Like the many scenic but precarious hikes that draw visitors here, the challenges facing the Hawaii Tourism Authority are both exhilarating and risky — and it now falls to incoming CEO Chris Tatum to navigate the delicate path.
Tatum was named last week to lead HTA, which has overseen gangbusters tourism but has recently drawn the ire of state lawmakers and auditor over secrecy, overspending and operational laxity. Tatum will need the HTA to be more transparent about its annual budget — which was $108.5 million in 2017 — while ensuring that Hawaii’s main economic engine remains robust and forward-thinking amid global competition.
In May, the Legislature cut HTA’s budget by $13 million. That came on the heels of a February audit that questioned HTA’s financial accountability, plus $12,000 in fines last December by the state Ethics Commission against some top HTA executives for accepting and soliciting airline upgrades.
Tatum, clearly, will need to rebuild trust in HTA with the public and the Legislature, which can be a political minefield. It should help that he’ll have a say in picking his top team members: both HTA’s chief administrative officer and vice president for marketing/product left earlier this year when the agency was under fire.
The turmoil swirled, even as Hawaii enjoys its seventh consecutive year of record tourism, nearly 10 million visitors this year. But a slew of challenges confront the industry next year, including:
>> Staying strong and competitive but balanced. HTA’s new monthly numbers show that while more visitors came in October compared with a year ago, they spent less. That more-people-but-less-money dynamic intensifies questions about impacts on infra-
structure and environment. As tourism numbers grow year after year, so have concerns about the islands’ sustainability and capacity.
>> Overcoming the “lax oversight (and) deficient internal controls” within HTA, as outlined in the critical audit. Those issues factored into HTA’s $13 million cut; those funds went to other agencies such as the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to mitigate environmental-use impacts.
>> Ensuring recovery and marketing for Kauai and Hawaii island, both hit by natural disasters this year. Despite earlier worries, HTA’s latest monthly data show both islands have rebounded or weathered April’s flooding on Kauai and Kilauea’s eruption on the Big Island. But state tourism did take an August downturn, attributed to the eruption and Hurricane Lane — showing the need to vigilantly counter negative publicity or perceptions to prospective visitors.
>> A fast-changing lodging landscape, with traditional hotels renovating and refreshing even as online platforms such as Airbnb and
HomeAway expand Hawaii’s tourism experience but not its tax base.
Established in 1998, HTA’s mission is “to strategically manage Hawaii tourism in a sustainable manner consistent with economic goals, cultural values, preservation of natural resources, community desires and visitor industry needs.”
Can Tatum meet the challenge? He is a hotelier long employed by Marriott — so HTA should benefit from his global industry knowledge and experience, having worked in Malaysia, Australia and overseen operations in the U.S. Northwest as well as Singapore, the Philippines and Guam.
Tatum has said one of the keys to a healthy visitor industry is remembering that “Hawaii is a place where people live, it’s not just a place that they visit.”
Tourism is surging now, and Hawaii’s economy relies on that. But HTA’s strategy going forward is a complex calculus that must balance the needs of visitor and resident — external competition factors as well as internal sustainability concerns. For Hawaii’s sake, let’s hope that Tatum and team will have the right compass to guide HTA through this next phase of the state’s evolving tourism journey.
