Posted on: Friday, May 25, 2001

Editorial
Hawai'i must diversify during good times, too

The marketing offensive being launched by Hawai'i's visitor industry in anticipation of sagging visitor numbers is undoubtedly the right thing to do.

And while everyone hopes the promotions will pay off, the reality is that marketing and promotion can only have so much impact on the overall health of our No. 1 industry. The reality is that Hawai'i's overall economic health remains uncomfortably dependent on forces and events beyond our control.

After an unexpectedly robust year for the visitor industry in 2000, the pace has settled down. This is clearly the result of slowing economies on the West Coast and in Japan, our premier markets.

In fact, the 2000 "anomaly" may have been the lagging effect of the last of the West Coast high-tech boom. Vacations were planned, perhaps even bought and paid for, before the layoffs and retrenchment hit.

Staff writer Michele Kayal reports that the plan is to focus a new round of promotion and marketing on niches that are less sensitive to economic fluctuations. That makes sense. But it also suggests, if not desperation, at least a scramble to find pockets of business wherever they might be.

The lesson here is that we have to seize greater control of our own destiny by creating and supporting a far broader array of economic alternatives than we now enjoy.

That means other forms of economic activity, including high-tech, information brokering, tropical agriculture and the like. But it also means a broader array of reasons for people to travel to the Islands.

The Convention Center was an important step in that direction, offering an incentive for business travel. So too are infant efforts at eco-tourism, "health" tourism, sports tourism and the like.

Professionals within the visitor industry are very well aware of the importance of broadening our base. But inevitably, planners tend to let down a bit when they see strong overall numbers, as they did in 2000.

The truth is that the best time to put energy into diversification is precisely when times are good. When they start to go bad, as might now be the case, the best we can do is play a game of catch-up.