Posted on: Wednesday, July 23, 2003

EDITORIAL
HVCB should rethink its mission and culture

The departure of longtime Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau chief Tony Vericella provides an excellent opportunity for the veteran marketing organization to rethink both its mission and its institutional culture.

Vericella recognized the inevitable and resigned in the face of a critical audit from the state auditor, a pending legislative investigation, a potential audit by the Hawai'i Tourism Authority and the early stages of an attorney general's investigation.

Vericella went out defending the overall work of the bureau in the face of weak national and international travel markets. And there's no question that Hawai'i has weathered these difficult times about as well as any destination that requires air travel to get there.

That does not mean, however, that there isn't room for a fresh look at the way the bureau goes about its business.

In many ways, the current troubles at the bureau are the result of its being caught between two different cultures.

Traditionally, the HVCB (formerly the HVB) was primarily an adjunct to the private travel, leisure and hospitality industries. This is a business that relies on one-on-one relationships, trade-outs, favors, promotions and everything that goes with a culture of pleasure. And there is nothing wrong with that.

But in recent years the bureau has become much more dependent on direct state tax dollar support, as the sole marketing contractor to the state-backed HTA. This involves a culture that has strict spending and contracting rules, accountability standards and a slower, less free-wheeling pace.

It was almost inevitable that when those two cultures clashed, there would be negative fallout. Vericella was caught in the crossfire.

One example: One of the issues being reviewed is the HVCB's award of a lucrative contract to a former vice president to develop international markets. The contract was awarded immediately after the vice president left the bureau.

Similarly, the HVCB was knocked for using some of the state money it received to hire a lawyer to lobby the Legislature on its behalf in a battle to save the marketing contract for the Hawai'i Convention Bureau.

What the HVCB must now decide is what it wishes to be. If it is a private marketing organization, free to wheel and deal in the private sector, then it should look to the visitor industry for the bulk of its support.

If it is a quasi-public agency, surviving almost entirely on public dollars, then it must play by public service rules.

Hawai'i's tourism industry must have a solid integrated marketing approach to be competitive — marketing that moves forward without constant political meddling and within the rules.