canada, Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, Taiwan, Korea and Alaska.

The HVB diversified to include a Meetings & Conventions department, and later a Visitor Services department.

Steadily during the 60's, 70's, and 80's the millions of tourists added up, and the HVB and Hawaii learned to cope with the problems of success. The yearly tourism total reached nearly seven million people in 1990.