Travel has undergone dramatic changes since the 1940s when Richard "Doc" Kelley helped his parents kick off the small mom-and-pop hotel chain that would morph into the globally recognized Outrigger Enterprises Group.
Today’s visitors come to Hawaii by jet planes instead of steamships. They have a range of hotel and transportation products that cater to wealthy and middle-class travelers from around the world. Hotel records are kept electronically, and the night audit isn’t done with adding machines on pencil-and-paper spreadsheets. But at its heart, true hospitality really isn’t that different from the days when Richard Kelley and his sisters learned the family business, doing everything from folding towels and carrying luggage to serving pineapple juice to guests.
At 81, the chairman emeritus of Outrigger Enterprises Group, Hawaii’s largest locally owned hospitality company, last week became the first Hawaii recipient of Travel Weekly magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Despite a hiatus to go to Stanford University and Harvard Medical School, Kelley spent most of his peak leadership years building Hawaii’s visitor industry.
"When he talks he has something to say, and it’s usually pretty meaningful. He’s still a voice for the industry," said Melinda Bush, president and CEO of New York-based Hospitality Resources Worldwide, who has known Kelley since 1976. "In the corporate world, people come and go, but he and his family have a total commitment to Hawaii."
Kelley’s ties to tourism go back to 1947, the year his parents, Roy and Estelle, opened their first hotel, The Islander, on Seaside Avenue in Waikiki. Since then the industry’s main challenges have stayed constant.
"We’ve got to keep the visitors coming, the prices reasonable and the planes flying. And we need lots of promotion," said Kelley in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Kelly was born in the territory of Hawaii in 1933 during the Great Depression and has never lost his sensitivity to guest price points.
Kelley said the visitor industry also must work collectively to ensure legislators don’t put too many taxes on visitors and too many costs aren’t passed on to airlines, which can take flight when the going gets tough. He was instrumental in bringing the Hawai‘i Convention Center to Waikiki and said its continued support will create a base of business that will sustain Hawaii’s visitor industry in the off-season.
"The Hawaii Tourism Authority and the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau can’t do it alone. Outrigger can’t do it. Hilton can’t do it. We have to all be on the same side pushing in the same direction. The more we can get aware of the situation and dedicated to it, the more successful that we’ll be," he said.
As president of Outrigger, a role he assumed in 1971, and later chairman of the board and CEO, Kelley’s many contributions to Hawaii tourism started when he shelved his career as a pathologist for the Queen’s Medical Center and an instructor at the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine to keep the family business going. Today it provides jobs at 45 properties spread across Hawaii and the Asia-Pacific.
"My father’s decision to come into the business was essential to continuing the business. My grandparents were developing hotels into the 1960s and were getting up there in age and had thoughts of retiring and traveling the world," said Richard’s son Charles "Chuck" Kelley, who became Outrigger’s chairman in 2013.
Richard Kelley is credited with bringing advanced technology to the chain and envisioning the growth of Outrigger Enterprises beyond Hawaii’s shores.
"In the early days my father wanted to be able to walk to all of the properties, and my mother did all the reservations on a manual typewriter," Richard Kelly said. "But I remember we went through a tremendous building boom in the 1950s and 1970s, and the mom-and-pop way of business could no longer go on."
He took the company beyond Waikiki and into the neighbor islands and Australia. And, he wholeheartedly supported his son-in-law David Carey’s decision to make the company a leader in beach destinations across the Asia-Pacific.
"There’s no question that his father laid down a great foundation and Richard built on that and took it further," said Hawaii hotel developer Andre S. Tatibouet. "Expanding beyond Waikiki was the right thing to do. It built and strengthened their brand. I thank him for all he and his family have done for Hawaii tourism."
Tatibouet added that Richard Kelley’s contributions to Hawaii’s visitor industry go beyond Outrigger.
"We wouldn’t have a convention center today if he had not pushed 15 years for the project, which he knew had the potential to make a difference in Hawaii tourism," Tatibouet said.
Kelley also helped to secure funding to market the state’s visitor industry, launched initiatives to highlight the value of a Hawaii trip, and supported major revitalization of Waikiki’s aging infrastructure such as the $460 million-plus redevelopment of the Lewers Street corridor into the Waikiki Beach Walk.
"The beach walk had become a shabby area where people didn’t want to go. They redeveloped the Lewers area all the way from Kalakaua Avenue to the beach. They took a huge risk with their own money bringing in developers and retailers, and literally making it like the Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills," Bush said.
Kelley ensured Outrigger’s leadership was passed on to the next generation by putting his son at the helm and promoting Carey, who is now CEO of the company. However, he has continued his involvement with the family business.
"He’s still constantly traveling all over the world. Sometimes he’s by himself but oftentimes with another family member, and most of those that travel with him have some concern that they’ll be able to keep up with him," Charles Kelley said. "He’s up early in the morning, and he goes until late at night with meetings and things to do."
Richard Kelley said he enjoys the flexibility of his new role.
"As the chairman emeritus, I get to throw my ideas in every once in a while, and they can listen to them or not," said Kelley, who now works mostly from Denver, where he resides with his wife of 35 years, Linda Van Gilder Kelley. "I’m a director of the company and cherish my role. I also write articles for the Saturday Briefing to let people know what’s going on in our company and the hospitality industry."
Earlier in the year, Kelley used the publication to tout the company’s decision to expand into Castaway Island, Fiji. He was also proud of its acquisition of the Konotta Island Resort situated in the Republic of Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Following a property renovation, Kelley said that hotel is expected to open as the Outrigger Konotta Maldives Resort in July. He added that work also has continued on new properties at Vin Hoi Bay on the south-central coast of Vietnam and at Clearwater Bay on the southern coast of Hainan island, China.
Additionally, Kelley has high hopes for the brand renewal that Outrigger adopted on its past founders day, which celebrates his parents.
"Our goal is to be known as the world’s premier beachfront resort brand," he said in his Saturday Briefing, a newsletter that he began writing some 30 years ago.
The publication, which started as an internal company communication, now gets distributed weekly to thousands of employees and industry partners in at least eight countries.
Based on Kelley’s track record of industry lobbying, it’s a sure bet there will be a Saturday Briefing dedicated to taxes prior to the next legislative session.
"It’s an annual battle to say, ‘Do not overtax the people who are paying out of their pockets to come visit us and help to drive our economy,’" Kelley said. "Sometimes the impact on tourism gets forgotten."
But Kelley said he knows from his many visits with guests that the cost of living is worrisome to some. He’s worried about global economic concerns like Russia’s descent into recession. While Russian travelers make up a small percentage of Hawaii’s travelers, they are well represented at Outrigger’s properties in Thailand. He’s also got his sights focused on the isles, where he says "prices are quite a surprise to a lot of people."
"If we increase the percentage of taxes, whether transient accommodations tax or hotel room tax or real estate or sales tax, it reaches a negative tipping point," he said. "New York City took their room tax too high, and they had to back off. I don’t want Hawaii to get into that situation."
CORRECTION: A travel magazine is honoring Richard Kelly with a lifetime achievement award. A headline on an earlier version of this story said Outrigger was honoring Kelly.
