ONCE Hawaii was the big fish in a small world-wide tourism pond, admired world-wide for the savvy and success of our tourism promotion. Strengthening Hawaii’s
First of Two Articles
tourism appeal
Second of Two ArticlesNow the world has perhaps 1,000 attractive destinations. We face a totally different situation of having to fight for our niche in what has become the most important industry on the globe -- travel.
This has special significance because tourism, once a much smaller income source than military spending or agriculture, now is the industry we most depend on -- and is struggling to regain past visitor levels. It is about one-third of our economy, creates around one-third of our jobs and one-third of our tax revenues.
The good news is that we at last have a chance for realistic long-term strategic planning along with short-term marketing. The new Hawaii Tourism Authority is assured a budget of at least $55 million a year long-term instead of having to go hat-in-hand to the Legislature each year to beg for much smaller amounts.
With cooperative promotional efforts, the new authority might influence spending of as much as $110 million to $165 million, two or three times the tax revenue it will receive. The authority can make multi-year contracts rather than budget only short-term.
A two-day Tourism Strategic Forum in October suggested ways to go, challenges we must meet.
I will write more on Thursday about two talks that most caught my imagination. These urged us to "go for it" to build the synergy that can come from backing our world-class resort facilities with a world-class cultural community and a world-class business center.
But there was a lot more on the menu, too. We heard our product described as one-dimensional, Waikiki as getting shabby, and our offerings as getting tired.
We also heard that Hawaii has a solid brand name worldwide, that our natural assets are matchless and that most visitors have happy experiences here. Nevertheless, closer, cheaper areas are beckoning our Asian visitors. U.S. mainland travelers are getting multiple choices, too -- Mexico, cruise ships and Europe among them.
People now are looking for "experiences" as much as for destinations -- even the experience of going to a glitzy mall or coffee shop.
Experiences are something Hawaii is pretty good at. We can widen our menu with eco-tourism, marine sanctuary visits, Hawaiian culture tourism, educational opportunities. We already are encouraging Hawaii visits for health and sports.
Historical tourism can build on the battleships Arizona and Missouri and the submarine Bowfin in Pearl Harbor plus the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Honolulu's Chinatown remains relatively undiscovered by visitors. So does Honolulu's downtown.
Japan may not return to its old visitor levels soon, we were told, but India and China are breaking into the travel world and Europe may send many more than the 280,000 visitors it sent last year. We need to market selectively -- approaching different markets with different appeals.
THE new Hawaii Convention Center can help us fill in low spots in the travel year. Conventions at those times will be more valuable than when hotels would be full anyway and comebackers could be annoyed by being displaced.
Direct flights are helping the neighbor islands. Conventioneers will spill over to them, too. The future is for us to make.
THURSDAY: Helping tourism by winning
more stars for culture and business.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.