Value pass offers discounts
to Hawaii visitors

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

More than 1,200 Hawaii retailers, attractions, restaurants and other local businesses are joining an effort to make tourists happy by giving them discounts and gifts statewide.

Between Nov. 1 and the end of January, and possibly longer, every visitor checking into accommodations in the islands will receive a "Hawaii Value Pass," like a credit card, with a welcoming message from Gov. Ben Cayetano on the back in English and Japanese.

Visitors need only look for a matching decal or other sign in a store or restaurant to know they'll get discounts or freebies, Tony Vericella, president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, told a news conference yesterday. Vericella said the HVCB expects to issue a million cards in the coming three months.

Local residents who check into hotels, perhaps encouraged by various kamaaina discount programs, will also get the cards, Vericella said.

The program by itself is not intended to encourage or promote travel to Hawaii. That is being done in other ways, Vericella said, using $10 million that the state Legislature appears ready to allocate. But, he said, it is part of making visitors feel welcome and generating business for small- to medium-sized operators that have been hurt the most by the tourism decline since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Travel sellers already have a lot of deals to attract tourists and the Hawaii Value Pass will add "another very big level of enhancement to those value-added products," Vericella said. He said no minimum discounts have been set but the response from merchants has made it clear that they will be significant.

The could include hotel room upgrades, free dessert with dinner, two-for-one dinner deals, cheap or free entrance to attractions, personal gifts and a wide range of enhancements to make the Hawaii visit more memorable, he said.

Personal efforts by Walter A. Dods Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of First Hawaiian Bank parent BancWest Corp., led to 12 nonprofit attractions across the state opening their doors free to holders of the value card, Vericella said. Bank of Hawaii, Alexander & Baldwin Inc., Verizon Hawaii and Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. joined in that financing program to help the non-profits, such as the Honolulu Academy of the Arts and the Queen Emma Summer Palace on Oahu, the Kauai Museum, the Lahaina Restoration Foundation on Maui and Lyman Museum on the Big Island.

The Honolulu Zoo, Haunama Bay and Foster Gardens, run by the City & County of Honolulu, will give discounts.

"Obviously, the whole idea is to get people moving in and around Hawaii," Vericella said. The HVCB's Web site, www.gohawaii.com, will have a list of all the participating businesses and more information on how to get and use the value card, he said.

Vericella said the HVCB is already getting calls suggesting the program run longer, perhaps through March, and the organizers believe it has created such solid support among local businesses that have no way to promote themselves on such a scale that the program, or something similar, may go on well beyond the current crisis.