Isles rake in tourist dollars A new survey puts Hawaii's two congressional districts among the top 10 in terms of tourist expenditures
By Pete Pichaske
Phillips News Service
WASHINGTON - When it comes to raking in tourist dollars, only Las Vegas and Disney World can outdo Honolulu. A survey released today by the Travel Industry Association of America found that Hawaii's first congressional district, made up of urban Honolulu, took in more tourist dollars in 1995 than all but two of the nation's 435 congressional districts.
The top two were the Las Vegas area and the Orlando, Fla., area.
Hawaii's second district, which includes rural Honolulu and the neighbor islands, was ranked 6th in the nation, trailing the rest of Nevada and a district that includes the Los Angeles beaches.During 1995, tourists spent $7 billion in Hawaii's first district and nearly $6 billion in the second.
They spent $9.9 billion in Las Vegas and $7.2 billion in Orlando.
The survey found that Hawaii is also among the nation's leaders in travel employment, with 91,000 workers employed in the tourist industry in the first district and 80,000 in the second.
TIA officials say the survey is the first to break down travel spending by congressional district. They hope to use the figures, which show an average spending per district of nearly $1 billion, to convince Congress of the economic importance of travel and tourism.
Specifically, they want Congress to come up with a permanent - and generous - source of money for the National Tourism Organization, established last year to coordinate the nation's tourism efforts.
Industry leaders have decried those efforts as scant and inadequate. Congress is to decide by this fall how to fund the agency.
"Our industry is one with enormous economic potential, yet in the minds of most Americans and their elected officials our industry is almost invisible," said William S. Norman, TIA's president and chief executive officer.
Tourism is the nation's second largest employer, said Norman, and the third largest retail business.
"You could call this a lobbying tool," said TIA spokesman Michael Pina of the survey. "It serves to show members of Congress how important travel is in their districts."
First District Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D, said he was pleased - but not surprised - by the results. "It shows you what a tourist travel destination Hawaii still is, and Honolulu in particular," said Abercrombie.
He noted that the House recently revived its travel and tourism caucus, which had died when Republicans took over Congress three years ago. Abercrombie is part of the new caucus' steering committee.
Abercrombie said the survey is likely to prove useful in persuading Congress to treat tourism like a key cog in the nation's economy, which is one goal of the newly revived travel caucus.
"Travel and tourism money is kind of taken for granted now," he said. "We want to educate our congressional colleagues on the importance of it. This is the kind of thing that catches their attention, when you put b's' not m's' in front of illion."
