Hawaii Governor Ige just held a virtual state of the state press conference. Takeaways, not surprisingly, are that the state will need to severely “tighten its belt.” The governor didn’t indicate how that will happen, but we have our thoughts.
The governor missed every opportunity to advise what is being planned, what will be cut, or any substantive details about his pandemic plans, or how the record number of unemployment will be addressed. House Speaker Scott Saiki wasn’t entirely happy either, saying that we need solutions now, whereas the governor said he is seeking input by April for implementation later in the year.
How Will Hawaii Survive With No Money For Marketing.
Hawaii’s marketing arm is the Hawaii Tourism Authority. It has been largely defunded due to the financial crisis, with its budget cut to less than half of its prior $86 Million. And that could be just the beginning. Its remaining funds are fast becoming depleted and what could be next is a virtual shuttering of Hawaii tourism marketing.
HTA’s new head John De Fries has just said that he hopes to meet with the governor to make plans to avoid running out of funding entirely. Otherwise, it could soon be time to begin winding up its operations.
The state legislature convened last week, and it will be interesting to see what role they play in this. State senate tourism chair Glenn Wakai has asked the governor to restore funding to HTA. He said that Hawaii would need to compete head-on with all other global destinations as vaccine travel comes to fruition. He said to Ige that HTA would “catapult Hawaii out of its financial misery. We hope you will reinstate… payments to HTA.”
We’ve said here before that in Hawaii, we succeed despite the state. That has always been true, and as a result, Hawaii has done well for a long time. But that was then. In today’s completely different situation, Hawaii must find ways to restore some or all of its nearly $20 billion in annual revenue. Based primarily on tourism, that is, at least for now, the lifeblood of our economy.
Hawaii is in a complete PR tailspin.
This isn’t something that is just going to go away of its own accord. So we wonder whether Hawaii, via HTA, is or can be up to the task of both reinventing and marketing itself to the world.
HTA problems are long-term and deep.
How well Hawaii and HTA have been using close to $100 Million annually is another question that must be faced. The state’s tourism arm has suffered severe problems for years and still appears largely incapable of marketing Hawaii.
You’ll recall that last June, the prior HTA CEO quit suddenly when Chris Tatun announced he would retire and leave not only his position but also the state. Tatum departed in August for Colorado.
HTA’s prior CEO, George Szigeti, was fired in 2018, without cause. The Hawaii state auditor indicated that HTA had “lax oversight (and) deficient internal controls.”
As we said when writing about this last June, “Hawaii travel stakeholders have privately shared with us their concerns about HTA and the state’s abilities, leadership, and direction in tourism for years. In recent times, the agency has also had an abnormally high turnover rate, with at least a dozen key staff departures. Given that they have only about 20 full-time employees, that is an absurd number of comings and goings and does not bode well for HTA. These departures “came right on the heels of rapid-fire departures of the prior chief operating officer and the chief marketing officer, who both left unexpectedly.”
Event HTA said, “Millennials have these preconceived notions of Hawaii as the place where grandma and mom and dad go. They see it as a very mature travel destination. But it’s not that.”
For years, Hawaii travel stakeholders have been worried about the state’s abilities, leadership, and tourism direction. That concern has never been as well-placed as it is today.
Governor IGE lacks a tourism background.
Ige worked for Hawaiian Telcom for 18 years and held other engineering positions. He became governor after years in the state senate. His legislative career was focused on IT and telecom initiatives.
View the 2020-2025 HTA strategic marketing plan.
That still current plan calls for tourism in Hawaii to 1) Ho‘oulu (Grow) the uniqueness and integrity of the Native Hawaiian culture and community; 2) Provide a unique, memorable, and enriching visitor experience; 3) Generate clear community benefits and responsibly manage tourism-related impacts and issues; and 4) Support a vital and sustainable economy.
We look forward to your ideas.
Updated 2/25/21.
Just saw a SWA earnings report that said demand to Hawaii is very robust. So ….”rumors of Hawaii’s demise are greatly exaggerated”!
