George Szigeti

What George Szigeti brings to his new job as president and chief executive of the Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association is not so much experience on the room side of the room-and-board equation but a great deal on the food-and-beverage end.

Even before relocating to Hawaii 32 years ago, he was well-established in his career at E&J Gallo. His years at the helm of Best Brands Ltd., food and wine supplier to many hotel functions, introduced him to tourism industry leaders and some familiarity with the hotel business.

Clearly his first love is food and wine and, as it happens, that’s becoming a more important part of the visitor’s experience, too. Szigeti points to the second annual Hawaii Food & Wine Festival, now under way with events through the weekend, as one signal event. Others see the synergies, too.

“As I talk to the chefs, they realize a lot of the restaurateurs really benefit from what we do as an industry,” he said. “And I say, ‘You’re right. We ought to be partners.’”

Szigeti succeeds former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann as head of HTLA, the state’s hospitality trade organization formerly known as the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association. He previously served on its board and is a past president of the Hawaii Food Industry Association.

The California native, once a professional surfer, earned his degree in psychology and sociology before UCLA had a business school, he said. He also dabbled in modeling in his younger days, and still gets the rare call — “when they need an old man,” he added with a laugh.

Now he prefers his more settled life with his wife and college-age daughter. And, he said, he embraces his current career, one with real impact.

“I like what it stands for,” Szigeti said. “When you look at the trickle-down effect, the ripple effect of the lodging industry, the tourism industry, it impacts all of us.”

QUESTION: What is the association’s mission?

ANSWER: The primary mission of the lodging association is obviously governmental affairs, making sure we’re working with the state, the city, the federal government, making sure we’re good partners as far as making good business decisions in the Legislature, and being a strong voice for tourism. …

One thing that Mufi did — and he did a lot of things that were positive —  when we changed the name to Lodging & Tourism Association.

Q: Not just “hotel.”

A: Exactly right. Everybody figured you had to be a hotelier to be part of our association. In 1947 when it started there were 16 hotels. Now we have 600, not only hotels, but we have allied members, we have individuals not only locally but nationally; it’s much more broad than hotels.

Q: You’re talking about time shares, too?

A: Time shares, condo hotels … so it more accurately reflects today’s lodging culture.

Q: And this is here to stay?

A: It’s here to stay. Because if it weren’t for time shares and all that on some of these neighbor islands, they’d have a much more difficult time with people. Once they buy the time share, they feel committed to coming back every year and contributing back to the economy. They come for the week on Kauai or the Big Island. Quite frankly, thank God we have those time shares on the Big Island.

Q: Why do you think this sector has grown so much?

A: It gives you some ownership. I know, you’re only one-52nd of it, or whatever the number is, but you still have ownership. … It just gives you a reason to keep coming back. Look what the Hilton did with those towers over there … they’re busy. People are just coming back every year, make a point to come back to Hawaii.

I think that’s really good. I think most of your areas, it’s great for that sustainability thing. It’s not just about the tourist who comes today; you enhance his experience, you make it memorable. That’s part of the hotel allure, right? And then they come back every year.

That’s the key, because we’re competing against a worldwide tourism market. Quite frankly, you watch TV, you’re seeing the Gulf Coast put a ton of TV because BP Gas is obviously paying billions for that. And now you look, California, they’re talking Napa Valley, they’ve got (Arnold) Schwarzenegger doing it. We’re competing against the Caribbean, Tahiti. So, talking to these GMs, they’re always trying to raise the bar as far as enhancing the experience there.

One of the things I’m going to try to do is try to get more of the restaurants, because the food experience is a big part of our lure.

Q: There have been some recent developments in hotels bringing in more locally grown food, right?

A: “Farm to plate” is a big initiative.

Q: How would you encourage that?

A: One of the things I would like to do is to have the hotels continue to enhance the overall experience … tie in our food.

I’ll tell you a story. I took (chefs) Sam Choy and Alan Wong fishing two years ago. The three of us went fishing in Alaska. We were in this remote area of Craig, Alaska. There’s only about 18 of us there in the lodge. I was coming out of my room, and I hear this guy — he’s from Des Moines, or somewhere, he’s got an accent and he’s going, “Honey, honey, you’re not going to believe it, I’m in Alaska, and you’re not going to believe who’s here. Sam Choy from Hawaii is over here!”

