By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Diane Quitiquit, the new chairperson of the
Hawaii Tourism Authority. SB Photo by

---

HTA taps
Quitiquit as
chairwoman

She has been vice chairwoman
since the panel was created

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii Tourism Authority today unanimously elected Diane Quitiquit to chair its board. Quitiquit, director of research and development for the County of Hawaii, has been vice chairwoman since the panel was appointed by Gov. Ben Cayetano in October.

She replaces the first chairman, DFS Group Ltd. executive John Reed, who resigned last month. There were no other nominations at the HTA meeting in the Hemmeter Building in downtown Honolulu.

Quitiquit has served on the HTA's events committee and its tourism goals committee.

She said after the meeting that her main task in the voluntary position will be coordinating and speeding the implementation of plans the HTA made under Reed's leadership. Unlike most of Reed's eight months of tenure, the HTA now has a paid chief executive in place, Bob Fishman, former city managing director, to coordinate staff activities, she said.

"We have a chief executive. We have a strategic plan that we're about to go out and outreach" to the community. "We've sort of evolved from a caterpillar to the butterfly stage," Quitiquit said.

Quitiquit was one of four members appointed to the HTA to represent each of the counties. Reed was an at-large member, appointed from nominations submitted by Senate President Norman Mizuguchi, and his replacement will be appointed that way.

The board, formed by the 1998 Legislature and given wide authority to spend some $60 million a year to develop and promote tourism, had its first meeting in October. It already has approved millions of dollars toward helping sports and cultural events and is almost ready to tell the public about its long-term strategy for Hawaii tourism.