Scroll down to the reply by Karen, a great perspective and the type of visitors Hawaii needs. Realistic, respectful and not spouting anger against “those democrats”. Hawaii’s beauty and Aloha has gone through a rebooting if you will. The environment has been under less strain from overcrowding and many businesses are going to come out of this ready to face the future in ways they never would have been had they not gone though the pandemic. Many employees will be returning to work with a renewed spirit of Aloha.
The State has a very bright future in no small part because it is, in fact, a melting pot of people from many different places.
That’s the core of what makes Hawaii what it is.
Aloha to all and Mahalo to Beat of Hawaii for keeping us informed and entertaining some lively discussions!
Hi John.
Thanks. You’ve been a big part of the lively discussions and we sincerely appreciate it. 160 comments to date!
Aloha.
Very flowery. The small businesses are gone. Of course “new Hawaiians” will come and try to make money from the tourist. Of course once government incentives end people stuck in Hawaii will want to go to work. And of course, when a tip is at stake, aloha will return. Your attitude smacks of colonialism. If you really want to help I can provide you with an address where you can send a donation.
I could see if you might think my post was insensitive to the many struggling businesses, but colonialism is a bit of a stretch.
I’m on Oahu and for sure some businesses are struggling, but many are surviving for the light at the end of the tunnel that is getting bigger. 2020 was a terrible year and my heart goes out to the many who were impacted, but thank god the state closed down as effectively as it did. It’s one thing to struggle financially for a couple years, but horrific to lose family members to COVID., bottom line is there was no good choice.
By summer tourism will be recovering, rebuilding and there will be plenty of opportunities for businesses. No need for an address to send help, I give substantially the the Hawaii Foodbank and recommend everyone that can do the same.
You can replace things but hunger is the one thing no one should have to endure.
No good choice, that is so true. In the end, it’s family and health that matters the most. Jobs come and go. It is unfortunate in this pandemic, the government has failed to provide sufficient lifeboats to support the people a rescue board are on the way. It is what it is. There are huge lights at the end of the tunnel, we can all see it, but it only takes a few fools and done bad luck to collapse the tunnel and elongate the time to reach the light.
We send our prayers again fun the Mainland to or Hawaiuan brothers and sisters for a fast recovery.
ALOHA!
I hope that cvs pharmacy will have the covid19 vaccine for the public by June and July
Thank you
I heard the state of Hawaii was going to tattoo those who received vaccine. And if you can show the special tattoo and the scanner recognizes the special ink only available to the government, you will be free to move about the state. The scanners are being distributed now.
You heard wrong from the little voices in your head. Thanks for playing tho……
Will you be wearing your Tin Foil Hat?
Starting today, Jan 26, 2021 anyone flying in internationally to the USA must have a neg 72hr test. May as well continue the Hawaii requirements for everyone from mainland too. Entry into Canada now has the same requirement. More authorized testing partners would be nice on the East Coast, seems they struggle having to travel hours to reach a partner. Better options for our Japanese tourists, they are the bread and butter I think. The gatherings of locals at all the beaches/parks need to be addressed by police unfortunately. Gatherings no more that 5..period. I know Family is important but it is the locals that are causing the new numbers, not the tourists. There are not enough police or hours in the day to patrol this, we have to work together. I have not heard the rules of Tier 2 repeated for months it seems. Folks need a reminder of what Tier we are in. Be Safe…Aloha.
HTA was clearly not prepared (or equipped) to deal with a crippling blow to the tourism industry. Personally, I don’t believe HTA was ever needed…It’s just another unnessessarily useless government bureaucracy.
Hawaii needs its Government to have management skills focused on its major industry, or to develop other industry to supplement, and eventually limit, the dependency on tourism.
Tourism, and private industry, can take care of itself in Hawaii…the state actually sells itself as a vacation destination. It always has.
Governor Ige has no control of his State. Bad decisions from bad leadership equals bad government. The State needs to get it’s crap together, and solve these issues by it’s legislative constituents, which is how it was designed to work. Hawaii is showing the world how “island time” works in Government. 😳
Hospital capacity is a real limitation on Kauai. Kukuiula, a huge community of million dollar houses was approved some 12 years ago. I think over 1400 lots and shopping and restaurants on old sugar property same corporate owner over a hundred years. That development will still be under construction 20 years from now for sure. The project was approved without a hospital. The county missed an opportunity.