HVCB head
forecasting fast
rebound for
Hawaii tourism

CEO Vericella is more optimistic
than other experts and sees
a bounce back by June

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau has something that many economists and outside observers have not had since the Sept. 11 attacks dealt a devastating blow to tourism -- confidence.

To begin with, Hawaii tourism has substantially turned around from its low point and although the numbers have not rebounded to where they were a year ago, there are strong indications that the downturn is being reversed, said Tony Vericella, president and chief executive of the bureau.

Vericella said that tourism measurements already look better and the HVCB believes that by June, tourism will return to last year's levels. The prediction is more optimistic than those made by economists, who have said that tourism will be down until 2003, but Vericella said visitor arrivals are already better than had been predicted and Hawaii's tourism promotions are pushing ahead.

The HVCB is concentrating on reminding people that Hawaii is an American paradise with a comfortable environment, running campaigns to thank visitors for coming here -- believing they will go home and pass that message of hospitality to others -- and educating tourism industry workers that "live aloha" is a wise policy, Vericella said.

Vericella said the HVCB is building relationships developed with media outlets in Japan, which will send crews to Hawaii to report on everyday life and how tourists from their country are enjoying peaceful fun in the islands.

One of the promotions the HVCB is involved in is the "aloha season" of the PGA Tour, which guarantees six professional golf tournaments a year in the islands. David Preese, the HVCB's marketing chief for North America, said that alone will bring 40-50 hours of television exposure for Hawaii each year, with an economic contribution to the islands of at least $59 million a year. A Hawaii-themed Disney animated movie coming out soon can't help but boost Hawaii tourism and in Japan Hawaii will be promoted as a secure, safe destination "without ever using the word safe," Vericella said.

Without saying so, he appeared to be saying that using the word "safe" indicates Hawaii might have been unsafe and the HVCB has taken the position that was never so.

For those who believe that the availability of airline seats into Hawaii dictates Hawaii tourism traffic, Vericella had this to say: "Within one week of Sept. 11, we had 90 percent-plus" of our airline seats back in service. "No other destination did," he said.

Vericella's opinion that the decline in tourism has slowed is borne out by preliminary figures from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The department's emergency figures deal with total airline passenger arrivals, including residents returning from off-island trips, but tourism officials say they have turned out to be fairly close to the realities of the visitor industry.

Those figures show that through the first two weeks of January, total airline passenger arrivals were down 4.5 percent from the same time last year, a total of 186,235 compared to 195,037 in the first two weeks of January 2001.

In the weeks after Sept. 11, the total fall-off was running as high as 40 percent.

So far this month, the airport count of arrivals from Japan is down 21.9 percent from the mid-January 2001 tally, with 65,519 arrivals this year compared to 83,919 in the January 2001 period. Also, January 2001 was a fairly good month for Hawaii's tourist industry with total visitor arrivals for the whole month up 7.4 percent from the prior year.

Through the latter part of last year, the Japanese arrival count often was down more than 60 percent.