The September 11th attack
Tourism marketing plan gets $2 million jump-start

By Michele Kayal
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Senate tourism committee sent a message to the head of Hawai‘i’s marketing team today that lawmakers may take a tough look before handing over any money for emergency visitor marketing efforts.

The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau is seeking $10 million from the Legislature to execute a marketing plan aimed at stabilizing visitor arrivals by next June. Since Sept. 11, arrivals to Hawai‘i have plummeted as much as 30 percent.

State Sen. Donna Kim, chairwoman of the Senate tourism committee, today questioned why the bureau couldn’t simply draw on money it already has available for next year rather than asking for more from the Legislature.

The emergency marketing plan is aimed at reviving a visitor industry decimated by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, and softening what could be the worst economic crisis in the state's history.

Kuhio Beach in Waikiki still is a ghost of its regular tourist-crowded self, a condition that has the industry and the state scrambling. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

The efforts will be part of an overall marketing plan on the Mainland and in Japan that Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau Chief Executive Officer Tony Vericella said aims to stabilize visitor arrivals by the end of June.

Hawai'i has been caught in a worldwide tourism downturn sparked three weeks ago when terrorist hijackers flew commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As skittish travelers avoid flying, destinations around the country have lost billions of dollars, and a national travel trade group predicts that U.S. travel and tourism spending will drop 10 percent in the fourth quarter and end down for the year.

In Hawai'i alone, nearly 10,000 people have flooded unemployment offices since the incident, and visitor spending is expected to be off by as much as $1 billion for the year.

Offering a glimpse of a nine-month master plan still under construction, Vericella said his agency will spend roughly $900,000 in the next two weeks on public relations and advertising campaigns in 21 cities in the western United States, the Midwest, and Canada. In Japan, the bureau will spend $1 million on advertising and another $200,000 on a special marketing mission to the country next week led by Gov. Ben Cayetano.

The bureau will target frequent fliers, veterans and seniors, groups Vericella says have a greater propensity to travel, with messages that communicate that Hawai'i is a safe and rejuvenating place.

"These are concepts we're trying to relate to who we are and how the world has changed since Sept. 11," Vericella said.

To fund the whole plan, the bureau is expected to seek $10 million from the state legislature that will be matched with private and other public funds. The money approved yesterday is meant to tide the bureau over until the legislature meets, which is expected Oct. 22.

The plan, which may include discounts, value-added programs and more activities for visitors statewide, was crafted by Vericella with First Hawaiian Bank chairman Walter Dods and Hilton Hotels Hawaii executive Peter Schall. The three were appointed by the governor to develop emergency measures for the faltering visitor industry.

Hawaii's emergency marketing efforts fall in line with the other visitor destinations. Las Vegas and Florida have launched major campaigns aimed at people who can drive to the states, and the Travel Industry Association of America began an advertising blitz this week in newspapers across the country to persuade Americans to get moving again.

But irritated Hawai'i lawmakers may challenge the group's plan and its financing requests, starting with a public meeting scheduled for today at the Senate.

Kim, who attended yesterday's board meeting, said she is not convinced the bureau needs all the money it is expected to ask for, and that she wants some concrete figures.

"I want something in writing," said Kim, D-15th (Kalihi Valley, 'Aiea).

Confusion arose over how much money the bureau has that can be redirected to the emergency efforts.

Authority member Gary Baldwin, who sits on the board's budget committee, has said the bureau has $3 million available. Based on testimony Vericella made to the Senate tourism committee last week, Kim said she believed the bureau had $5 million.

Vericella told authority members yesterday that the bureau has only about $900,000 that can be readily shifted to emergency efforts.

The bureau has a $45 million annual contract with the tourism authority from which it pays for tourism marketing for the state.

Michele Kayal can be reached at mkayal@honoluluadvertiser.com