TGI STAFF The Hawai’i Tourism Authority wants to hear your feelings about its long-range strategic plan for promoting Hawai’i as a visitor destination. The Kaua’i public meeting on proposed revisions to Ke Kumu, the HTA Tourism Strategic Plan, is 4
TGI STAFF
The Hawai’i Tourism Authority wants to hear your feelings about its long-range strategic plan for promoting Hawai’i as a visitor destination.
The Kaua’i public meeting on proposed revisions to Ke Kumu, the HTA Tourism Strategic Plan, is 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. today at the Pakalana Room of the Radisson Kaua’i Beach Resort near Hanama’ulu.
The seven initiatives remain from the plan’s 1999 birth, with the seventh, regulations and investment incentives, re-named long-range planning to reflect community concerns over the initiative’s initial focus on supporting changes to land-use laws and planning and permitting procedures in order to support sustainable land uses related to tourism.
Community concern over land-use issues prompted the initiative name change. The concerns were raised at a series of statewide public hearings on the proposed plan revisions. Public input was woven into the updated Ke Kumu.
The six other initiatives are:
– Communication and community relations, to ensure knowledge of, support for and participation in tourism by residents, businesses including the visitor industry, and government agencies;
– Marketing, by major marketing areas (geographic and business targets), to promote Hawai’i as a preferred destination for leisure and business tourism;
– Sporting events, including important events like the NFL Quarterback Challenge and PGA Grand Slam of Golf held on Kaua’i that generate worldwide media coverage and significant economic impact, as well as other types of sporting events including the Honolulu and Maui marathons and Ironman triathlon;
– Tourism product enrichment and diversification, to upgrade Hawai’i’s tourism product with enhanced existing and new events, experiences, attractions and projects in niches like culture, agriculture, education, health and wellness, nature, technology and other areas;
– Airlift, a critical factor significantly and directly influencing nearly all tourism to Hawai’i, with the focus here on increasing airlift and establishing win-win relationships between the struggling airline industry and the state and counties.
Gary Baldwin, Kaua’i member of the HTA, said he expects further revisions to the strategic plan as the result of input heard already on meetings on Maui, O’ahu and Hilo on the Big Island earlier this month.
Copies of the revised Ke Kumu are available for reference at the state’s public libraries, and at www.hawaii.gov/tourism. A copy may also be requested via U.S. mail by calling 1-808-973-2261, or 1-808-973-2255.
