A new bridge
to JapanThe HVCB neighbor island
bureaus claim a fruitful visit
with Dentsu, the state’s new
marketing contractor
The leaders of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau's neighbor island chapters are giving positive preliminary reviews to the major Japanese advertising agency that is taking over the HVCB's million-dollar job of marketing the state to Japanese tourists.
"They were very receptive," said George Applegate, executive director of the Big Island Visitors Bureau, after meeting with officials of Dentsu Inc. in Japan last week. "I had a feeling that they really wanted to understand what our concerns were.
"They're working on a plan. It's positive."
"My perspective it that it's all a good opportunity,"' said Terryl Vencl, head of the Maui Visitors Bureau.
The optimistic comments are significant in light of the state's landmark decision in July to hire independent companies to market the islands to foreign travelers, the first time the state has done so. The Hawaii visitors bureau, a century-old nonprofit organization, has always held a state contract to market Hawaii to all visitors.
Instead, the bureau will market Hawaii to North America, the state's No. 1 market, and to business travelers. The state is formalizing four-year contracts with five separate marketing organizations, including Dentsu and the visitors bureau. The contracts are expected to go before the state authority's board in November for approval, and would take effect starting in January.
Dentsu, Japan's largest advertising agency, won a contract to market Hawaii to Japan, Hawaii's second largest market for tourists, and a key source of high-spending visitors.
It was Hawaii's performance in Japan that paved the road to change.
Hawaii had been losing Japanese travel market share since 1992, when 14.5 percent of Japanese outbound travelers came to the islands, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and the Pacific Asia Travel Association. Last year, Hawaii's share of the market had declined to 9 percent. This year, amid SARS fears and other problems, Hawaii's share has increased slightly to 9.8 percent.
Concerns about the Japanese market led the state authority's board to consider competitive bids, said Ron Wright, vice chairman of the tourism authority, at an August roundtable of tourism executives.
"And it was amazing. There was some really good stuff out there" said Wright, Continental Airlines' managing director of sales and marketing for Hawaii.
Last year, the bureau lost a contract to market the $350 million Hawaii Convention Center.
Under the new order, Hawaii's island chapters will work more directly with the tourism marketers in the field. The state tourism authority, not the HVCB, will have oversight.
In the old system, the island chapters would work with the HVCB official in charge of a particular market, such as Kiyoshi Mukumoto, the bureau's vice president for marketing to Japan.
The island chapters had been concerned about how they would coordinate with Dentsu, said Marsha Wienert, Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison. The island chapters also wanted to know how each island's established brand identity would be affected by a statewide campaign by Dentsu.
Last week, the island chapter folks and the authority's staff visited Dentsu in Japan, and Dentsu's response was reassuring on logistical questions and marketing issues, said Wienert, former head of the Maui Visitors Bureau.
After speaking with the island chapter leaders, Wienert said, "Most of their questions have been answered or are at least in the process of being answered."
A Dentsu spokesman declined comment this week.
The company, which has worked on Hawaii tourism campaigns for travel companies, has quite a road ahead of bringing back the Japanese.
Japanese arrivals to Hawaii in August were down 10.3 percent from last year, and the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism predicts that year-end arrivals from the market will be off by 11.3 percent. That would mean about 1.3 million Japanese visitors will come to the state this year, down from 2.15 million in 1997.
A recent study on the effectiveness of the Hawaii visitor bureau's marketing efforts showed that most Japanese tourists aren't strongly committed to traveling now.
But the same study, done by NFO Plog Research of California, pointed out that Hawaii is still well positioned in the Japanese market, beating out all other major destinations in terms of visitor interest and planned future trips.
Year-to-date Japanese arrivals
Oahu has drawn the largest percentage by far of the 798,918 Japan travelers who have come to the state through August of this year.
Source: State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism
Oahu 75.5 % Big Island 12.1 % Maui 9 % Kauai 3.4 %
