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Uniting leaders from Hawaii’s visitor industry and other sectors to advance tourism interests and solve current challenges will be a major focus of Mufi Hannemann, who returns to the helm of the Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association after a three-year hiatus.
Hannemann, who previously served as president and CEO of HLTA from January to July 2012, will resume the role July 20. He succeeds George Szigeti, who left HLTA in May to become president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. The two are assuming their new roles during a time of growing challenge for Hawaii’s visitor industry, which is seeing the pace of growth, especially in the hotel sector, contracting after one of the longest robust runs in recent history.
Hannemann, whose influence in business, tourism and politics in Hawaii spans three decades, said connections statewide urged him to return to tourism.
"I had really been enjoying private and nonprofit work, but I had a lot of encouragement from people that I’ve known for a long time who were familiar with my accomplishments from Hawaii to Asia and Washington, D.C.," he said. "This is a private-sector job, but I see it as an extension of my public-sector work."
Hannemann served as mayor of the City and County of Honolulu from 2005 to 2010. Hannemann also served as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Tourism and Arts Committee, and as director of the Hawaii State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism in the Waihee administration.
HLTA credits Hannemann’s leadership for advancing the lodging industry’s interest on bills and measures brought before state and county lawmakers, increasing its membership statewide, creating stronger alliances on the neighbor islands, enhancing collaboration with nontourism business leaders and fostering a stronger relationship with the University of Hawaii’s School of Travel Industry Management.
During Hannemann’s earlier tenure he also spearheaded changing the organization’s name from the Hawaii Hotel Association to HLTA to reflect that its sphere of influence goes beyond hotel rooms.
"We need to lessen the gap between the business interests on Kalakaua Avenue and Bishop Street," Hannemann said.
More cooperation will be needed to address Hawaii’s statewide problem with homelessness, he said.
"We want to work with the counties, the state and the entire community to come up with collaborative statewide solutions," he said. "We need to expand our fundraising efforts and partnership with the Institute for Human Services to Bishop Street. We also need to look at building neighbor island initiatives."
Hannemann said ensuring that online vacation rental and ride-sharing businesses are on par with similar visitor industry businesses also is a priority.
"If these businesses are in hospitality, let’s make sure that they are paying their fair share of taxes and are subject to the same health and safety rules," he said.
Additionally, Hannemann said he also returns with new ideas gleaned from his consulting business, which kept him connected to tourism, education, energy and leadership sectors throughout the Pacific Rim and the mainland.
"Most importantly, I’ve learned that Hawaii has to be proactive," he said. "One of the ways is to grow visitors from China."
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