ON Saturday, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, a designated historic site in Waikiki, will be celebrating both its 70th birthday and the 50th anniversary of its reopening after being a submariners' rest place during World War II. Sheraton executive
sees tourism growingI was here for the 1947 reopening. The "pink palace" is just as attractive today as then.
It can still be a top luxury hotel on its 100th and 120th birthdays, says John Brogan, the ITT Sheraton Corp.'s senior vice president overseeing the Royal Hawaiian, seven other Hawaii hotels and seven more in California.
He thinks Waikiki and Hawaii also can still be top draws 50 years from now if we do the right things. He sees no automatically deteriorating life cycle like that of Atlantic City. Our No. 1 industry can have the durability of Bermuda, Monaco, Switzerland and other durable vacation destinations if we stay on our toes.
That's welcome encouragement from a highly qualified observer. Brogan first came to Hawaii for Sheraton in 1960 and has been assigned here for 25 of the 37 years since then.
One of the right things for us to do, he is sure, is the new Waikiki Special Design District law that increases some of the old density limits. Buildings may go higher in exchange for more and more attractive ground open space. More "Hawaiianness" will be emphasized in our structures and ambience.
Brogan guesses smaller hotels will move faster than the big ones to take advantage of the new rules. Sheraton, however, has a $20 million renovation program ongoing. Frequent renovation and retrofitting will be a key to long survival for well-built luxury hotels like the Royal Hawaiian.
He thinks most of our long-term tourism growth will be on the neighbor islands. They can be fed in part by another right thing we are doing - building a new convention center to open mid-1998. It should raise overall tourism by 2 to 3 percent a year and help stimulate visits elsewhere in Hawaii. It may have to seek some of its earliest bookings in Asia because American conventions mostly book five years in advance.
Other right things to do, of course, are to control crime and pollution, and curb street peddling and prostitution in Waikiki. We also must maintain the friendliness of our people that is a major factor in drawing visitors here. He thinks friendliness comes naturally here and is a great asset.
Still another need is to boost marketing efforts, by both the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and the industry itself - hotels, airlines and others. The competition is surging.
Even though Sheraton has casinos in other areas Brogan thinks gambling would be wrong for Hawaii. On this he differs with Hawaii's other big hotel operator, the Outrigger group. I'm on his side.
HE sees 1997 as a difficult year for Hawaii. Our Japanese visitors face economic troubles at home and a worsening exchange rate. A dollar could be bought for as low as 80 yen a few years ago. Now the price is around 120, or 50 percent higher. Japanese contribute almost 50 percent of the business in Waikiki. Of the eight hotels Sheraton manages in Hawaii, seven are Japanese-owned.
For the next several years Brogan expects tourism in Hawaii to make only slow advances. Higher visitor numbers may be offset by shorter stays. But he remains optimistic that the industry on which we depend so much can remain a top draw even though new competitors are springing up worldwide. Travel is one of the world's fastest growing industries.