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HVCB exec
sees new markets
on West Coast

A population shift means more
potential first-time visitors

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

A population shift to the Western United States from the East Coast is creating a new, valuable market for Hawaii tourism, says the man in charge of marketing the islands to North American tourists.

David K. Preece, senior vice president for the North American market at the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, said that although the Western states are the biggest source of Hawaii's tourists, they can be mined for a lot more.

"There are always a lot more people on the West Coast who have not been to Hawaii than those who have," he said in an interview last week.

The population shift to the booming-economy areas such as Silicon Valley is bringing a new market: people with East Coast travel habits whose destinations of choice traditionally included places such as Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada or Europe. "They were never close to Hawaii before," Preece said.

The regular visitors from the West Coast are coming back too, he said. Although they may have been to the islands several times before, they are being encouraged to return by a stress on the diversity of the islands -- new places to see and new things to do.

State figures show the strategies are working.

In the first four months of this year, arrivals from the Pacific region -- California, Oregon and Washington -- were up 8.4 percent from the equivalent period of last year, with California in the lead with an 11 percent increase, according to the latest figures from the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

Preece, who joined the HVCB in January 1999 after working for them as a consultant, said a big thrust by the organization is to "find ways to mine newcomers."

In the East, that means showing them it is not as difficult or expensive to get to Hawaii as they might believe, he said. In the West, it is getting to the new population and showing long-time residents that there are many attractive things about Hawaii that they have yet to experience. "For the repeat visitors, it's a place of discoveries. There's always a new island, a new restaurant. Even though they've been here all along, they may never have seen it," he said.

The HVCB has a contract with the Hawaii Tourism Authority to market the islands through 2002 and along with that comes a budget derived directly from the hotel room tax. But it's not the $60 million that is widely cited as the annual budget, Preece said. That figure, he said, refers to the HTA's overall budget and also covers other aspects of tourism such as improving the islands' infrastructure and developing and promoting special events.

For his United States and Canada sphere, Preece gets $14 million of the overall funding. On top of that, $10 million goes into the North American markets direct from the HVCB's individual island chapters, for a total of $24 million. That has to compete with such big spenders as Las Vegas, with $125 million or more in annual tourism marketing money, and the cruise industry, which spends about $700 million a year.

One way Hawaii leverages its money is by recruiting brand-name companies to use Hawaii as part of their marketing. The HVCB found that the notion of working with Hawaii as a healthy, clean destination quickly appeals to the brands, Preece said.

Gail Ann Chew, the HVCB vice president for marketing services, has the responsibility for bringing them in and she is getting good results, he said. "Every time Gail knocks on the door, it's open," Preece said. Best-known brands such as Kodak, Hallmark, Samsonite, Healthy Choice, Master Card and Kraft Foods, have worked with Hawaii. "We get more leverage out of these relationships than any other destination," Preece said.

The Healthy Choice brand, for example, is running a national family health campaign this summer with 50 HVCB-arranged trips to the islands as contest prizes. This benefits both the brands and the state and costs the HVCB practically nothing since the trips are donated by the industry, he said.

Preece had a number of high-level marketing posts on the mainland before moving to Hawaii in mid-1995 as senior vice president of marketing and sales for the Polynesian Cultural Center.

He left that post in 1998 and went out on his own. His consultancy, Pacific Marketing Group, had worked with the HVCB for several months before he was asked to join full time.

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Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau