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We should be looking at what benefits the customer. It seems many are coming here because they say the locals are friendly. That's a strong selling point."

Now there’s a brand new idea from Hawaii’s brain trust—suck up to foreigners and pimp the locals
Friday, February 29, 2008 Tourism execs cast about for new ideas

Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Chad Blair Pacific Business News
At a meeting of tourism officials and industry stakeholders this week, the elephant in the room was a cruise ship.
Make that the absence of a cruise ship -- two, actually.
"What are we going to do with a quarter of a million fewer visitors?" asked Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association. "No one really knows."
While Norwegian Cruise Line's pullout of two of its three ships from Hawaii received only passing discussion at the meeting of top tourism executives, the potential loss of 230,000 cruise visitors this year, on top of a worsening slump in overall visitor numbers, is forcing state tourism officials to reassess their marketing plans for the remainder of the year and for 2009.
The loss in cruise bookings as well as slackening visitor arrivals and spending could return Hawaii to pre-2000 arrival and expenditure levels.
At an all-day Hawaii Tourism Authority meeting at Turtle Bay Resort on Tuesday executives of Hawaii hotels, resorts, time shares, airlines and attractions viewed PowerPoint slides on visitor data and pitched ideas that could influence marketing plans.
For the rest of fiscal 2008, HTA already is making a renewed focus on marketing to North America. A majority of cruise ship passengers to Hawaii over the past five years came from Canada and the U.S. East.
"We're working out the details with our industry partners to help keep activity going even with NCL leaving," David Uchiyama, HTA's marketing director, told PBN.
HTA also is trying to attract more Japanese tourists, particularly multigenerational families and honeymooners, and to open up the Korean and Chinese markets.
In the meantime, HTA is mulling over the myriad marketing suggestions that came out of the brainstorming session and a follow-up meeting Wednesday.
Among the fixes discussed:
§ Split up the East Coast market for marketing. The U.S. East trails the U.S. West but is ahead of Japan as the largest source of Hawaii visitors.
It also is vast and diverse and includes every city east of the Rocky Mountains. Should Chicago and Dallas be marketed to the same as, say, Atlanta and New York City?
As Joseph Toy, president of Hospitality Advisors, repeatedly reminded the HTA, the U.S. East has historically been underpenetrated.
§ Don't forget the U.S. West. Ed Hubennette, area vice president for Japan, Hawaii and the South Pacific for Marriott International, asked whether the marketing emphasis on the U.S East and Asia will come at the expense of what's been Hawaii's greatest market.
"You have to go where the customers are," said Hubennette, who added that hotels were "popping up" all over Asia and the Middle East. "The world is rapidly changing, and we sometimes forget that as we struggle to keep up."
§ Play up Hawaii's strengths. Ernest Nishizaki, executive vice president of hotel owner Kyo-ya USA, said: "We should be looking at what benefits the customer. It seems many are coming here because they say the locals are friendly. That's a strong selling point."
HTA board member Kyoko Kimura agreed, noting that Japanese tourists are increasingly attracted to Hawaii's cultural and outdoor activities. Kimura is president and general manager of Diamond Resort Hawaii on Maui.
§ Reconsider what the "product" is. The word "segmentation" was used frequently at the HTA meeting. Should Kauai be marketed the same as the Big Island, or Maui the same as Oahu?
John Knox of John M. Knox & Associates said that research continues to reveal the Hawaii "brand" has mostly positive associations for visitors and residents alike.
"You don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water in cycle times," he said.
But that doesn't mean you can't rethink the sales demographics.
As Mitch Imanaka, the Hawaii chairman of American Resort & Lodging Association, asked: "Who is the preferred visitor? Can Hawaii continue to be all things to all people?"
§ Redefine Hawaii's "value." Even as the local industry has consolidated room inventory and spent billions of dollars on infrastructure, many believe there has been too much focus on high-end retail.
David Carey, president and CEO of Outrigger Enterprises Group, said for Japanese tourists the better shopping is in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Beijing. Florida and Las Vegas are cheaper draws for U.S. tourists.
There remains among potential visitors a widely shared perception that Hawaii is too expensive.
"How do we measure Hawaii's true value, close the loop and make the sale?" asked Doug Chang, HTA chairman and longtime Maui hotelier. "We know that once they get over the sticker shock and come here, they see that Hawaii is a very good value."
§ Shift resources to the Internet. Korea has been described as the most "online nation," and if Hawaii wants to get the 122,000 Koreans that came here in 1997 -- before Korea's economic collapse and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- it won't reach them through conventional advertising.
"I wouldn't be passing out brochures at a trade show," Carey said.
Most HTA officials already were aware of these ideas, and some have been incorporated into marketing strategies. Other ideas, such as refining visitor survey data to identify trends and studying the impact of the cruise industry, are under way.
cblair@bizjournals.com | 955-8036
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