They’re iconic. It was so funny. Half an hour after we get in the lodge, they recognize Sam, they recognize Alan: “Alan Wong and Sam Choy from Hawaii, they’re fishing up here!”

It was so cool. I told the chefs that.

We’ve got to be creating synergies between events, that this becomes a destination, to not only to come to our lodging side, but experience our food. That’s what it’s all about.

Q: Do you think your experience in food-and-wine events and networking with those was one advantage you brought to this job?

A: From what I heard, … a couple things: They thought I brought a nice balance to it. I wasn’t a hotelier, but I was a good businessman. We were a $100 million company. So I bring a business balance and perspective to it, but I also bring, in their view, that networking you were talking about. I’ve dealt with all the chefs, I’ve dealt with a lot of the food and beverage side. … Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong are working on this big thing …

Q: The Food & Wine Festival?

A: It’s becoming a big thing over here. … The money is going to be used for our culinary school here on Diamond Head, which I’ve been really involved with. That’s going to be a $15 million, $20 million project. … The next level up of top-notch culinary is going to be that school.

Q: What is the site for the school?

A: The old Cannon Club. The permits have been done and it’s a go. … The money’s coming in; Restaurant Week (Nov. 12-18) also goes to that. I’ll be talking to the HLTA and my board about that, that we should be more involved and supportive of Restaurant Week in Waikiki because proceeds also go to the school. …

My long-term strategic plan was to keep the young in the culinary schools and keep the young chefs they need in the hotels, keep them home. Give them the education, give them the support.

Q: How are we doing with the branding of Hawaii tourism, the refreshing of the hotel inventory?

A: I was just over with (Hilton Hawaiian executive) Jerry Gibson, and they’re redoing a whole wing over there right now. You look at what the Outrigger did. That whole boardwalk I think is just fantastic. I’ve talked to the visitors; they love that area there, with all the restaurants and shops.

That kind of revitalization, I think,  is top of mind with a lot of hoteliers. They’re very aware. And right now is a good time to do it, actually. You’re seeing a lot of hotels putting a lot of money and trying to upgrade and refresh their respective brands.

Q: Do you think more attention needs to be spent on the neighbor islands and ecotourism, as opposed to the urban resort experience of Waikiki?

A: It depends, probably, on your age group, your demographic. You walk through Waikiki, and the younger generation are just having the time of their life down there, going to the beach, going out to dinner. …

Your family traveler, we have that for them here. That’s the beauty of 40, 30 minutes out to Ko Olina. It’s like you’re on another island out there. We’re creating that on the island; we’re creating where you can go off, out of Waikiki and still have that urban experience.

Neighbor islands certainly offer that. That’s why it’s important we continue these direct flights with all the major airlines. …

You need Waikiki. This is high energy, very contemporary. People really enjoy Waikiki. It’s safe, it’s clean. It’s a wonderful place to visit, a wonderful experience. That’s going to be what some people want, and some people are going to want to go directly to Maui, the Big Island, Kauai, maybe not even be connected.

Q: Where are all the travelers coming from, with the global economy still shaky?

A: A lot of international travelers are finding we’re a bargain. If you look at the dollar versus the yen, it’s at a low. Hawaii’s a bargain to them. When I was in Japan and looking at the prices, I’m going, “This is expensive,” but it’s the dollar versus the yen.

Q: But isn’t Japan’s economy suffering?

A: Yeah, but I was there twice already this summer, and you couldn’t tell it by what I saw. … And the West is coming; we’re getting a lot of West Coast, too.

Q: How optimistic are you given all the reports on visitor counts?

A: It’s a good time for Hawaii, but you have to be a little bit cautious. It can be a little misleading, because I do know that our hoteliers, they can’t get back to their previous rates where things were up where they need to be to cover labor cost, operating costs. They’re not there yet. So even though the visitor count is up, from a hotelier’s side, the revenue side has not recovered yet. It really hasn’t.