ByDennis Oda, Star-Bulletin

From left: Hawaiian Air Chairman John Adams, outgoing
CEO Bruce Nobles and new CEO Paul Casey explain the shuffle.

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Tony Vericella, Asia/Pacific vice president of Budget Rent a Car and chairman of the HVCB's board of directors for the past two years, says he will take the helm if a replacement hasn't been found.

Vericella said he will use the services of other members of the HVCB board's executive committee, all of whom serve on a voluntary basis, as needed.

Meanwhile, the bureau is looking for a replacement for Casey, 50, who made a surprise announcement yesterday that, after less than two years on the job, he is leaving as president and chief executive officer March 31 to become president and chief executive of Hawaiian Airlines Inc.

Vericella said the HVCB board will be looking mostly for someone with leadership qualities and visitor industry experience. "We are going to do a broad search," he said, looking for a person with a strong knowledge of Hawaii.

As for Casey's timing, just as the state Legislature is considering the HVCB's request for its biggest government funding ever and a request from Gov. Ben Cayetano for another $10 million in emergency tourism marketing funds, Vericella said that process is well along and Casey will still be around through March.

"Most of the testimony has already taken place," Vericella said.

But the timing of Casey's departure has many people in the community talking about what kind of an executive should replace him and whether the way the bureau is funded should be changed.

"As long as the HVCB is dependent to a great extent on government funding, the person in charge has to have experience with government," said City Councilman Mufi Hannemann. But government has to do its bit too, he said. "It's a two-edged sword."

When he was director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, Hannemann administered the state funding for the bureau.

Hannemann said he favors some form of dedicated funding, an idea supported by many in the visitor industry, such as an earmarked share of the hotel room tax.

That would relieve the HVCB of the task of having to go to Legislature for funding.

Most visitor offices in the nation are funded directly by tourist-related taxes. Las Vegas, for example, hands almost 60 percent of the hotel room taxes collected in southern Nevada directly to the local visitors and convention office.

Hannemann was interviewed for the top bureau post before Casey was chosen. Is he interested now? "I said no once before," he said.

David Carey, president and chief executive of Outrigger Hotels & Resorts and the new chairman of the HVCB's Oahu chapter, said running the bureau is a tough job.

"The HVCB job is one of the most difficult jobs in the state because you have multiple constituents putting pressure on you all the time," Carey said.

He said it is important to have government skills because, particularly when tourism traffic is off as it is now, the HVCB leader has to deal with all levels of government on all islands as well as with the private sector.

Critics, including some legislators, have suggested that the private sector should play a much greater role in promoting tourism and that the HVCB itself could perhaps be better off as an entirely industry-funded organization.

That would be hard, Carey said. "I don't think we could raise the dollar level," such as the $50 million-plus the HVCB is seeking from the Legislature for the next fiscal year.

Businesses would simply redirect money that had been earmarked for their own promotions, he said.

Casey, in his almost daily appearances at the Legislature this session, has been telling lawmakers that the industry already spends more than $300 million a year on its own promotions.

Government funding is needed for the HVCB's true role, brand-image marketing of Hawaii and all its islands without direct connection to individual businesses, Casey says.

Casey said he will still be connected with the bureau, filling the HVCB board seat and executive committee role vacated by Bruce R. Nobles, who is leaving the posts of president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Airlines for undisclosed opportunities on the mainland.

Visitor industry officials praised Casey for taking on a tough job and doing it well.

"He inherited a mess and he fixed it and the guy deserves gold stars," said Outrigger's Carey. "To get a guy of his talent we're going to have to have more money," Carey said.

Gregg Yamanaka, president of MC&A, a Honolulu-based tourism and transportation management company, said Casey did a good job turning the HVCB around.

"I'm pretty confident that the bureau is on a pretty strong fast track," Yamanaka said.

"The challenges come with the nature of politics in Hawaii. Everybody thinks that they're a marketing expert," he said.