A recent University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization report forecast that 2013 will be another banner year for tourists. Following the visitor industry numbers, UHERO placed 2012 at the cusp of the benchmark 2006 year when nearly 8 million visitors
A recent University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization report forecast that 2013 will be another banner year for tourists.
Following the visitor industry numbers, UHERO placed 2012 at the cusp of the benchmark 2006 year when nearly 8 million visitors stayed, ate, drank, refreshed, renewed, visited, re-visited, toured, sun-bathed-tanned-burnt, and, most of all, spent, spent, spent, throughout the islands, and, which drove the economy into record highs.
On a recent stay in Waikiki, you wouldn’t know that the economy other than tourism is just slowly leaving the “Great Recession” behind.
What’s so great about this current recession? After all, ‘great’ usually refers to something beyond good and positive.
In this case, it clearly meant the opposite in that it was long, deep and for many throughout the country, tough, tough, tough.
My recent stay at a hotel for meetings in Honolulu was much costlier than I would normally budget for, especially paying the kama’aina rate.
Restaurant lines were unimaginable, as four food establishments had long lines snaking around half the block, not to mention the wait time once inside.
Of course, I always say that these are good problems to have since it’s better for employees to be busy, working, being and feeling productive, rather than idling the time and waiting for the shift/schedule to end.
The Year of the Snake suggests it will continue to follow the auspicious Dragon, in which it was a year to return to making money, strengthen finances, proceed cautiously and continue positioning for solid growth.
No cliché here.
Government funds are in the pipeline for construction. Private sector permits approved in 2012 will lead to more ground-breaking and blessing ceremonies, and the Chamber is offering a new and free program for businesses.
The new permits will lead to the start of “vertical” construction, while helping jumpstart and rebuild the other leg of Hawai‘i’s economy: Construction jobs that will return thousands of workers into the economy, help their ‘ohana and strengthen another economic leg and engine.
Last week, as a result of the very positive reports amid end of year data and adjusted economic growth forecast and positive atmosphere, reminded me that in this recovery we should all continue to take the contrarian view of remaining cautious, rechecking socio-economic priorities and aligning programs to budget.
In addition, the legislature should avoid the temptation to increase spending when some debt should be repaid, rebuilding/refunding the Hawai‘i Hurricane Relief Fund, addressing the government’s unfunded liabilities, investing in technology infrastructure and so on.
Further, there should not be an additional increase in the Transient Accommodations Tax, nor should it become permanent.
The legislation at the time was to increase the tax and have the tax only remain temporary instead of permanent.
Hopefully, in this case “temporary” really, really means temporary, not like the “temporary” portable buildings we see scattered through the Department of Education building landscape.
Times have indeed changed as the economic data indicate and the increase was a temporary solution to address the financial shortfall due to tax revenue albeit the drop in tourism numbers.
After all, in reviewing a hotel bill upon my check-out, the following itemized charges were listed: Daily hotel room charge, resort fee, TAT at 8.25 percent, GET at 4 percent plus the other charges/fees/gratuities not reflected in the bill, including daily tip for room cleaning, daily parking fee, food and beverages, car rental fees, taxes, car rental facilities fee, etc.
Got the picture?
In this economy — no one wants to kill the goose, especially, our Hawaiian Goose that doesn’t lay “golden eggs” and instead eggs that provide jobs, taxes, and, most of all, allow each of us to have a certain quality of life that we shouldn’t take for granted.
The budget cuts/slashing in government services, especially, health and human services — social justice programs, education, higher education, public safety, transportation, economic development etc., while necessary provided policy makers government bureaucrats an opportunity to have an “aha!” and “out-of-the-book” thinking that for some might have been foreign since they were used to a culture of “why fix it when it isn’t broken?”
The executive and legislative branches picked up the concept of innovation and stressed it during the past decade.
Businesses must continue assessing the ability to remain competitive this year from improved customer service, budget “surveillance,” dealing with diverse customers wants, needs and expectations, products and services and marketing.
Policy and decision makers, meanwhile, must decide what is important in order to have Hawai‘i remain competitive in this dual and global economy where Asia-Pacific meets the Americas — in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and where our islands’ nearest landmass is about 2,500 miles away.
At the Chamber, we’ll continue reviewing legislation at the Capitol while at the same time, monitoring and observing budget sessions at the local government level on the web.
In the meantime, can somebody fix the volume at the county’s live webcast of council meetings?
Have a Good Year of the Snake! Kung Hee Fat Choy!
• Randy Francisco is president of the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at info@kauaichamber.org.
