State House leaders say there is still a need for a delegation to visit Japan to promote Hawaii tourism, despite the announced end of major combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom after less than four weeks of fighting. State House urges
Japan promo trip, but
tourism officials say
it’s poor timingBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comBut tourism officials think it may be too soon for such a trip.
"Now that the president has declared that the combat portion is almost over, I think it's as good a time as any to start that discussion again because the longer we wait, the harder the comeback of the tourism market will be," said Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Dowsett Highlands-Punchbowl).
Luke said yesterday that even if the war were to end next week, such a trip is needed to stress to the Japanese "to look at Hawaii again." Earlier this session, Luke led a House committee on war preparedness to study the impacts of war on Hawaii's economy.
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"I don't really think it changes that much. We should still go," she said.
In early March, House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo) announced that a "speaker's delegation" would visit Japan three weeks after the war began. Say had asked Republican Gov. Linda Lingle to lead the envoy, but the governor responded that her discussions with Japanese officials indicated it was too early to go there.
Say said yesterday that Japanese tourism is down 30 percent and mainland tourism is down about 5 percent or 6 percent as a result of the war. He said a promotional trip there is still needed to restore confidence that Hawaii is a safe destination.
But Tony Vericella, president and chief executive of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, said yesterday that tourism officials think it is too soon for Hawaii to send a delegation right now.
The war with Iraq only recently started to wind down, and attempts to market Hawaii to Japan at this point would not help travel bookings, he said.
The visitors bureau has a marketing plan that calls for sending a delegation, led by the governor, to major Japanese cities within two to three weeks after the end of the war.
Lingle said earlier this month she was participating in the promotional trip but only after there was a major public relations effort in place to win attention of the Japanese media.
Former Gov. Ben Cayetano, in October 2001, led a Hawaii delegation to encourage tourism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which caused visitors arrivals from Japan to drop by 300,000 in 2001 from the previous year.
Included in the Cayetano group was sumo wrestler Akebono, a Hawaii native, who Lingle said is expected to travel with her delegation this summer.
Star-Bulletin reporter Tim Ruel contributed to this report.
