The Hawaii Tourism Authority has approved a three-year strategic plan, which focuses on setting short-term goals to help the agency guide the state through turbulent times.

The plan, which was requested by State Auditor Marion Higa during her last agency review, tracks closely with the state tourism plan. However, it quantifies the agency's short-term goal “;to put more heads on beds,”; said State Tourism Liaison Marsha Wienert.

Under the new plan, HTA's goals for next year include bringing 6.7 million visitors to the state and increasing per-person-per-day spending to $188 to bring the total statewide economic impact to $11.8 billion, said Mike McCartney, HTA president and chief executive officer.

By 2012, HTA wants to see 6.9 million visitors spending an average of $202 per person per day and $13 billion of total statewide economic impact, McCartney said.

“;We realize that in this rapidly changing market, the HTA must also change the way we conduct business in order to effectively deal with the immediate economic crisis facing the tourism industry as well as addressing the long-term challenge of achieving a healthy and sustainable industry,”; he said.