New supply of labor is needed by hotels

The Hawaii Hotel Association has come a long way since Dec. 12, 1946, when 20 hotelmen and a representative of the Hawaii Visitors Bureau attended its organizational meeting. …

The most recent membership roster shows 99 hotels on its active membership list. These, in turn, represent 73 per cent of Hawaii’s 18,000-plus hotel rooms.

HHA’s 11-man board holds monthly sessions and the organization’s quarterly meetings are held on different Islands throughout the State.

In December, HHA acquired its first full-time professional, veteran hotelman Robert N. Rinker, as its executive vice president.

Rinker, who began his Isle hotel career in 1952 as manager of the Kauai Inn, is currently the lessee-manager of the Pali Palms Hotel and was HHA’s president in 1964.

The new vice president, who has joined long-time secretary Genie Pitchford in the HHA offices in the Waikiki Business Plaza, has set up a series of "action" areas of the association. These include recruitment and training of employes for the expanding visitor industry, government relations, community relations, and research.

Rinker’s "action area" of immediate concern is to represent the industry’s goals and needs at the upcoming budget session of the Legislature. …

But Rinker believes that his number one effort will revolve around the industry’s need for a rapidly expanding work force. …

He looks forward to the day when hotelmen can mount regularly scheduled career days on school campuses everywhere — giving vocationally minded students the chance to talk face to face with representatives of the industry.

A major opportunity in this area will occur Friday when the Hawaii Practical Arts and Vocational Association sponsors a conference at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel.

Philip A. Bishop, a counselor at Kapiolani Community College and chairman of the conference, expects about 200 teachers and counselors to attend the program which will be centered on opportunities in the hotel and restaurant industries.

Rinker intends to have a battery of hotelmen present.