Name: Yoko Tokunaga
Age: 46
Position: Associate director of sales, Asia-Pacific, Hyatt
First job: Front office hotel clerk
Hobbies: Shopping, golf

Selling Hyatt
to Asia-Pacific market

Yoko Tokunaga is promoting Asia-Pacific sales for Hyatt hotels on Kauai, Maui and Oahu. "Over 100 employees at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki speak Japanese," Tokunaga said.

The Hyatt Regency Waikiki is completing a $10 million renovation and also is one of only a few hotels in Hawaii with special open-air places for cigar smokers, she said. The cigar smoking area on lanai of the Ciao Mien restaurant will start with a promotional dinner on Aug. 27.

Tokunaga has 25 years in hospitality industry sales, and won awards from both the Sheraton and Hyatt corporations.

She held food and beverage positions at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider and also was director of Asia-Pacific sales at the Alana Waikiki before returning to the Hyatt Regency Waikiki in April 1996.

She was born and raised in Osaka, Japan.

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By Jerry Tune, Star-Bulletin