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HTA authorizes
$20 million
commitment
to Pro Bowl

The tourism board also sets
a goal to increase the average
length of stay for visitors by 2.7%

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii Tourism Authority is ready to pay the National Football League almost $20 million to keep the Pro Bowl in Hawaii through 2005, on top of $4 million it is already committed to pay for the 2001 game.

The NFL also wants Aloha Stadium to be fitted with grass instead of its current Astroturf and the HTA said yesterday it will work to achieve that. No timetable has been set and such a change would require approval by other agencies, such as the stadium authority and perhaps the Legislature, said Robert J. Fishman, HTA chief executive officer.

Separately, the HTA yesterday set new goals for Hawaii tourism in general, targeting a 2.7 percent increase in the number of visitor days this year.

The HTA considers visitor days -- the number of visitors times the average length of stay -- to be a better number for planning purposes than a simple head count since it closely reflects tourists' opportunities to spend money and generate taxes.

Fishman said the panel is looking forward to "positive growth for every component, including Japan, which we believe had a 7.2 percent decrease (in visitor days) in the year 1999 from the previous year." It was the second year in which Japanese visitor days declined 7.2 percent, he said.

David Carey, president and chief executive officer of hotel operator Outrigger Enterprises Inc. and chairman of the HTA's accountability and planning committee, presented a list of points to the HTA meeting yesterday, Fishman said.

Among them were:

The U.S. West and East major market areas together produce 67 percent of total visitor days. That target for this calendar year is to increase the West by 3.1 percent and the East by 2.9 percent.
The third largest major market area in terms of visitor days is Japan and the 2000 target is to increase that number by 1.6 percent.
Canada and Europe, which together produce about 10 percent of the visitor days, are targeted to rise by 2.5 percent.

The HTA is targeting 61.18 million visitor days this year, compared with 59.57 million in 1999 and 58.34 million in 1998.

As for the Pro Bowl, the NFL has already agreed to keep it here through 2005. The HTA yesterday authorized golf professional and broadcast commentator Mark Rolfing, chairman of its events committee, to negotiate the details with the NFL.

Fishman said the basic budget agreed to is $4,375,000 for the 2002 game, $4,750,000 for 2003, $5,125,000 for 2004 and $5,500,000 for 2005, a total of $19,750,000.

"The big difference is that it never really was negotiated before," Fishman said. This time the NFL made it clear that Hawaii faced competition from other destinations, he said.

Rolfing's success in talks so far with NFL have already made a lot of difference, Fishman said. In the new contract, for example, the HTA will have control over a significant number of game tickets which it can use to sell tour packages and promote tourism, he said.