LIHU‘E — A proposed bill that would give the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau $500,000 to implement an “economic stimulus plan” was passed out of the Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday, and will soon be heard by the full County Council.
LIHU‘E — A proposed bill that would give the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau $500,000 to implement an “economic stimulus plan” was passed out of the Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday, and will soon be heard by the full County Council.
Bill 2306, as currently written, would provide $500,000 in funding for Phase I of the stimulus plan. Of that total, the biggest chunk — $250,000 — would be split among five wholesalers and online travel agent partners in an effort to create additional visitors to the island. Examples of wholesalers include Pleasant Holidays and Blue Sky Tours. Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz are among the online travel agents, according to a list provided by the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau to the council.
The proposal — which first appeared at the council earlier this year — comes as both the state and county suffer through the most dramatic tourism downturn in years. According to data recently released by the state’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, total arrivals to Kaua‘i in March were down more than 22 percent from the same month a year ago.
Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau Executive Director Sue Kanoho told the council that the promotional efforts would likely not result in any increases, but would instead help stop the bleeding.
“Flat is the new up,” Kanoho joked.
Kanoho said her office typically focuses on broader promotional endeavors — raising awareness of Hawai‘i as a potential vacation destination, increasing desire to travel to Hawai‘i and fostering intent to visit Hawai‘i within 24 months — but said the new efforts would have the immediate aim of “heads in beds” — conversion of interested parties to actual, physical, cash-carrying visitors.
George Costa, director of the county’s Office of Economic Development, told the council that the $250,000 expenditure could result in an increase of more than $7 million of tourist dollars on the island.
In an interview following the hearing, Costa projected a “conservative” 20 percent differential in room nights produced by five wholesalers or online travel agents — from nearly 17,000 per month during the first quarter of 2009 to a projected amount of more than 20,000 per month.
Each room night, on average, features 2.3 visitors, and each visitor, on average, spends $157.40 per day,
according to state data. A differential of more than 3,000 room nights per month would translate to $7.2 million over the six-month duration of the plan, Costa said. That figure does not factor in the multiplier effect of some of that money filtering back through the local economy.
Asked in an interview outside Council Chambers if targeting wholesalers was the best strategy in a worldwide economic climate in which many thrifty travelers cannot afford to travel, Kanoho said even affluent travelers are now hunting for the best deals, and those who may have used an independent travel agent in past years are now turning to online travel agents or wholesalers to book their trips.
The council largely supported the measure, passing it by a 6-1 vote. First-time council member Lani Kawahara was the only to vote in opposition, and had her proposed amendment shot down, also by a 6-1 vote.
Kawahara’s proposal would have cut the bill to $275,000, leaving in the $250,000 for the wholesalers and $25,000 for a 50th anniversary celebration of iconic film South Pacific, but cutting out $170,000 for a kama‘aina campaign encouraging Hawai‘i residents and military to travel to Kaua‘i from other islands, $20,000 for a remote radio show hosted on Kaua‘i, $25,000 for a “Pacific Northwest Blitz,” and $10,000 for a Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau Administration fee.
Kawahara said she understood the importance of the visitor industry but hoped the island could diversify its economy to avoid a situation where it is completely dependent on one industry for survival.
“All I’m asking is that we work harder so that we aren’t so dependent and so at the mercy of so many conditions outside of our control,” she said in proposing the amendment, adding that she hoped to address the crisis “in a more sustainable way” rather than putting more money into the only game in town, and hoped to turn the challenge into better long-term planning.
Kawahara specified agriculture and energy as two industries to be explored, but did not make specific proposals for using the $225,000 that would be saved under her amendment. Budget and Finance Committee Chair Daryl Kaneshiro said he could not support the amendment without seeing the numbers to back up an alternate proposal for the money.
Kaneshiro called the tourism proposal a “no-brainer,” Budget and Finance Vice Chair Jay Furfaro said the full funding was necessary to help the tourism industry “keep its head above the water,” and council Chair Kaipo Asing said the decision was a simple one.
“The choice is do something or do nothing. Doing something, you have a chance. Do nothing and you have no chance. It just reduces your possibility of anything better, or even sustaining what you have,” he said in shooting down Kawahara’s proposal. “I think that’s an awful thought.”
Whenever the measure does reappear on a council agenda, the results could be similar; the Budget and Finance Committee is the only council committee, other than the Committee of the Whole, to feature all seven council members as voting committee members. Other committees have five voting council members and two non-voting ex-officio members.
Phase II of the proposed stimulus plan would take place between January and June of 2010 and would include another $500,000. That funding will be discussed as part of the 2009-10 Fiscal Year budget.
For more information on Hawai‘i Tourism, visit the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau Web site, www.hvcb.org, or the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau Web site, www.kauaidiscovery.com.
For full coverage of the County Council’s actions on Bill 2306 and the 2009-2010 budget process, see a future edition of The Garden Island.
•Michael Levine, assistant news editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or via e-mail at mlevine@kauaipubco.com
