Mainland Shivers, and Hawaii Basks in Tourism

Tourists have been flocking to Hawaii, including Waikiki Beach last weekend. People in Chicago and New York, meanwhile, were thrilled to see the thermometer hit 40

One recent afternoon, as the temperature in their native Nashville dipped to a slim 7 degrees, Blythe Grant and Jordan Tlumak walked along the beach at Waikiki with beers in hand and smiles on their faces. 

“We just left three inches of snow in Nashville,” said Mr. Grant, 26 and buff. “I was pretty pumped to get on the plane.” Mr. Tlumak, his friend, nodded. “Nashville just doesn’t know how to handle that.”
Mr. Grant and Mr. Tlumak are not the only mainlanders to be gloating about their good luck. Hawaiian tourism officials, hotel operators and travel agents — battered by several years of slumping sales — have recently seen a marked increase in arrivals to the islands. And while there are various theories as to why — including favorable currency exchange rates attracting foreign visitors, and Obama on the beach — what most people can agree on is that the rotten weather in much of the rest of the country, including a series of brutal snowstorms in the Midwest and on the East Coast, has been good news in Hawaii. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/us/17hawaii.html?scp=3&sq=weather&st=cse