Travel agents to meet in Hawai'i
By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer
The American Society of Travel Agents will hold its 72nd World Travel Congress at the Hawai'i Convention Center in November, and the state is hoping its efforts to educate and entertain the group will result in a significant return on investment.
Visitor expenditures in the host city for the event typically rise 10 percent to 25 percent in the six to 18 months afterward, said Susan Tanzman, a travel agent and chairwoman of the 2002 congress.
This puts the potential benefits for Hawai'i at more than $2 billion.
The total commitment to host the group from the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau and private companies in the Islands will reach an estimated $2 million, said Tony Vericella, the bureau's chief executive director. This includes cash from the bureau as well as discounted or free flights, hotel rooms and tours for attendees, who also will have the opportunity to visit a Neighbor Island for a day.
Vericella said he has lobbied the group for three years to hold its first annual meeting here since 1981.
Tourism experts say the timing is crucial for a state still recovering from the Sept. 11 attacks. And even though travel agents are being squeezed by the effects of business forfeited to the Web and slashed commissions from suppliers, state tourism officials believe this conference is worth the investment.
Nearly 70 percent of all travel bookings still come from agents, said David Preece, the bureau's vice president-North America. And while many consumers may begin their travel research on the Web, experts say the best way to close the deal still is a human voice offering recommendations from personal experiences.
About 1,500 people have already registered for the convention. Typical attendance for events in the United States hovers between 3,000 to 5,000 delegates, Preece said.
Organizers said they expect a sharp rise in registrations in the next few months, though they declined to predict an exact number. About two-thirds of the attendees are travel agents; the remaining one-third are exhibitors — distributors and businesses that work with travel agents. ASTA is the world's largest travel agent professional organization with 24,000 members.
The gathering comes on the heels of Meeting Professionals International, which met in Honolulu in January and required a $420,000 investment from the bureau over two years, in addition to in-kind and cooperative commitments from private companies.
"It's got a lot of cost, but the benefits roll on for quite a while," said Sandra Moreno, vice president of meetings, conventions and incentives for the bureau.
Surveys returned from MPI attendees indicated that 47 percent intended to book a future meeting in the Islands. Four bookings already have been reported for 2002, three for 2003, and two in 2004 and 2005.
Said Moreno, "We got pretty much what we expected."
