This Week Hawaii, the state's original visitor publication founded in 1966, celebrates its 60th anniversary by expanding its hybrid media model with new digital tracking capabilities for advertising partners. The magazine, which produces more than 1,300 pages of curated content annually across four island editions, introduces tools that allow businesses to measure engagement through QR codes and digital placements alongside traditional print advertising.
When the first issue was published six decades ago, Hawaii's tourism industry operated at a fraction of its current scale. The publication addressed a specific need for a trusted, locally produced guide that could orient travelers and connect them with each island's culture, geography, and businesses. That mission remains unchanged, but the methods have evolved. In 2005, This Week Hawaii launched its digital platform at thisweekhawaii.com, extending the brand's reach beyond print. Today, the platform integrates print with digital placements, QR codes, and trackable engagement metrics, giving advertisers data-informed visibility alongside the tangible presence of a printed guide.
General Manager Ed Chung emphasized the trust underlying this milestone: 'Reaching this 60-year milestone is a reflection of the trust that travelers and local businesses have placed in us since 1966. With more than 1,300 pages of editorial content distributed across four islands and a digital platform that launched 20 years ago, we have spent six decades earning the right to call ourselves Hawaii's visitor guide -- and we do not take that lightly.'
A key structural distinction is the brand's commitment to island-specific storytelling. Rather than a single statewide publication, This Week Hawaii maintains four print editions -- Oahu, Maui, Big Island, and Kauai -- each supported by locally embedded editorial teams. This ensures that a traveler on Kauai receives content shaped by people who understand the Na Pali Coast differently than someone writing from Honolulu. Each edition carries local nuance that a centralized newsroom could not replicate, positioning the publication as a cultural bridge rather than a conventional travel guide.
Print editions continue to be distributed through airports, hotels, resorts, and visitor centers across the state, reaching travelers upon arrival. Alongside each placement, QR codes connect readers to digital content, enabling businesses to track engagement and measure advertising performance in ways traditional print alone never allowed. For family-run restaurants, activity operators, and cultural experiences that have partnered with This Week Hawaii across generations, this model offers continuity alongside evolution.
What distinguishes a 60-year publishing legacy is not simply longevity but the accumulation of trust. Travelers who visited Hawaii in the 1970s may have carried a copy of This Week Hawaii in their bags; their children and grandchildren now access the same institution through a smartphone. That continuity across generations, formats, and four distinct island communities is what the milestone represents. As This Week Hawaii enters its seventh decade, editorial teams across the islands continue the work that began in 1966: helping visitors find their footing in one of the most distinct places on Earth, and connecting them with the people and places that make each island worth returning to.
