Another HVCB
executive
to depart

The top VP for Asia
is leaving as the bureau
faces an uncertain future

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Kazumasa "Kaz" Tamura, vice president of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau for the Asia-Pacific region, will leave his job Aug. 14, the second vice president to depart from the HVCB in less than two months.

Tamura said he doesn't have much to say about his departure except that he wants to work in the private sector and has not decided what or where his next job will be.

Tony Vericella, HVCB president and chief executive officer, said the organization has a strong sales office in Japan, headed by Kiyoshi Mukumoto, vice president-Japan, a 30-year veteran of Japan Airlines, who reports directly to Vericella.

The HVCB also recently appointed a sales agent in China and has other sales and representation arrangements around the Pacific, so there is no immediate pressure to appoint a replacement, Vericella said.

Roy Tokujo, in his second year as chairman of the HVCB board of directors, agreed. "The bureau is still in good shape," said Tokujo, head of Cove Marketing Inc., an entertainment marketing business.

However, the HVCB is facing an unknown future since the 1998 state Legislature's established a new Hawaii Tourism Authority to set the overall directions of tourism. The authority will hire people and organizations to carry out the policies, under contract, and the HVCB will have to win out in a competitive bidding process.

Tokujo said that may require some changes and the salaried HVCB executives and the 34-member volunteer board of directors soon will have a thorough discussion.

"We will hold an all-day workshop with all the board members later this month to look for the best role the bureau can play," Tokujo said.

Tamura's departure comes at a time when the Hawaii tourist industry is deeply concerned about a drop-off in travel from Japan and the rest of Asia, triggered by the region's economic crisis. In the first half of this year, arrivals from the Asia-Pacific area were down 8.2 percent compared with 1997's first half, a loss of about 111,000 people. Furthermore, the weakening of Asian currencies has cut into the spending power of the tourists who do visit.

Tamura will leave about seven weeks after the departure of Roberta Rinker-Ludloff, HVCB vice president of marketing for two years, who left at the end of June for an international hotel marketing job. Tokujo said a number of very qualified people have applied for Rinker-Ludloff's job.

Before joining the HVCB, Tamura had a sales career that included three years in Asia sales for Aston Hotels & Resorts and three years with Sheraton Hotels. He was sales manager for the Sheraton-managed hotels on the neighbor islands and later director of Japan sales for the Sheraton Moana and the Sheraton Surfrider.

Just before his shift to the HVCB, he was director of international sales for the Sheraton New York Towers and the Sheraton Manhattan.