Hawai'i tourism in search of leader with vision
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
In what could signal a turning point for Hawai'i's visitor industry, the Hawai'i Tourism Authority decided yesterday that the time has come to find a true visionary to lead the way.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
The idea came at a special meeting at the Hawai'i Convention Center intended to discuss the authority's strategic policies and goals.
Michael Times and his daughters, Dominique, 5, and Sharae, 7, enjoy lunch in Waikiki, a tourism hot spot in dire need of creative leadership, according to some.
Talk of "visionary" leadership has been used in association with HTA since it began in 1998. But yesterday, the board concluded that the authority had become bogged down in day-to-day operations and had lost sight of it's original vision mandate.
Solution: more powerful leadership.
The decision to find a dynamic leader comes at a crucial moment for Hawai'i's tourism industry, which has been battered since visitor numbers fell following the attacks of Sept. 11.
Board member Keith Vieira said visionaries are people who have the creative courage to make controversial decisions that are frequently considered wrong or even crazy.
He suggested that the time had come for the board to consider a search to find a chief executive officer with just such a degree of visionary talent.
"There is no way we can ever get agreement on tourism," said Vieira, a senior vice president for Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Hawai'i. "We can't worry about pleasing everyone. That's not our task ... I think we can give (a visionary leader) excellent input. But we can't do it."
At one point acting executive director Richard Humphreys held a draft of Ke Kumu, the authority's strategic plan, and said: "We don't have a vision. We dance around it. It's in there somewhere. Ke Kumu is all about the whats and whys. We don't get into the hows."
The hows would come by finding the right person for the task, it was decided. More than once the phrase "Dobelle-type visionary" was mentioned, referring to University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle.
"It's time for HTA to change its focus," said board member Millie Kim.
"I'm excited about this," said board chairman Roy Tokujo. "The world is changing after 9-11, and we've got to change along with it. And we think a strong leadership is the way to go."
Still to be worked out by the board are the priorities by which such a leader would operate. The importance of how carefully such a leader should be chosen was discussed. How much the leader would be paid was not. But it was felt the pay should be substantial enough to attract someone with the necessary insight.
Humphreys, a retired banking executive who became the agency's acting executive director in November, has declined a salary and works for a $1 token fee.
Former chief executive Robert Fishman, a colonel in the Army Reserves who was called to active duty last year, received $175,000 annually. But Tokujo said the type of person needed now would occupy a much larger leadership profile.
He said he and the other members of the board realize that visionary leaders of the caliber they're talking about don't come cheaply. But considering the importance of tourism to the state, such a leader is needed, he said.
The plan is to pay the salary with public money with added goal-based incentives to be paid through private business and visitor industry money.
Tokujo said the board would not need to seek approval from the Legislature to implement the plan, but it would have to be OK'd by Gov. Ben Cayetano, who must approve compensation.
