ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gov. Linda Lingle spoke at a news conference yesterday at the state Capitol, addressing concerns and issues surrounding the war with Iraq. Behind Lingle, from left, were Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste, Big Island Mayor Harry Kim and Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa (hidden), and Honolulu City and County Managing Director Benjamin Lee, right.
Lingle postpones Gov. Linda Lingle said there may come a time when she must lead a state delegation to Japan to encourage wartime travel to Hawaii -- but it isn't now.
Japan trip to
boost tourism
By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com
"A lot of it depends on the length of the war. If the war ends in a week, I'd look at it at that time. If the war is extended, there's going to come a time when the state will have to go," the governor said.
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Lingle, during a meeting with newspaper and Associated Press reporters yesterday in the governor's conference room, said the timing of such a trip depends on the advice from people in Japan, including the Japan consul general, the president of Japan Airlines, the head of the Japan Travel Bureau and others.
So far, she said, these groups have said the state should wait awhile and not make a quick trip during the early stages of the war in Iraq.
"And I think it's important to listen to the people from that country rather than go off with a plan that is not very well thought out," Lingle said.
Earlier this month, House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo) had announced a "speaker's delegation" would visit Japan two or three weeks after a war began, and asked the governor to lead the trip. The idea was among the recommendations issued by a committee Say convened to assess Hawaii's readiness for war.
The committee, in its report released this week, said travel from Japan will suffer the greatest impact from a war and that Hawaii is already experiencing a war-related drop in visitors from Asia.
During the 1991 Gulf War, Hawaii hotel occupancy rates fell to about 50 percent from 89 percent, and it took the hotel industry six months to recover, the report said.
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks caused visitor arrivals from Japan to decrease to 1.5 million people in 2001 from 1.8 million in 2000, it added. A month later, then-Gov. Ben Cayetano led a Hawaii delegation to Japan to encourage Hawaii visits following the attacks.
Lingle said that while another such trip can be successful in luring more Japanese tourists here, in these early days of the war, it would be wrong for the entire state leadership to leave to visit another country.
Meanwhile, the governor said some of the 17 recommendations from the Committee on War Preparedness are good ideas, like the one that says the state would be responsible for the accommodations of any stranded travelers in Hawaii if U.S. air travel is suspended.
Others, however, are problematic, she said. For example, a suggestion to temporarily waive state landing fees and other related charges to airlines or airport concessionaires is a further concession the state cannot afford because it puts its revenue bonds in jeopardy, Lingle said.
"When we build projects at the airports, we sell a different kind of bond, a revenue bond, which pledges a certain stream of revenue from certain sources. So on that basis people buy these bonds, and they have to be paid back from these sources," Lingle explained.
"So I think the Legislature should be very cautious," she said.
House Vice Speaker Sylvia Luke (D, Dowsett Highlands-Punchbowl), chairwoman of the Committee on War Preparedness, said this week that about half of the recommendations can be done through legislation.
Among them are authorizing the Hawaii Tourism Authority to use up to $5 million of its anticipated $8 million surplus for additional marketing, and directing the HTA to work with the city to encourage more military participation in city programs, including Brunch on the Beach.
"We're going to work hard to implement some of our recommendations and go from there," Luke said.
Hawaii military links and information
