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Environmental
study would stall
promotion of
tourism, court told

The Sierra Club says the
report is necessary because
of traffic problems and
overcrowding

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By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

If the Hawaii Tourism Authority is forced to prepare an environmental assessment of its $114 million three-year marketing plan, tourism promotion would stop in its tracks, a state attorney told the Hawaii Supreme Court today.

"It would halt the program. There would be no more marketing," said Winfred Pong, attorney for the HTA, in a case that the high court said it will decide at a future date.

The HTA's three-year contract with the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Authority would be stalled and it could take a year to restart it, if it has to go through an environmental assessment process, Pong argued.

But the Hawaii chapter of the Sierra Club said it isn't asking for an immediate halt. All the environmental watchdog organization is seeking, said its attorney Isaac Hall, is a high court ruling that the HTA is required by law to make such a study.

Traffic problems that already exist on his home island, Maui, because of increased tourism provide just one example of the kind of impact the Sierra Club fears if visitor numbers rise, he said.

Hawaii's environment is "unique, fragile," and those very attributes attract tourists, so it should be in the tourist industry's interests as well as everyone else's to see that gets full protection, Hall said.

The HTA's own goals call for as many as 30,000 additional tourists in the islands every day, Hall said, a level that would overburden roadways and drain the resources that Hawaii residents need.

"Would we put more visitors on the roads if we knew the roadway infrastructure to be deficient?" he said. That kind of concern is why decision-making bodies such as the HTA need environmental assessments of the results of their actions before they make decisions, he said.

That was not done in this case, when the HTA decided Sept. 15 of last year to award a contract that allows the HVCB to spend $38 million a year for three years to promote tourism, Hall said.

The HTA argued that the state law requiring state agencies to make environmental studies unless specifically exempted cannot be applied to advertising. It is "site-specific" and only applies to direct construction or redevelopment, Pong said.

"Advertising is speech," he said, not construction.

Anyway, he said, the HTA's strategic plan specifically aims to increase visitor expenditures, not numbers. There are ways other than increasing the numbers to achieve that, he said, such as persuading tourists to stay longer and spend more money.

The Sierra Club petitioned the high court in January seeking a halt to state-funded tourism until a complete study is made of how attracting more tourists might affect the environment. Its request for an injunction was denied, however, and it is not now seeking one.

Hall said that if the court rules in its favor, it would like the right to seek an injunction later, if the HTA does not comply and do an assessment.