Skip to content
MarketScale
‹ Back to IndustriesHospitality

Are We There Yet? | Blue Hawaiian Helicopters and Activities

Helicopter tours have become essential storytelling tools that enhance travelers' connections to Hawaii's landscapes. Blue Hawaiian Helicopters offers transformative experiences, providing unparalleled views and emotional ties to the region. The company has demonstrated its commitment to safety and community support during crises like the Maui wildfires.

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Hospitality teams put it to work with Executive Thought Leadership.

By grant.harrell · Are We There Yet?Blue Hawaiian Helicopters and ActivitiesGrant HarrellHelicopter Tours
Share
Are We There Yet? | Blue Hawaiian Helicopters and Activities

Key takeaways

01

Helicopter tours in Hawaii offer emotional and storytelling connections to iconic landscapes.

02

Blue Hawaiian Helicopters is recognized for exceptional safety and its role beyond tourism, such as aiding Maui during wildfires.

03

The company has been awarded the FAA's Certificate of Excellence Diamond Award since 1997.

Get featured

Want to get featured in MarketScale Hospitality?

Create a free MarketScale workspace and get your company's expertise featured across our Hospitality coverage. No credit card, no demo required.

Start free

As travel and tourism evolve, unique experiences like helicopter tours have become more than just adventures; they're integral to the fabric of destination storytelling. In Hawaii, a place synonymous with natural beauty and the aloha spirit, helicopter tours offer unparalleled views and emotional connections to the landscape. Amidst this backdrop, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters & Activities stands out.

What does it truly mean to experience Hawaii from the skies? Are We There Yet? host Grant Harrell invites Quentin Koch, the President-CEO of Blue Hawaiian Helicopters & Activities, to discuss the transformative experiences their tours offer.

The show delves into the essence of Blue Hawaiian Helicopters & Activities, revealing how they've encapsulated the aloha spirit in their service since 1985. The episode touches on their exceptional safety standards, welcoming hospitality, and educational and emotional depth. Koch's journey from a high school graduate to a leader in aviation emphasizes his deep connection to Hawaii and passion for showcasing its wonders.

Highlights from Harrell and Koch's conversation include:

  • Blue Hawaiian's commitment to quality and safety, underscored by their receipt of the FAA's Certificate of Excellence Diamond Award since 1997
  • The inclusive nature of their tours, catering to individuals of all ages and backgrounds, not just tourists but also residents
  • The company's pivot during the wildfires to provide critical support to aid the Maui community, exemplifying their role beyond tourism

Quentin Koch brings a wealth of experience to his role, with over 20 years in the aviation industry. His education at Hawaii Pacific University laid the foundation for a global career that eventually led him back to Hawaii, where he combines his love for aviation with his passion for the islands.

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Hospitality starts with a company putting its general managers, operations leads, and brand teams on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Owners and operators buy from people who understand the property, and your teams prove it in their own words.

Get your team featuredSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.

About the author

G
grant.harrell

Follow Hospitality Insights

Get new expert content in your inbox.

Hospitality: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Hospitality buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free plan

You just read one Hospitality expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your general managers, operations leads, and brand teams into the articles, video, and social content Hospitality buyers are searching for. Create a free workspace and see it with your own people. No credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What you get, free

Your own MarketScale workspace, up to 10 people
One professional video edit a month for qualifying companies
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
$0, no credit card, nothing that expires

More Hospitality Insights

If a competitor's move triggers your rate change, that is market-based pricing, not dynamic

If a competitor's move triggers your rate change, that is market-based pricing, not dynamic

Lighthouse writer Joe Hanly published a ten-strategy hotel revenue management guide on Hotel News Resource on September 8, ranking real-time dynamic pricing first. Its most useful content is a test: a hotel whose rate changes mostly follow a competitor's move is running market-based pricing, whatever it is called internally. A companion explainer says audit the compset and rate plans first.

  • 01Market-based and dynamic pricing both watch competitors; the line Lighthouse draws is whether a competitor's rate is the trigger or one input alongside local events, booking pace and market trends.
  • 02Properties that have gone years without a structured rate-plan review often carry more active plans than anyone tracks, and those legacy floor rates and stay restrictions sit under any pricing engine layered on top.

Sep 18, 2026

Summer 2025 was the weakest US hotel summer in four years, STR data shows

Summer 2025 was the weakest US hotel summer in four years, STR data shows

STR data show summer 2025 was the weakest U.S. hotel summer in four years: demand fell 1.4 million room nights and top 25 market weekday RevPAR dropped 2.3% in mid-August. Business travel plateaued while leisure held up. RevPAR growth returned across major hotel companies in Q1 2026, so 2025 is the comparison base for this year's results.

  • 01Weekday performance is the cleaner read on corporate demand: in the week ending Aug. 16, 2025, top 25 market weekday RevPAR fell 2.3%, per STR; in that same STR update, non-metro and rural areas posted a 0.7% full-week RevPAR gain.
  • 02The 2025 demand loss was concentrated, not spread evenly: STR traced 45% of the economy-class decline to 10 markets, with Houston and Las Vegas alone near a quarter of it, so a national average can hide a very different local picture.
  • 03The gap between occupancy on the books and occupancy actually realized, flagged by CoStar in Las Vegas, Houston, Philadelphia and Orlando in June 2025, is a sharper thing for a revenue manager to track than headline RevPAR.

Sep 18, 2026

Aimbridge's LIFT tool flags hotel staffing gaps before the financials do

Aimbridge's LIFT tool flags hotel staffing gaps before the financials do

Aimbridge Hospitality has rolled out LIFT, an in-house labor tool, portfolio-wide. It puts forecasting, scheduling and on-floor actuals into one view, and pilot hotels saw the largest productivity gains in housekeeping and laundry. For owners, Aimbridge positions it as a way to spot staffing variance sooner than waiting for month-end financials.

  • 01Hotel Business describes LIFT as a proprietary tool that Aimbridge has launched across its own portfolio, which turns labor analytics into a point of comparison between third-party operators.
  • 02Housekeeping and laundry were where pilot hotels saw the biggest productivity gains, which suggests demand-driven scheduling tools have the most room to act in departments where daily workload swings with occupancy.
  • 03Aimbridge has not published numeric pilot results; the signal to watch is whether it releases labor-cost or GOP flow-through figures from the full rollout, which would give owners a real benchmark.

Sep 17, 2026

Explore More Hospitality Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Hospitality.

Browse Hospitality Hub

About the Experts

G
grant.harrell

Host, Are We There Yet?

Grant Harrell is the host of the show 'Are We There Yet?' where he explores transformative travel experiences such as helicopter tours in Hawaii. Harrell delves into how these unique journeys deepen emotional connections with iconic landscapes.

QK
Quentin Koch

President-CEO

Blue Hawaiian Helicopters & Activities

Quentin Koch has over 20 years of experience in the aviation industry. Educated at Hawaii Pacific University, he has built a global career that brought him back to Hawaii, where he combines his aviation expertise with his passion for the islands.

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Hospitality and beyond.

Book a 15-minute demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512