FOR many years after Hawaii's hotel industry expanded explosively our new hotels were pretty thin on locally raised top executives. There hadn't been time to train them. Local products
manage Hawaii’s hotelsThe situation is better now.
The Hawaii Hotel Association was formed 50 years ago, well before two events in 1959 started the big bang growth. That year Hawaii became a state. Even more impacting were the jet passenger planes put into service late in the year. They halved travel time and soon halved fares. They also caught our local planners unprepared and some pretty bad buildings went up.
Today we plan better and the hotel association has 180 members statewide. A recent survey responded to by 124 members indicates over 40 percent of our hotels have locally born and locally raised general managers.
This includes some of the biggest and best establishments like Patricia Tam at the Halekulani, Ernest Nishizaki at the Royal Hawaiian, John Cushnie at the Ala Moana, Doug Akoda of Aston Waikiki, Randy Ha of Sheraton Maui and Percy Higashi of Hapuna Beach Prince.
The 124 responding hotels enumerated 562 other top managers and department heads also born and raised in the islands. These include heads of food and beverage, housekeeping, sales and marketing, engineering and security departments. "Many will be the next generation of general managers," says Murray Towill, the hotel association president.
The ways to the top are various -- including right up through the ranks.
About a third of the GMs may have four-year bachelor degrees from the Travel Industry Management School at the University of Hawaii. Not many so far have come from the newer TIM school at Hawaii Pacific University, but they will. HPU's TIM has about 525 students versus 300 at TIM-UH.
UH also trains at the community college level. Kapiolani Community College offers two-year hands-on programs in three fields: culinary arts, hotel and restaurant operations, and travel and tourism operations. There are neighbor island community college offerings, too.
Some of the programs put considerable emphasis on Hawaiiana. This has been a particular emphasis of a state legislator, Rep. Mike White of Maui, GM of the Kaanapali Beach Hotel.
White is locally raised, a UH TIM graduate. He has worked closely with George Kanahele, one of the recognized leaders of efforts to promote more Hawaiian-ness in industry and daily life.
White's hotel has had both lower staff turnover than most hotels and a higher rate of return visitors.
Local products among hotel owners are Richard Kelley and his sister, Jean Rolles, of the Outrigger group, Hawaii's biggest hotel operators, and Andre Tatibouet of Aston Hotels and Resorts. Former Gov. George Ariyoshi heads Prince Resorts Hawaii, a Japanese-owned group.
Famous local chefs and restaurant operators include Sam Choy, Alan Wong and Roy Yamaguchi.
IN addition to stories of local men and women making good in the hotel field here, Hawaii also is a training ground for travel industry service afar. Says Towill: "Our hotel industry is one of the few businesses in the islands that provides people with career skills that can be transferred to any part of the world."
Our overall visitor facility concentration is one of the world's biggest. It is high on professionalism, the art of making what is tough look easy. Daily behind-the-scenes strategy meetings at the big hotels focus on making conventions run smoothly and the visitor experience more pleasant.
Visitors keep giving Hawaii high marks for visitor satisfaction. Our local youths are growing up in the midst of one of the world's best travel industry learning labs.
More and more now seem to be taking advantage of it.