Supporters of a Native Hawaiian group want to see it keep a Hawaii Tourism Authority contract that would allow it to shape how United States travelers see the Hawaii brand.

Speaking out this week in favor of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement are former Gov. John D. Waihe‘e III and tourism industry veterans Ann Botticelli, formerly a senior executive at Hawaiian Airlines, and Frank Haas, a tourism consultant who formerly was HTA’s vice president of marketing and helped develop HTA’s 2020 Strategic Plan.

Last week, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, the entity that holds the current U.S. contract, formally protested HTA’s June 2 decision to award the latest U.S. tourism contract to CNHA. HTA had previously awarded HVCB the contract by a narrow margin, but rescinded it when CNHA protested in December.

HVCB lost by a wide margin this year when HTA resolicited the U.S. brand management and global support serv­ices contract. The contract extension that HTA gave the bureau during last year’s protest also expires Wednesday. That means the lucrative contract, worth more than $34 million the first two years, remains shrouded in uncertainty as the HTA sorts out whether its controversial procurement process will end in a historic change.

Based in Kapolei, CNHA describes itself as a nonprofit with a mission to enhance the cultural, economic, political and community development of Native Hawaiians. According to the proposal that CNHA submitted to HTA, the nonprofit intends to form a consortium of Native Hawaiian and community and tourism leaders along with industry and marketing agencies called the Kilohana Collective to handle the U.S. contract.

As the principal of Kilohana, CNHA said it has the capacity to work with HTA to pursue federal and alternative funding sources to leverage and support HTA’s community-driven Destination Management Action Plans, which outline Hawaii tourism goals.

Waihe‘e, who served as Hawaii gov­ernor from 1986 to 1994, said CNHA’s community connections will help HTA transform, while its Native Hawaiian connections could open the door to supplement state money with federal grants.

“I’m proud that there was Native Hawaiian involvement, but I don’t think the desire for change was a Native Hawaiian thing,” he said.

Hawaii tourism rose above 6 million visitors during Waihe‘e’s administration. Back then, he said hitting 10 million visitors, as Hawaii did before the pandemic, would have been inconceivable.

Waihe‘e said the time is now to coordinate tourism marketing with the impacts that it brings.

“It’s sunshine. It’s a wonderful place to be, but it’s also aloha. It’s also the Hawaiian culture. It’s also the multiethnic population. It’s also the happy natives so to speak, and now when they are not happy — you know, you’ve got a problem.”

Waihe‘e said HVCB has done a good job marketing Hawaii, and some of the people at its neighbor island bureaus are excellent. However, he said, “as a whole I think they started to lose touch with who their ultimate client was — it’s the public. They started to think of their client as the person they are putting on an airplane as the sole criteria of what they are doing.”

Waihe‘e said it’s his opinion that CNHA’s proposal was the winner because it met HTA’s requirement to integrate destination management with branding.

“To me it’s important that the procurement process actually works and I think it did with the result,” he said.

Supporters of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau disagree, saying that the award-winning bureau over the last few years already had successfully shifted to include destination management.

Keith Vieira, principal of KV &Associates, Hospitality Consulting, said, “Considering the recovery from the pandemic where we are now getting less visitors paying more money, I think HVCB has done the best job that they’ve ever done.

“Is there room for improvement, absolutely. Should they be morphing to different messages, yes. We’ve got to change with the times and grow with the times. But you don’t throw out the successful past company and bring in someone with no experience.”

It’s still unclear when or if HTA will begin finalizing a multiyear contract with CNHA, and what will happen in the interim.

Mike McCartney, the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism director, said in an email to the Honolulu Star- Advertiser, “There is no set timeline for me to attempt to effectively resolve this protest, but I understand the sense of importance to the state of Hawaii and urgency for all parties involved.”

State procurement law Chapter 103D gives McCartney the power to attempt to resolve protests.

“There are multiple ways that could include, but not limited to, such as rebidding, going to another round of questions and more,” he said.

HTA officials, meanwhile, say they plan to scale up the organization so it can temporarily run the U.S. marketing operation if HVCB’s current contract extension runs out before a new U.S. contract is finalized.

The Star-Advertiser also asked McCartney if there were additional scenarios that would allow HTA to have CNHA start the new U.S. contract or extend the current U.S. contract with HVCB.

“They are exploring all the options but will continue to comply with 103D,” he said.

All the drama and potential lapse in U.S. marketing during a critical time in Hawaii tourism’s recovery has put members of the visitor industry on edge. If CNHA keeps the contract it would be a rare example of an Indigenous nonprofit at the top spot of a state tourism agency. It would also be the first time that HVCB has not held HTA’s U.S. marketing contract.

CNHA CEO Kuhio Lewis said the nonprofit is committed to building bridges between community and the industry.

“We understand what is at stake and the kuleana upon us. We are being entrusted to support HTA’s vision of a new, regenerative model for tourism,” he said. “HTA’s Strategic Plan, together with the island-specific Destination Management Action Plans, offer clear guidance to navigate successfully through the years to come.”

Haas, a CNHA transition team member, said HTA’s current U.S. contract solicitation differs from previous ones because it focuses on goals from HTA’s 2020 Strategic Plan, which integrated destination management along with marketing and branding.

“The hotels, the airlines, the wholesalers are going to continue to market Hawaii,” Haas said. “They are going to continue to bring people here. The role of HTA is to influence the types of visitors that come here.”

Haas said CNHA’s proposal embraces the interplay between destination management and U.S. marketing.

“Tourism happens in the community so you can’t say we are going to go market the destination and forget the fact that the marketing ends up with visitors in the destination,” he said.

Haas said the Kilohana Collective’s team and transition team were chosen to “complement CNHA’s deep expertise in community.”

“Everybody is at the table,” Haas said.

One person not at the table is Hawaii Hotel Alliance President Jerry Gibson, who said his involvement was misrepresented in CNHA’s proposal during the second solicitation. Tom Kiely, former Xterra CEO and co-founder, said CNHA also misrepresented his involvement during the first solicitation.

Vieira said misrepresentations on CNHA’s team should not be overlooked.

“How can anybody ever hire anyone who says, well, we’ll name them later. That’s just ridiculous,” he said.

Kiely said CNHA’s proposal must be thrown out since it “willfully misstated the facts.” He said CNHA should not receive consideration for any future request for proposal either.

Kiely also expressed concern that the Kilohana Collective has not worked as a team before and therefore does not have a performance record.

Haas said additions to the transition team are coming, and some degree of fluidity is an asset.

“If we see what we were looking for in Jerry (Gibson) is missing, I think we will go find it,” Haas said.

Botticelli, a current Honolulu police commissioner, is among the experts assisting CNHA whose role has changed.

During the first contract process, Botticelli had committed to serve as the Kilohana Collective’s executive director. She said by the time the contract was rebid she had asked to scale back to focus on prior commitments to other organizations.

She is now serving as an unpaid volunteer on CNHA’s transition team, with a goal of helping them hire a permanent executive director for the Kilohana Collective.

Botticelli said she supports what HTA and CNHA hope to accomplish.

“What the HTA is trying to do with its regenerative tourism strategy is a pretty transformational change and I think it’s important and worth trying,” she said. “If you read their (request for proposal), they are looking for an entity that can help them develop tourism and manage the destination from the perspective of the community.”

Botticelli said one positive aspect of the contract dispute is that it is focusing the conversation on the kind of strategy that HTA wants to follow.

Botticelli said she hopes the end result gets Hawaii to a place where “tourism becomes an industry that is not reviled by the residents in this state, but is actually an industry that residents feel gives something to them.”