H.V.B. gets most support from State

Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.

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The House Tourism Committee today continued its examination of the State’s relationship with the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, particularly in regard to money matters.

Legislators have become increasingly concerned with the fact that the State is now providing more than 75 percent of the funds for the H.V.B.’s annual budget ($1.45 million for the current fiscal year).

Back in 1955, it was agreed that the State would match — on a 50-50 basis — funds raised privately by the H.V.B. among various hotels and tourist businesses, since they benefit most from the H.V.B. promotional effort.

That ratio has now jumped to 3-to-1. That is, the State now pours three times as much money into the H.V.B. budget as hotels and tourist businesses.

In today’s hearing, Robert C. Allen, executive vice president and managing director of the H.V.B., told committee members some hotels and tourist concerns are not contributing their fair share to the H.V.B. fund drive.

"There are a lot of slackers and free riders who benefit from our promotional work but who don’t support our drive either enough or at all," Allen said.

He added that there are many "Good sized hotels and tourist operations which reap good-sized profits" but do not contribute enough to the H.V.B. budget.

The committee spent most of this morning’s session reviewing the Bureau’s budget. Some of the Representatives noted that the total amount of money designated to be spent for the salaries of Bureau’s personnel this fiscal year barely matches the $450,000 fund goal figure.

"It seems fairly clear here that all of your fund money raised among private businesses which feed off your promotional effort goes just for salaries and the State money is used for the promotion itself," said Representative Clarence Y. Akizaki, Democrat from Oahu’s 15th District (Manoa-Waikiki).

Representative Rudolph Pacarro (Democrat, Nuuanu-Alewa), chairman of the committee, said the legislature is "not out to put clamps" on the tourist industry.

"The State just wants to be sure it is getting its money’s worth out of the H.V.B.," he said.