HVCB’s chief:
Need cash, autonomy

The agency should be the
lead marketing arm for the
entire state, Tony Vericella says

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Tony Vericella aims to be the strong leader of a strong organization.

Vericella, who put in his first day Wednesday as the $200,000-a-year president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, says the bureau should be the state's leading marketing arm, not just for tourism, but for everything Hawaii has to offer.

Tourism is the only real industry Hawaii has, and when people talk about diversifying the economy, they should be talking about diversifying tourism, Vericella says.

That won't be achieved overnight, Vericella acknowledged in an interview, but the agency is already taking steps in that direction, and he will speed them up, he said.

First of all, though, Hawaii needs a new, comprehensive strategic plan for tourism, setting out what's best for Hawaii's number one industry and for the communities in which it operates.

The HVCB also needs much more state funding than it gets, and needs it to come from a dedicated source, a reliable amount that will always be there without having to go hat in hand to the Legislature every year, he said.

Early this year, the HVCB figured out what it should be spending and came up with a proposal for $53 million in state funding in the first fiscal year of a new budget, rising yearly after that.

"This is a minimum level," Vericella said. The ideal budget would have an escalator clause allowing state funding to rise according to measurable changes, such as job growth or tax revenues, he said.

Vericella said, however, that the funding should not be raised by creating a new tax or increasing existing taxes.

There are ways to work within the existing state budget to move the money to the HVCB without raising taxes and the priority of doing so should be recognized, the former airline and rental car executive said.

Once the money is found the HVCB, as the experts in the field, should be left alone to spend it where it gets the most effect, he said. The bureau has proven for several years that it is accountable for its spending, he added.

Whether it's $50 million, or $60 million or more, the annual funding should be enough to let the HVCB do its job. "Is that something that will allow you to be competitive on a global scale?" That's the question that should be asked when finding amounts are weighed, he said.

One of Vericella's first steps, he said, is to find out exactly where tourism is as an industry, where it is going, how it affects local communities and the big question: Just what is the tourist carrying capacity of Hawaii, not just the state as a whole but individual islands and tourist locations.

Such a study is being planned on the way towards developing a strategic plan for tourism, Vericella said. "We're going to be out there, listening and learning," he said. "What is our product? What should our product be?"

The bureau also will take a leadership role in other areas, such as making Hawaii a safe and clean place, he said. "It should be the safest place in the world. There should be zero tolerance for anything bad that happens, not just to visitors but to those of us who live here," he said.

Vericella said the issue of diversifying Hawaii's economy shouldn't be about whether to spend more money on either tourism or some other kind of industry. For now, only tourism shows a direct result from investment and can be boosted fast, he said.

The issue really should be about diversifying tourism, far and away the state's largest industry and employer, Vericella said. Health care, education, science, exotic agriculture, fashion, entertainment and many other fields are related to tourism and can use the infrastructure the tourist industry has built.

"The HVCB can and should be the catalyst for helping to develop or create other industries. At the end of the day, everything is interrelated here," Vericella said.

"The future is very positive for the HVCB as the major, or maybe the only, marketing arm of the state."

Hawaii can return to the golden years when it was the first and sometimes the only place people thought of visiting, he said.

"We're going to show the competition we're back and we mean business," he said.