After Hawaiian Airlines revamped its Web site in 2002, online ticket sales tripled. Now, Hawaiian hopes its latest overhaul will provide a similar boost.

This month, the local carrier unveiled a new $1.1 million Web site, which puts Hawaiian on the forefront of e-commerce in the airline industry.

"This isn't just another refresh. While many companies put a new face on a tired old site, this is a very fundamental change in our site design and the way in which we think people will want to travel," said Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian's chief executive officer.

Airlines for years have been using the Internet to reach their customers. These days, most carriers offer e-ticketing and Web check-in services and many provide online information on hotel deals and cars. Some sell jewelry, clothing and airline memorabilia on their Web sites.

What's different about Hawaiian's new site is that it provides some of the resources offered by travel services such as www.Expedia.com and www.Orbitz.com.

With the click of a mouse, viewers can access hundreds of travel reviews and destination information for about a dozen of the 20 Neighbor Island, Mainland and international destinations that Hawaiian serves.

The travel information, which includes in-depth reviews provided by travel publications such as Frommer's, Fodor's and Lonely Planet, comes with maps, prices, customer surveys and estimates on the amount of time needed on the sightseeing tours.

That becomes an indispensible tool for the time-stressed business traveler or a first-time visitor to a given destination, experts say.

"This is a textbook application of the latest in e-commerce technology," said Tung Bui, professor at the University of Hawai'i's Shidler College of Business.

"This goes far beyond the business of transporting passengers."

To be sure, Hawaiian's Web strategy has become a key component of the airline's business plan in the wake of increased competition in both the trans-Pacific and interisland markets, especially from low-cost carriers such as ATA Airlines and Mesa Air Group's interisland startup go!

Since the launch of its Web site in 1996, Hawaiian said its airline's Internet business has gone from 50 online shoppers a month to more than 45,000 a day.

Dunkerley noted that Hawaiian's Web bookings tripled within a year when it overhauled its Web site in 2002. Online sales tripled again after the airline retooled its Web site in 2005.

Dunkerley said the airline's Web bookings have grown at such a rapid rate during the past several years that Hawaiian gets most of its business online.

While low-cost carriers like Ireland's Ryanair and JetBlue on the Mainland sell 80 percent or more of their tickets on the Internet, Dunkerley said few, if any, legacy carriers receive more than 50 percent of their business from the net. Rival Aloha Airlines said it is in the process of redesigning its www.alohairlines.com Web site, with a "new look and feel."

"We are in very, very competitive markets, and we have got to find ways to distinguish ourselves from the crowd," Dunkerley said.

"It's important for a business such as ours to try to distinguish itself in a number of different ways and not just one. Any company can lower fares, any company can do one thing well. What is really tough in our business is to do things well across the spectrum."

Mark Schroeder, whose Boulder, Colo., Web-design firm Home & Abroad helped develop Hawaiian's new Web site, said he's aware of no other airline site that provides the same level of sophistication.

Schroeder noted that Hawaiian's site allows travelers to plan their travel itineraries according to 17 travel themes such as sports activities, shopping locations, arts and musical excursions and culinary and other cultural events.

Each of those themes, in turn, provides customers with a listing and descriptions of parks, beaches, museums, theaters, restaurants or any other destination that suits the traveler's taste.

Over the next several months, Hawaiian will add features that will allow customers to purchase round-trip airfare by combining dollars and frequent-flier mileage awards, purchase upgrades online and book hotel and car awards online using mileage awards.

"We have not seen any other airline with something remotely like this," said Schroeder, whose firm provides similar content for www.Expedia.com.

For Dunkerley, the new Web site underscores Hawaiian's commitment to the Internet.

Since launching its first Web site in 1996, Hawaiian has reinvented its Web site several times while investing more than $20 million in the process. He said he expects the company to continue to revamp its latest Web site in the next several years as new technologies become available.

"When new technology comes along, companies generally divide themselves into those that embrace the new technology and change their business models around it and those that try to resist it," Dunkerley said.

"We have very definitely put ourselves in the former category."

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.