Where Hawaii Visitors Stand In Gov. Green’s Big Travel Mess

Today is the day that former Lt. Governor Josh Green is being inaugurated governor of Hawaii. Interesting times lie ahead for him, the state, and Hawaii visitors.

This week will see Hawaii travel front and center on the new governor’s agenda as he tries to resolve the long-contested Hawaii travel marketing plans before the whole mess otherwise gets aired publicly in court. He’ll have two days to head the situation off at the pass.

Incoming Governor Green is an emergency room physician working with trauma victims, organ failure, and critical health issues of patients. Will that experience transfer well to the trauma, failure, and critical needs of our travel industry? Read on and let us know what you think.

Come Wednesday, HTA (Hawaii Tourism Authority) will hold a special board meeting to try to figure out what to do next in determining who will represent Hawaii to the world and how. That comes following last week’s secret meeting between now-defunct Governor Ige and the also-defunct head of Hawaii’s tourism department. Even that meeting itself is now causing problems.

All this happens the same week as Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) holds an HTA-featured travel conference on Oahu, where you may see BOH editors.

If this ends without a heated court battle, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

The controversy resulted from the wildly contested awarding of its U.S. brand marketing contract to the travel newcomer CNHA (Council for Native Hawaii Advancement) earlier this year. That contract was supposed to start last June, but that has been delayed multiple times due to the prolonged disagreement spinning about the entire thing.

Let’s call it what it is: a very h0t mess, Hawaii-style.

To make a long story short, the award was to have gone to 120-year-old HVCB, but in a questionable second-round upset, it was given under inexplicable circumstances to CNHA.

Exiting Governor Ige and HTA head Mike McCarney got involved in last week’s meeting, even as they were lame ducks, departing office today before the whole thing could come to the next HTA vote on how to proceed.

Two directions ahead for Hawaii travel marketing?

Now officially gone from HTA as of today, McCartney planned to cancel the CNHA award and go for round three in the RFP (request for proposal) process, which would separate the contract awards into two parts, one on destination management and one on marketing. McCartney also planned to sweeten the pie by adding 18% or more to its total value. Dividing the contract might make sense, given that HVCB is experienced in marketing, whereas CNHA might be better suited to focus on Hawaii destination management.

McCartney had been working on that deal before his departure, although others in the state have said you can’t do an RFP for one contract and later split it in two.

First travel words from new Governor Josh Green.

Green, whose swearing-in takes place today, said he would rather that this all had been left to the new administration since they would inherit things that could otherwise be unmanageable. He thinks a mediation path may be the solution between the parties, although we question whether that would ever work. Green said, “I appreciate all the parties being willing to work together under the new leadership that we hope to bring. He also said, “I don’t want to delay a solution, and we need to have these teams actively promoting Hawaii… I don’t want a conflict between CNHA and HVCB. I want them to actually be partners and learn from one another.”

How this impacts Hawaii visitors?

You may think (and a number have commented) that this doesn’t impact visitors. But it clearly does. Hawaii’s brand marketing speaks to the visitors it will receive and how those visitors will see and value what Hawaii has to offer. They have been a source of valuable information to both Hawaii visitors and the travel industry alike.

What will become of the four Hawaii Visitor Bureaus?

It isn’t clear what will happen to these HVCB-operated businesses, including bureaus representing and located on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island.

HVCB has long used its island specialists to help be part of the destination marketing for their respective islands. Those representatives traveled on behalf of the state to communicate Hawaii and their island within the U.S. and abroad. Visitors could also call or stop at the local office for information and help during their vacation. And the local island specialists also serve as liaisons with the business community. When writing some of our articles, we’ve consulted with their island specialists as additional resources.

What will become of CNHA if they lose the contract?

CNHA is counting on this contract. It has been reported that before Covid, the group operated on $1M in grants, but that during the pandemic, they received, last year alone, some $70M in grants. That is over now, and this deal represents the light at the end of the tunnel, it seems.