Kauai counting on HTA’s new president

Kauai is having, by all standards, a wonderful year when it comes to tourism. Which, purely based on economic reasons and considering that this island’s economy hinges on tourism, is good news.

Kauai welcomed 103,089 guests in October, up 2.4 percent from October 2017. For the year, through October, Kauai has received 1.16 million visitors, an 8.4 percent increase over last year.

And yes, the visitors spend a lot of money. In October, they spent $145.1 million, up 2.1 percent from October 2017. For the year, it’s even better. They’ve spent $1.7 billion, up double digits, 11.5 percent, over the same 10-month time frame last year.

Kauai even bucked the state trend of visitors spending less. Across Hawaii, per person per day spending for October was $200.5, a decline of 2.4 percent over last year. But on Kauai, it actually rose slightly, to $195.5, up .5 percent.

However, there are those who believe too much tourism is not necessarily a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Rather than simply seeing incoming dollars that lead to jobs and booming business, they see crowded roads and beaches and an infrastructure that’s being overwhelmed by the stress put on it. They see locals being pushed out by new arrivals because they can’t afford to stay. They see relaxed lifestyle of aloha and waves and smiles being replaced by a sense of hustle and hurry, not-so-friendly gestures and glares and stares.

We need tourists. No one will dispute that. Our visitors are our economic lifeline. Without them, businesses would close, jobs would disappear, housing prices would tumble. No one wants that. Well, almost no one.

Kauai can’t continue on this road of building the tourism industry without paying a price. Anyone who lives here can tell you what the price is.

But, we can all agree, balance is needed. Yes, we need tourism, but we also need to realize we need a sense of normalcy, that life can continue on Kauai even if the Hawaii Tourism Authority doesn’t spend $100 million on marketing the Aloha State.

That’s why we’re counting on Chris Tatum, HTA’s new CEO and president and a man who has worked on Kauai.

First, a little about Mr. Tatum.

He is in the process of retiring from a 37-year career at Marriott to lead HTA. He is expected to start work in the coming weeks once the necessary requirements for employment with the state of Hawaii have been fulfilled.

Tatum’s appointment concludes a process by HTA’s board of directors that began four months ago to find and appoint a new leader of the agency responsible for managing tourism for Hawaii. More than 100 applicants sought the position after the executive search process began on July 27.

Tatum moved to Hawaii as a youth and graduated from Radford High School. He previously served as chairman of both the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association and Oahu Visitors Bureau, and was also a member of the Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary Commemorative Committee and 2011 APEC Hawaii Host Committee. Currently, he serves as chairman of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Tatum’s Marriott executive positions have included serving as area vice president of Hawaii, Pacific Northwest, Northern California and Utah, and also as area vice president of North Asia, Hawaii and the South Pacific.

He has also served as the opening resident manager of the Kauai Marriott Resort and the JW Marriott in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and as the opening general manager for the Brisbane Marriott Hotel in Australia.

Prior to his current position, Tatum served as general manager of the Renaissance Wailea Beach Resort on Maui, the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort &Spa at Ko Olina, and the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort, where he also earned Marriott’s General Manager of the Year Award.

It’s clear that Tatum is bright, sharp, motivated and understands what makes tourism tick.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a difference in my home by developing a sustainable brand strategy that enhances the visitor’s experience, while preserving our way of life,” he said.

Our request to Tatum is that he work closely on finding that balance between promoting tourism to Hawaii, and Kauai. We want to avoid the saturation that led to the situation we have to day of rising animosity and tension toward tourists, with some calling for authorities to put limits on their numbers. Others have called for increased taxes on rental cars and hotel rooms, with that money to be used to soften tourism’s impact. Some have called for a restriction on rental cars, even tolls. One suggestion was that the North Shore, when Kuhio Highway reopens to the public, be restricted to locals, while tourists could only visit via a shuttle.

Those sort of things tend to create feelings of ill well, which can be avoided.

We make the same argument we have long made, that marketing and promotion of Kauai could be stopped today and this island would still receive more than a million visitors a year.

This state doesn’t need to spend $100 million to market the beaches, the sunshine, the aloha, that make Hawaii famous worldwide. People already know. Everyone has heard about Hawaii. It’s not a secret. The millions spent on marketing certainly can be credited with bringing more people here. But at what cost? And is it worth that cost? At what point is enough, enough? When tourists do come here, we want them to enjoy their stay. We want them to feel the aloha. We them to feel welcome. When their numbers grow too large, that not good for them, for locals, for our environment.

We believe that Mr. Tatum, considering his experience and background, is the person to find that elusive balance needed for Kauai’s economy to thrive, and for its lifestyle and landscape to remain as they are — because that’s why people love it here.