KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday said she supports overturning a state law that has reduced the amount of funding for the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which markets isle tourism.
Lingle pushes
focus for tourismThe governor supports
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Gov. Linda Lingle took a stab at fixing Hawaii's tourism industry yesterday, saying she is disturbed that the state has no comprehensive airline strategy, and that she will push to restore funding to the Hawaii Tourism Authority marketing agency.
Lingle spoke at the state Capitol auditorium at her Tourism Summit, in which tourism industry representatives said they were troubled with the progress of the tourism authority, a relatively young agency introduced by former Gov. Ben Cayetano's Economic Revitalization Task Force in 1997.
Lingle initiated the Tourism Summit last month with a closed-door meeting of industry leaders and state officials. Afterwards, industry representations formed six committees that have been discussing the problems of Hawaii tourism for the past several weeks in public meetings. The committees presented their reports yesterday to the public.
The airlift review committee, headed by Maui Hotel Association executive Terryl Vencl and Tony Vericella, president of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, said a big problem is that two-thirds of Hawaii's flights originate from seven states in the U.S. West.
Such emphasis on one area makes it harder to open new visitor markets, as well as tougher to grow the business meetings market and increase visitor spending. U.S. West visitors spend less per day in Hawaii than visitors from Japan and the U.S. East, state statistics show.
The airlift committee recommended the creation of a task force for developing a strategy, with a deadline of September.
"We do need to go and sit with the airlines," Lingle said, noting that she met with one major airline company this week.
Lingle said she supported overturning a state law enacted last year that reduced the Hawaii Tourism Authority's funding. The law reduced the amount of state tourism marketing funds available from the state hotel room tax to 32.6 percent of tax revenues from 37.9 percent.
Lingle also said she doesn't think the authority's budget should be capped, which would allow the budget to grow as room tax revenues increase. The authority's annual budget is currently capped at $61 million.
One committee formed to review the role and makeup of the Hawaii Tourism Authority criticized it for not having enough board members with industry experience. Lingle recently replaced one board member, land-use attorney Ben Kudo, with John Toner, executive vice president of Ko Olina Resort.
Toner spoke yesterday on behalf of the HTA review committee, and said the lack of experience of some of the authority's board members was not providing strategic direction.
But it was only recently, in July, that the current board of the authority started meeting. When the authority was formed in 1998, most of its voting members were from the tourism industry and several were connected with the Hawaii visitors bureau.
