Agency has to 'redouble efforts'
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
Convention center bookings for next year are lagging goals set by the Hawai'i Tourism Authority as tighter corporate spending takes a toll.
Advertiser library photo
There are 28 scheduled events for 2003 that will bring 106,400 attendees, many from outside Hawai'i. But the goal for next year, according to the tourism authority, is 35 events with 170,000 attendees.
Tighter corporate spending has contributed to the decline in bookings at the Hawai'i Convention Center in 2003. The 28 events scheduled will bring 106,400 attendees to Hawai'i. There were also 28 conventions this year.
The 28 scheduled events also include eight events and 28,300 attendees that are tentative, according to data presented at the authority's board meeting yesterday.
With that current count, the convention center will be behind by seven conventions and 63,600 attendees.
"It's very concerning," said Rex Johnson, Tourism Authority executive director. "We're having to redouble efforts on what's going on at the convention center."
The efforts come as responsibility for marketing the Hawai'i Convention Center will be handed off from the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau to SMG, which manages operations of the the convention center.
Next year's bookings mirror this year's, when there were 28 conventions with 69,200 attendees, bringing in $203 million in visitor spending. Attendees include delegates at conventions as well as their companions, according to Randy Tanaka, SMG's director of marketing.
"We need to find 63,000 more (attendees) in 2003, for 2003," said Frank Haas, the tourism authority's marketing director. "It's an aggressive goal."
Most large conventions are booked years in advance, so officials are hoping to fill in the gap with smaller corporate meetings, especially from small Japanese organizations and companies. The largest events are gone, Tanaka said.
"I'm guessing that convention centers all over the place are facing this type of problem because business travel has dropped off substantially this year," Johnson said.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority in October approved the switch of its contract for convention center marketing to SMG from the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau, whose primary responsibility is marketing Hawai'i as a destination. Starting Jan. 1, SMG will manage and market the convention center.
Recently passed legislation required that one agency be responsible for both managing and marketing the convention center. Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, chairwoman of the Senate Tourism Committee, has said the visitors bureau in the past three years has failed to meet goals for the convention center.
But Sandra Moreno, the visitors bureau vice president of meetings, conventions and incentives, said she and her team have met or exceeded the goals for the pace of convention bookings, which measures the number of events booked in one year for future years at the convention center.
Moreno said that this year, so far, the bureau has booked 52 events that will take place in future years.
"The most important goals are the booking-pace goals," Moreno said.
She also said that for 1999 to 2002 combined, the bureau missed the tourism authority's goal of 99 bookings by one booking.
"For 2003, we're not going to get there," Moreno acknowledged. "No city can guarantee" that its convention center events will land within targets for specific years, she said.
