Lingle urges
analysis of
trip to JapanThe governor wonders
if the promotional visit
was worth the expense
While Gov. Linda Lingle is calling her tourism promotion trip to Japan a success, she said an analysis of the benefits should be done before launching another such trip.
Lingle returned Friday from leading a 44-person, $231,000 promotion effort to Japan that featured Hawaii tourism officials, former sumo wrestler Konishiki and beauty pageant winners.
Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa, Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste and a representative of Big Island Mayor Harry Kim also went on the trip.
House and Senate leaders said they wanted to be included in the trip, although they have not been on the previous trips, which are usually held every two years.
Lingle said she also had thought House Speaker Calvin Say and Senate President Robert Bunda should have gone along, but then changed her mind after reviewing the trip.
"Once you get past the mayors, I don't know if it would have added anything to the trip," Lingle said. "It may have helped them to understand more what the mission is of the visitor bureau in a trip like this, but they don't get to even speak at any of the gatherings.
"It is a very hierarchical approach -- sort of only the head person to the head person."
She said she thought the trip's benefits must be closely analyzed.
"So was it worth the $231,000? If we get another couple of million in tourism spending, yes. But could we have gotten even more if we used it for something else?" Lingle asked.
To answer that, Lingle said, she expects the Hawaii Tourism Authority to "prepare a good analysis" of the trip.
Arakawa, who held a news conference yesterday in the Maui County Building, said Japanese tourism officials complained about a lack of enough interisland flights out of Honolulu and the rising cost of interisland air fares.
"They're having trouble getting flights," he said.
Arakawa said Maui and the rest of the state have to be more competitive, considering that other locations are rising as tourist destinations for the Japanese, including Okinawa, Saipan, Bali and Guam.
He said there has been a large decrease in tours paid for by Japanese businesses as corporate incentives but also a growing interest in Japanese independent travelers staying for months in Hawaii.
Terryl Vencl, executive director of the Maui Visitors Bureau, who also went on the trip, said she will be looking at ways to encourage independent travelers to look at the condominium resort market, if they plan to stay for two to three months on the Valley Isle.
Vencl said Japanese travelers amount to only 7 percent of the total visitor market on Maui, but they tend to spend more money while on the Valley Isle than North American visitors. Japanese visitors spend an average of about $200 a day vs. about $170 a day for North American visitors, she said.
Kauai's Mayor Bryan Baptiste said the clear message he received from the trip was that the Garden Island is "going to have to spruce up our infrastructure" if it wants repeat customers from Japan.
Kauai has complained for years to the state Department of Land & Natural Resources that the island's primary tourist attractions -- from the Na Pali Coast to Waimea Canyon -- all are state parks in deplorable condition. Nothing has been done to improve them, he said.
"With Gov. Lingle raising her tourism adviser to a Cabinet-level position, I'm hopeful there will be some improvement," Baptiste said.
Japanese tourism on Kauai has been falling for the past year and a half. Before Sept. 11, 2001, 15 percent of Kauai's visitors were from Japan. That has dropped to less than 5 percent of visitors to the island.
Star-Bulletin reporters Gary T. Kubota and Anthony Sommer contributed to this report.