POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER TRAVELS TO HUE FESTIVAL

Delegation to Perform; Share Tourism Skills with Vietnam Officials

Laie ­ June 10, 2004 ­ The Polynesian Cultural Center¹s promotional team has been invited to attend the 2004 Hue Folk Festival in Hue, Vietnam from June 12-20, 2004. The group will be performing as part of the annual festivities, which draw thousands from around the country and the world.

As part of the trip, PCC's Assistant to the President Les Steward will be supporting a delegation from the University of Hawaii in conducting a Meetings and Convention workshop after the festival for government officials in Hue. The workshop is the second in an on-going dialogue started last year by the City & County of Honolulu and its sister city relationship with Hue.
The PCC will return again to conduct an additional workshop on Cultural tourism at a later date.

"The PCC is proud to be able to help the City and the University of Hawai'i by sharing our success with cultural tourism through education to help the people of Hue," said Les Steward. "As part of our mission at the Center, we feel it is important to help provide educational opportunities and we see this as the start of a long friendship of sharing and assisting our friends in Hue."

Members of the Hue government have also been invited to join the Asian Executive Management Program at Brigham Young University-Hawai'i for a 10-month training program to further develop their understanding of Western marketing skills through classes at the University and working in the Polynesian Cultural Center's operations.

The PCC performers will be participants in the festival's cultural programs, sharing the Polynesian cultures with visitors and residents of Hue. They will then return home after quick stops in Cambodia and Korea for additional performances.

Founded in 1963 as a non-profit organization, the PCC has entertained more than 30 million visitors by preserving and portraying the spirit, culture and people of Polynesia to the rest of the world. More important is the mission of the PCC, which supports the educational mission of Brigham Young University-Hawai'i and provides an extension of the classroom in a workplace setting. Since its establishment, the PCC has employed more than 12,000 BYU-Hawai'i students. As a non-profit organization, 100 percent of the PCC's revenue is used for daily operations and to support the students who earn their tuition, room and board, and books. The PCC also provides significant financial support to elementary and secondary schools and to college students attending institutions of their choice besides BYU-Hawai'i.