The Hawaii Hotel Alliance, led by longtime hotelier Jerry Gibson, is working to ensure key policy priorities for Hawaii’s hotel and lodging industry remain front and center as the pandemic continues to hit the state’s visitor industry hard.

Gibson and other hoteliers from some of Hawaii’s larger hotel brands started the nonprofit Hawaii Hotel Alliance in February. The alliance now represents 30,500 of the state’s approximate 43,000 hotel rooms and is the American Hotel & Lodging Association Hawaii’s first state association member. It differs from the powerful, longer-running Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association because the alliance advocates exclusively for Hawaii hotels.

“We felt we need a hotel-­centric voice. Our membership consists exclusively of owners and operators of hotel and lodging properties in the islands,” said Gibson, adding that some hotels belong to both HHA and HLTA.

Gibson said a current concern is the lifting of COVID-19 regulations so group and international travelers can return — especially since statewide September hotel occupancy was 55.2%, which was more than 23 percentage points below September 2019’s occupancy.

Kekoa McClellan, principal of The McClellan Group and AHLA Hawaii spokesman, said illegal short-term rentals, which contribute to the perception of over-tourism in Hawaii, also are a sour subject.

“We have fewer hotel rooms being rented but more people. They aren’t staying in our properties. They are staying somewhere else,” McClellan said. “We can address a lot of access to certain places by cracking down on illegal vacation rentals. The reality is that these lawbreakers who are committing the crime of opening hotels in the middle of our neighborhoods are the reason kamaaina are frustrated with the overall visitor industry.”

Gibson said U.S. travelers have been behind Hawaii’s improving tourism, but full recovery hinges on easing restrictions to allow for the return of group and international travelers.

“Most of the mainland has already cut down the restrictions — some to nothing and some to almost nothing,” he said. “Anything, even weddings, has been very difficult with the restrictions, which we hope will get less and less as we move forward.”

Gibson said hoteliers hope that Hawaii’s entry policies for international travelers will align with the new federal rules that are coming out Nov. 8.

Gov. David Ige said Monday during the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program that his administration is working with airlines from Japan, South Korea, Australia and Canada that would be responsible for ensuring that Hawaii inbound passengers are vaccinated or can prove they have a negative COVID-19 test. Ige said Hawaii officials also are working on getting samples of vaccination records from foreign countries to distribute to island businesses.

“The international piece is extremely important to Oahu and the Big Island, and the group piece is important to all the islands,” Gibson said. “The group piece represents about 25% to 30% of all business — so it’s a big piece.”

Gibson said none of Hawaii’s previous low cycles have approached the continuing devastation that the pandemic has had on hotels, which has caused negative trickle-down effects throughout the community.

HHA’s all-volunteer board and executive leadership is composed of senior principals in the hotel industry, who share this same view. American Hotel & Lodging Association board member Jeff Wagoner, president and CEO of Outrigger Hospitality Group, joined HHA as a founding director. Other HHA board members include Kelly Sanders, senior vice president of operations for Highgate Hawaii; Ben Rafter, CEO of Springboard Hospitality; Elliot Mills, vice president of hotel operations for Disneyland Resort and Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa; and Tom Calame, area general manager and managing director of Kyo-ya Hotels Hawaii. Debi Bishop, managing director of Hilton Hawaiian Village and Hilton Waikoloa Village , is also on the board and serves as its treasurer.

They readily tapped Gibson as HHA’s founding president based on his four decades of hotel experience and deep visitor industry roots.

Gibson first developed a passion for hospitality as a young boy accompanying his mentor, famed attorney F. Lee Bailey, on business travels that included stays at some of the world’s finest hotels.

Bailey, who died June 3 at the age of 87, was a well-known criminal defense attorney who rose to fame after he was part of the criminal defense in the second murder trail of Dr. Samuel Sheppard, whose life was the inspiration for the movie and TV series “The Fugitive.” He also defended O.J. Simpson, Patricia Hearst and the alleged Boston Strangler.

Gibson was 10 years old when Bailey drove through his neighborhood and spotted him cutting his father’s lawn. Bailey quickly hired the enterprising youngster as a yard boy and then errand runner, a role that lasted through Gibson’s college days.

“He had his own Learjet. We would go from city to city, and I would carry the bags. Anything he needed, I would go get,” Gibson said. “Somehow as we were traveling, I got interested in hotels.”

Gibson said he still remembers Bailey asking him, “What law school do you want to go to?” and the incredulous look he got when he said, “I don’t think I want to go to law school. I want to go into hotels.”

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts, Gibson spent $150 on a one-way ticket to Hawaii, where he hoped to find a dream job in a destination that he had never visited.

“It was 1977. I got off the plane and asked where the nearest hotel was, and someone directed me to the Airport Ramada Inn,” Gibson said. “I didn’t have a job interview lined up. I didn’t have any money. All I had was an interest in getting into the hotel business.”

After the Ramada, Gibson joined Marriott and then went on to progressively higher management roles with companies like Hyatt, Hilton and BRE Hotels & Resorts, where he is currently a vice president.

“My wife, Sandra, and I moved 22 times in my career, but we spent a lot of it in Hawaii,” Gibson said. “This is a very special place.”

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Star-Advertiser reporter Dan Nakaso and The Associated Press contributed to this story.