HVCB plans for The Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau is preparing to cut tourism marketing expenses by roughly 6 percent this year in Japan, the U.S. West and the U.S. East, in response to Gov. Ben Cayetano's line-item veto of the state's tourism marketing budget.
$2 million cut
Mainland and Japan marketing
expenses will shrink by 6%By Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.comThe bureau plans to pare U.S. West spending to $7.1 million from $7.6 million; U.S. East spending to $9.1 million from $9.7 million; and Japan spending to $8.2 million from $8.8 million, said Frank Haas, director of tourism marketing for the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
The authority, a state agency, had its budget reduced 8 percent this year to $56 million from $61 million, the result of Cayetano's June veto. The nonprofit bureau, which has the authority's largest contract, is eliminating $2 million from $37 million used to market Hawaii as a visitor destination to the world, Haas said.
The bureau and the authority collaborated to decide where to cut, Haas said. Along with cuts to Japan and the United States, the bureau is trimming about $426,000 total from other markets, he added.
Tony Vericella, chief executive of the bureau, said one Big Island job opening will go unfilled because of the budget cuts. Closing offices was considered and rejected, he said.
The cuts will begin this month and continue through the end of year, and come as Hawaii is still trying to win back the Japanese market the state lost after Sept. 11. U.S. mainland arrivals have returned to where they were before the terrorist attacks, but total visitor spending is down 6 percent this year, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
"The stand that we've taken is we don't agree that the budget should have been cut," Haas said. "We deal with reality, so we are managing the budget reduction as best we can without creating an undue impact on the marketing programs."
Information on specific programs to be reduced was not available this morning. Haas noted the bureau and the authority attempted to make the cuts proportional to the bureau's overall marketing strategy. Cuts were avoided in areas that could carry penalties, such as obligated long-term media purchases, Haas said.
The bureau is still working on reductions to its 2003 budget. Bureau officials have said they expect a cut of $2.6 million next year, though the exact numbers were not final.
Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau
Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism
