Creative Industries

According to a 2016 economic report from the State of Hawaiʻi's Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism’s Creative Industries Division, the creative industries in Hawaiʻi, which includes interactive media, applied design, film, TV, visual arts, literary arts, publishing, performing arts and music, represents $3.3 billion of the State’s GDP as of 2015.  Moreover, the creative sector’s collective impact includes 49,597 local jobs, and a positive growth rate of nearly 8.9% since 2005. 

The Aloha Shirt

"Though its precise origins are lost to history, the aloha shirt first appeared in Hawaiʻi in the 1920's or 30's, probably when local Japanese women adapted kimono fabric for use in men’s shirting. The shirts achieved some popularity among tourists to Hawaiʻi and found greater commercial success when they hit the mainland in the mid-1930's. By 1940, aloha shirts were bringing in more than $11 million annually (in today’s money). By the 1960's, the shirt had become truly ubiquitous. Aloha Fridays were a fixture of a certain kind of workplace, and everyone—from Elvis to the decidedly unhip Richard Nixon—seemed to have an aloha shirt. Meanwhile, some shirtmakers from Hawaiʻi’s old guard are still going strong. Kahala, founded in 1936 as one of the first brands producing aloha shirts, has been raiding its vaults to reproduce designs dating back to the 1930s—including some popularized by Duke Kahanamoku."

Lights, Camera, Action

Hawaiʻi's picturesque landscapes and unique locations have made it a popular destination for filmmakers, resulting in numerous iconic movies and TV shows being filmed in the state. Some of the biggest and most notable productions include:

• Jurassic Park (1993)

• Jurassic World (2015)

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

• 50 First Dates (2004)

• Godzilla (2014)

• The Descendants (2011)

• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

• Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

• Tropic Thunder (2008)

• Hawaiʻi Five-0 (Original and Reboot)

• Lost (2004-2010)

• Magnum, P.I. (Original and Reboot)

• The White Lotus (2021)

• Dog the Bounty Hunter (2004-2012)

UH Maui College

UH Mānoa

UH Hilo