25 February 2011,
HawaiiNewsNow: It was the start of another episode. Danno and Chin Ho Kelly were leaning over their car. Danno's mouth was still full, but he still found room to remark, "It's should be illegal it's so good. What the hell is it?" Chin Ho replied, "Coco puffs. Liliha Bakery sells 7,000 of these a day."

It seems every week another local business gets a plug like this on Hawaii Five-0. Take the Battleship Missouri Memorial for instance. It served as the backdrop when Steve McGarett met the governor for the first time in the pilot episode. It's also in the credits at the opening of every show. And it also had its own episode. An ex-Navy Seal took a group of visitors hostage.

Since then, tourists have been pouring in. Last December the Missouri saw 25% more visitors than any other December on record. And just last month they saw 30,000 paid customers.

Michael Carr, the President and COO of the Battleship Missouri Memorial says, "We had a record year in 2010, I think driven by a number of things, the publicity that we got from drydock, the fact that tourism has improved, but I think the Five-0 Effect certainly had a positive impact on the later part of the year."

Read Full Article: Hawaii News Now.

Labels: CBS, Hawaii, Hawaii Five-O, Season 1