Hawaii told to
market itself better

A top tourism executive
says the isles' self-promotion
lacks consistency

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Despite the economic problems throughout Asia, Hawaii can attract many more tourists from the area but it needs steady, consistent marketing, says a top tourism marketing executive.

Hawaii has made "little forays" into the Asia and Southeast Asia markets when a steadier, if smaller, presence would have been better, said Alwin Zecha, chairman of Pacific Leisure Group, a Hong Kong and Thailand promotions firm that has represented the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau.

The state has shown a tendency to make a big hit and then disappear from the market, Zecha said yesterday at the Strategic Tourism Forum, a two-day conference at the Hilton Hawaiian Village organized by the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii.

"You can only do it so often before you lose your total credibility," Zecha said. "You just don't go in and out." Hawaii would do better to have a smaller but constant presence, he said.

Zecha and several other speakers said there is real hope for the new direction tourism promotion will take under the Hawaii Tourism Authority set up by the 1998 state Legislature with dedicated funding of around $60 million a year from the hotel room tax.

The HVCB always has been cash-strapped and has said the sporadic nature of its efforts in the Asian markets has been strictly a function of its limited budget.

Most of the speakers at the conference said Hawaii must sell aspects of the life and culture of the islands other than the "one-dimensional" image it has of sun, sand and surf.

"It's not going to move people tripping over themselves to come to Hawaii," when there are many destinations closer to home and cheaper that offer the same attractions, Zecha said.

"It's a pretty tired product," he said.

Japan, in particular, needs consistent marketing, said Adrian Mangiboyat Jr., Tokyo-based editor of Travel Journal International, a former Hawaii journalist who has worked for This Week magazines and Pacific Business News.

Japan's economy is sour but people still travel. They are just a lot more cautious about how and where they spend their money, Mangiboyat said. "They have money to burn but they are more careful about how they spend it," he said. Japan's biggest travelers, young working women, are traveling overseas an average of two times a year, rather then the three or four times that was common a few years ago, he said.

Norm Reeder, Hawaii managing director of United Airlines, said the mainland tourist market has been saving Hawaii but there are many other destinations competing for the same people. Hawaii should be a lot more aggressive in its promotion, he said.