State leaders question need to market Hawaii to tourists
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / MARCH 19
Beachgoers are pictured at Kuhio Beach in Waikiki in March. The leaders of the state House and Senate said today that the summer surge in tourists shows that Hawaii no longer needs to be marketed as a tourist destination.
The leaders of the state House and Senate said today that the summer surge in tourists shows that Hawaii no longer needs to be marketed as a tourist destination and invited the Hawaii Tourism Authority to help figure out how HTA can better manage tourists once they arrive and reduce community complaints and concerns.
House Speaker Scott Saiki and Senate President Ron Kouchi spoke to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser during its Spotlight Hawaii online broadcast today, one day after both the House and Senate overrode Gov. David Ige’s veto of House Bill 862 that fundamentally changes HTA’s funding and leaves its future uncertain.
Asked about HTA’s role going forward, Kouchi said: “What we’re hoping for is that we’re going to see a better collaboration between HTA and the visitor industry, the Legislature as well as the general public before we get to the point where we have incredible push back from residents and really hurt our brand by having people who are unhappy with the visitors’ movement. We need to all be at the table working together. I think this creates a pathway for that to occur.”
Saiki later said, “I’m not sure that tourism needs to be marketed here anymore as we see now with the numbers increasing so rapidly. But I think that HTA has to help us be more strategic in how we target the kinds of the tourists, the visitors that we want to target for Hawaii.”
HB 862 allows counties to both raise hotel tax rates and collect them directly. Asked about the effect on residents who want to travel to neighbor islands or book rooms on Oahu, Saiki the bill would have likely faced a legal challenge by charging different tax rates between tourists and residents.
But he said the Legislature is likely to take up the issue next session as the state Department of Land and Natural Resources implements potential new user fees for tourists on state lands. Different entry fee rates could be charged on state property just as the city charges different fees at Hanauma Bay, Saiki said.
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Kouchi added that residents who receive kama’aina hotel rates would not pay as much in taxes as non-residents who pay higher room rates.
