Tourism board plan pushes culture and more accountability

The Hawaii Tourism Authority board Thursday approved a new Strategic Plan that aims to increase accountability to the public and put more of the state’s multicultural heritage into its tourism development.

The plan, which is the fourth adopted since the agency was established in 1998, was developed over the last two years with the assistance and input of the visitor industry, community and other government agencies, said HTA board member David Rae, who chaired the agency’s strategic plan committee.

“It’s a five-year rolling plan that will form the basis of what our president and CEO and marketing team will do. It really seeks to integrate what we do with the broader community of Hawaii,” Rae said.

In the plan, which is required by state law, the HTA establishes that its key responsibilities are to drive demand to Hawaii, deliver on the tourism brand promise and experience, continue to respect the Native Hawaiian culture, and malama (“to take care of”) Hawaii and all of its people. Plan principles include:

» Growing Hawaii’s visitor industry to produce a healthy economy.

» Protecting Hawaii’s natural environment.

» Expanding opportunities to showcase Hawaii’s multicultural diversity and promote cultural exchange between residents and visitors.

» Managing resources and data to better adapt to changing markets and cycles.

» Increasing satisfaction for tourism hosts and guests.

» Cultivating collaborative relationships with a broad cross section of leaders.

» Developing a comprehensive evaluation system that is able to accurately measure visitor industry success.

George Szigeti, HTA president and CEO, said the new plan fits into his team’s vision of greater accountability and transparency. Szigeti said the plan is focused on what the HTA is able to affect so that the agency can manage its resources to reach its goals. In the previous plan, the HTA was not the lead agency on all strategic initiatives, making it more difficult to reach targets and track measures.

“The new plan allows us to control what we can control and make a difference. It’s been fine-tuned and tailored more to our mission,” Szigeti said.

Rae said the strategies emphasize celebrating and promoting Hawaii’s multicultural diversity, workforce training and accountability, especially for initiatives that are supported by public funds.

“When people come in for grants, we’ll be looking at how their programs fit into the cultural experience,” he said. “Our training programs will primarily focus on the host culture but also will seek to promote all the various cultural aspects that blend together to make Hawaii uniquely Hawaii.”

Rae said drafters also sought to address concerns raised in a 2013 state audit that criticized the HTA for lacking the formal written policies, procedures and training to ensure adequate transparency and accountability for how it spends its marketing funds.

“It’s important to show that HTA has taken up the challenge. We listened to the auditor and the public and tried to be responsive in ensuring that money is spent in a prudent and planned way,” he said.

Szigeti said the new plan was approved just in time to share with state legislators, who will be working with the HTA on tourism initiatives for the next session.

“Our first legislative action committee meting was on Oct. 22. We are formulating our policy positions for 2016,” he said.