Isle meeting to explore
crime against tourists

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Crime against tourists places the biggest segment of Hawaii's economy at risk and reducing it is part of maintaining and improving Hawaii's number one "product," the experience the islands sell to visitors.

The organizers of the second annual Visitor Crime Solutions Conference to be held Thursday at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel say that is why it is important to do whatever can be done to limit tourists' bad experiences.

More than 200 got together last year in what City Council Chairman Mufi Hannemann calls a "call to action" and this week's conference, open to the public for a $15 fee including lunch, will have expert speakers from other areas to tell how they deal with similar problems.

"It is important that we make ourselves aware of the experiences of other visitor destinations so we can replicate their successes and not their failures," Hannemann said.

One idea that came out of last year's conference, he said, was the proposal for video surveillance cameras in Waikiki and Chinatown. There also is an ongoing effort to expand the prison system so that those who prey on tourists, such as prostitutes, won't escape custody because there is no place to hold them, Hannemann said.

One of the speakers this year is Gretchen Dykstra, president of the Times Square Business Improvement District. Dykstra will be in Hawaii to talk to the Waikiki Improvement Association about the Business Improvement District concept -- taxing businesses to provide services that boosts an area's tourism appeal.

But Dykstra will go into more detail at Thursday's meeting, discussing how the busy neighborhood of New York City cut its crime rate.

Don Ahl, director of security at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, also will be featured. A panel on government solutions will feature federal and state prosecutors and state and county lawmakers. County mayors will form another panel on county efforts to combat crime.

For more information and to make reservations for the 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. meeting, call the Hawaii Visitor Industry Security Association, 926-4331.