By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
The Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau wants more state money
so it can attract more tourists to the islands and the Hawaii
Convention Center, which is still under construction.

"The numbers don't surprise me because I think there is a large degree of ignorance about, one, the value of tourism; two, the way tourism impacts everybody in the state; and three, what the Bureau does in trying to generate tourism," Casey said.

Kenneth Levy, an Internet Web page designer in Paia, Maui, agrees with the last point. "I don't really know enough about what the HVCB actually does with the money," he said.

However, he is one of the minority who believe that Gov. Ben Cayetano's request to the Legislature for $10 million in quick public tourism promotion funding is reasonable.

"I'm not against the government promoting tourism," Levy said. It is, after all, a major industry in the state, he added.

However, Levy said he can't see the justification for the granting the HVCB's own request for double its previous funding through the next two state fiscal years.

Dennis Yamaguchi, who works for his uncle's bus service on Kauai, disagrees with public funding for tourism.

"If tourism isn't working so well, then it shouldn't survive," Yamaguchi said. He doesn't think the HVCB should get the $10 million in emergency money, and he doesn't like increasing the HVCB's overall state funding.

"The state shouldn't be interfering. The government shouldn't be adding monies or taking monies away from the private sector," said Yamaguchi, who acknowledged that part of the business his employer gets comes from tourism.

In all, 56 percent percent of those polled said they disapprove of the $10 million emergency grant and 37 percent said they approve. When it came to the HVCB's request for nearly $54 million in public funding for the 1997-98 fiscal year, more than double the current budget, disagreement was a lot stronger.

The budget should not be doubled, said 71 percent of those polled and only 26 percent approved.

"I don't think they (the HVCB) should get away with that. I think they should be forced to plan," so they don't need emergency money.

The HVCB contends it does plan but never has enough money to spend on doing what it should be doing, selling the generic brand image of Hawaii.

Wood acknowledged that the HVCB doesn't get what it asks for in government funding. "They have had such bad luck getting big increases in their budget in the past, maybe this (emergency funding) is a better strategy," Wood said.

Casey said it wasn't HVCB strategy but he is glad Cayetano included the idea in his State of the State address. Casey said the HVCB would spend more than half of the money in Japan, where there has been no Hawaii brand image advertising for more than five years.

Casey said he found the overall negative public response "disturbing but not surprising."

The disapproval rate was not so high when residents were asked a broad question about public funding for tourism. Only 26 percent said too much is being spent on tourism and 20 percent said not enough is being spent.

More than half of those polled, 52 percent, said spending now is at the right level.