The Hawaii Tourism Authority has set a goal of increasing its business-travel arrivals — including from meetings, conventions and corporate incentive trips —by 13 percent in each of the next three years.
It’s a large target considering that market fell eight out of the last 15 years and has only grown more than 13 percent in three of the years since the Hawai‘i Convention Center’s 1998 opening.
"It’s audacious but it can be done," said John Monahan, president and CEO of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.
Even though Hawaii’s business travel fell 20 percent after the Great Recession and hasn’t completely recovered, Monahan said he is confident that changing the way the state markets business travel will build success.
Monahan pointed to the newly formed "Meet Hawai‘i" effort — combining the sales and marketing teams of the convention center and the bureau while also tapping the expertise of HTA’s international marketing contractors — as a step in the right direction.
He explained that the convention center staff had been focused on selling so-called "citywides," large meetings that fill rooms in multiple hotels, while the HVCB staff concentrated on meetings held at one hotel or resort.
"Over time we realized there was a more effective way to go about it," he said. "Our new approach is really driven by the customer since it’s easier to deal with one person that can do all things."
Meet Hawai‘i also functions as a one-stop resource for Hawaii’s business-travel sellers who can market on the Meet Hawai‘i website, gain access to the latest industry research or tap into a database of clients, Monahan said.
Additionally, HTA and HVCB have brought in industry veterans Brian Lynx and Karen Hughes to overhaul marketing for group business travel to Hawaii.
Lynx, who started Feb. 19, serves as HTA’s vice president of meetings, conventions and incentives. He also will be working closely with HTA contractors in Japan, South Korea, China, Australia and New Zealand.
Hughes, who began working at HVCB in April, will serve as vice president of Meet Hawai‘i and Travel Industry Partnerships. Part of her focus will be working with the convention center to generate both citywide and single-property bookings.
"The latest report shows that 2013 will be a good year for business travel in Hawaii; however, 2014 and 2015 are still a little behind pace, and 2016 to 2018 have considerable room to grow," Lynx said.
Douglas L. Ducate, president and CEO of the Dallas-based Center for Exhibition Industry Research, said HTA’s goals seem ambitious.
"I wish Hawaii the best," he said, "but it seems very aggressive and optimistic in today’s environment."
He said he is not confident Meet Hawai‘i will save the day.
"It sounds like another industry fix," he said. "In reality, if you look at the convention industry model that has worked, there has been a sales and marketing arm that sells the destination and an operating arm that runs the facility."
But Cheryl Williams, Starwood’s regional vice president of sales and marketing for Hawaii and French Polynesia, said she’s seen more industry progress, collaboration and transparency since Meet Hawai‘i’s January debut and is hopeful that progress will continue.
"In my view the destination is stronger and better than before," she said. "We’re leveraging our collective strengths and that helps. At Starwood we’re up 18 percent year-to-date for meetings, conventions and incentives throughout the islands."
While the industry is under tremendous pressure to fill convention center shortfalls in 2016, 2017 and 2018, Williams said there’s still time to recover.
"We can still get the bookings that we need," she said. "If we hit 2015 and we still don’t have a backlog, at that point it may be too late."
