Dual roles near end at convention center

By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Hawai'i Tourism Authority has begun evaluating options for the Hawai'i Convention Center's management and marketing, which face an uncertain future in the wake of new legislation and the expiration of its contracts.

For the past several years, two organizations have had duties marketing and booking events for the center. But a bill signed by Gov. Ben Cayetano requires that the management and marketing of the 5-year-old center come under one entity by Jan. 1.

Philadelphia-based SMG, with a $460,000 budget and two salespeople, manages the center and books short-term conventions — usually 13 months or less in advance — to local groups. The Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau, with 15 people, markets the center worldwide for meetings, conventions and incentive trips booked more than 13 months ahead by out-of-state groups. The bureau devotes about $4 million of its $45 million budget to marketing the center.

At a media luncheon yesterday, the bureau said that so far it has booked 23 conventions still to be held at the center. Those conventions will generate an estimated $221 million in visitor spending, $19 million in state tax revenue and 125,000 hotel room nights, according to the bureau. The booking pace through the first five months of 2002 has exceeded 2001 by 44 percent, the bureau said.

Sandra Moreno, the bureau's vice president for meetings, conventions and incentives, said the bureau is responsible for booking all 30 events scheduled by out-of-state groups this year, up from only 22 such off-shore events last year, and close to the record of 31 conventions in 2000.

While the new legislation calls for a single entity to market and manage the Hawai'i Convention Center, it's unclear whether it could be SMG or the bureau — both of which report to the tourism authority.

Technically, the authority also could choose to award the single contract to neither SMG nor the bureau since the bureau's contract with the tourism authority expires at the end of this year, and SMG's contract with the authority ends June 30, 2003.

Tourism authority board members talked briefly about the possibility of extending the bureau's contract to end simultaneously with SMG's but no action was taken. One entity subcontracting to another — essentially maintaining the current working relationship —remains a possibility.

The convention centers in Las Vegas and Reno are the only two convention centers in the country that market and manage under one entity, according to Tony Vericella, president and chief executive officer of the Hawai'i bureau.

All other convention centers use one group for management, and a separate group for marketing.