Hawaii as center for
First of Two Articles
culture and business
Second of Two ArticlesBEGINNING in 1975, I was one of two local editors joining missions of politicians and planners, plus community and visitor industry leaders, to pop off to the South Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean,Bermuda and the Mediterranean to see visitor plants in other places and talk to leaders there.
It gave us a far broader perspective on Hawaii's place in the travel industry, for which jet aircraft had begun a great and still-continuing global boom. It especially impressed all of us with the need to maintain Hawaii's friendly aloha spirit as our standout asset.
Such missions are hard to replicate, so in October the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii did the reverse. It set up a two-day Tourism Strategic Forum at Hilton Hawaiian Village and lured VIPs from both here and far away to help us see Hawaii's potential today in a broader perspective.
We heard voices from Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Manila, Sydney, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Germany, travel industry monitor organizations and some perceptive local contributors. Attending full time was John Reed, who later was elected to chair the new Hawaii Tourism Authority. The authority is looked on with a great hope as a shaper of Hawaii's tourism future. A summary of the Oct. 15-16 proceedings soon will be available from the TIM School.
Of especial help to the school was one of tourism's great community volunteers -- Peter Fithian of Greeters Hawaii. He helped set up the 1970s travel study missions, founded the billfish tournament, headed the secretariat for the 1988 Governor's Congress on Hawaii's International Role, and was a key prodder in several state conferences on Hawaii's tourism future .
I pointed out Tuesday that Hawaii now has intense tourism competition. Even so, we remain particularly well endowed with great climate, great natural beauty, the world's most successful mixed ethnic community and a significant mid-Pacific location. How to build on these assets was the focus of the forum.
I particularly liked pleadings from Michael Tiknis of the Honolulu Symphony and Professor David McClain of the University of Hawaii that the time has come to back up our five-star resort location with a multi-star Hawaii cultural life and a multi-star business community. They could interact to make Honolulu one of the great cities of the world.
Pie in the sky? I don't think so. Geneva does it.
McClain related a story about Purdue University training of business executives for Asia service. The executives initially resisted gathering in Hawaii before going to Asia. They regarded Hawaii as "too touristy" but went away saying the know-how available here through UH made their Asia visits immensely more meaningful.
Tiknis boasted about the only symphony in the world that plays in aloha shirts and offered eye-popping figures on the the growth of spending for culture and the arts. Why not make Hawaii the arts center of the Pacific, he asked.
WE never will win multi-stars for our business, culture and educational offerings without a community purpose to do so. This is well beyond the reach of government, well beyond the reach of business, well beyond the reach of our cultural and educational establishments, and well beyond the reach of the tourism authority. But it is within the reach of all of us working together.
Think of four horses harnessed to a heavy block and tugging at it while headed in four different directions. Not much happens -- except that the horses tire. Harness them to pull together in a single direction and the block moves easily. Common purpose can move Hawaii to a greater future.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.
