HVCB to roll out By the end of the coming weekend, the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau will have a plan and a cost estimate to launch new promotions to turn Hawaii's lagging tourist industry around, Tony Vericella, HVCB president and chief executive officer, told a state Senate committee yesterday.
new promotions
;The group is looking at various
ways to use the available $5 million
to boost lagging tourismBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comVericella said the HVCB has about $5 million budgeted for marketing through the rest of that year but is looking at many different ways of advertising and promoting Hawaii in the new crisis that has hit international tourism since the hijackings, crashes and thousands of lost lives of Sept. 11.
Passenger arrivals in Hawaii are down by nearly two-thirds from international points such as Japan and nearly one-third from the mainland, compared to last year, according to state figures.
One of the early steps has to be telling the Japanese that it is not rude or disrespectful to take a vacation in Hawaii in what the Japanese see as a time of mourning, Vericella and other tourism executives agreed at an informational hearing called by Sen. Donna Mercado Kim (D-Fort Shafter/Aiea), who chairs the Senate Committee on Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Bob Coe, DFS Hawaii president, estimated it could cost $6 million to do the needed marketing in Japan alone. He stressed the importance of that market to Hawaii, however, by saying his company employs about 1,300 people in duty free operations at Hawaii airports and in retail operations and their jobs are largely dependent on Japanese business.
To get them coming, Hawaii will need teamwork, cash, significant work to hasten recovery from the economic setback and a "powerful and well-executed marketing strategy," Coe said.
While many different approaches were discussed, there was one theme repeated throughout the more than two hours of discussion. Speakers agreed that discounting heavily just to attract tourists now would be a mistake in the long run.
Jeff Stone, one of the partners in the development of the Ko Olina resort, said he has had discussions with Massachusetts Mutual and Marriott International, who are developing a major timeshare village at Ko Olina and are involved in hotels worldwide, and they cautioned against discount selling.
Any discounting should be done in the form of "added value" such as special advantages and perks for people traveling now, several witnesses said.
Katsumi Tanaka, owner of E Noa Corp., which has tours and trolleys, said getting the Japanese back won't work if those who come are discounted non-spenders. "Mercenary and unromantic as it may be, we have to have Japanese who spend," he said.
"The road to discount is, to me, suicidal because we can never win" against other U.S. and foreign destinations that will do the same, he said.
Vericella said the HVCB's current budget for promotions in the fourth quarter of this year includes about $1.1 million for marketing in the U.S. West, about $1.5 million for the U.S. East, $1.4 million for Japan and funds for marketing meetings and conventions and other activities.
The HVCB moved as fast as it could to cut off advertising after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center and has since been examining all of its U.S. and foreign promotions to see what can be cut and what needs to be rewritten. The HVCB has not found any booked advertising that might be seen as inappropriate in the wake of the disaster, he said.
Now it is examining what changes need to be made and what new approaches need to be tried.
Radio station operator Jeff Coelho, general manager of KUMU and several other radio stations, said the message ought to stress liberty and freedom in ways such as: "Exercise your liberty and come to Hawaii. Don't let a terrorist run your life."