Latest news with #DestinationManagementActionPlans
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hawai‘i Tourism Authority could be replaced with new governance
Rep. Adrian Tam (D, Waikiki ), chair of the House Committee on Tourism, warned the Hawai 'i Tourism Authority during a Wednesday board meeting that the coming passage of Senate Bill 1571—which upon Gov. Josh Green's signature will dramatically change HTA's governance model—reflects a loss of confidence so deep that he is already considering a bill to upend the agency next year. Tam told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that SB 1571 represents the biggest governance changes to HTA since it was created, but that it may not be enough to fix all of the agency's shortcomings. Tam said that he is exploring drafting a bill to implement all of the recommendations in a third-party governance study released last July by Better Destinations LLC, founded by Cathy Ritter. The study, which cost nearly $300, 000, recommended that a private, independent, nonprofit Destination Stewardship Organization (referred to as a DSO ) replace the HTA, which was created by the state Legislature more than a quarter of a century ago. The new model, dubbed is described by Better Destinations as a 'community-first regenerative mindset ' that delivers not only a healthy tourism economy but addresses local priorities and improves unique assets through ongoing collaboration.' Mahina Paishon, HTA vice chair and vice chair of HTA's Governance Study Permitted Interaction Group (PIG ), told the Star-Advertiser on Wednesday that PIG has not made its official recommendation on the governance study's findings to HTA 'primarily because we wanted the governance study to help inform and to coincide with the planning efforts this summer for the HTA Strategic Plan, the next round of Destination Management Action Plans, and the Tourism Functional Plan.' If Tam and other lawmakers push the Better Destinations recommendation forward, it likely would put HTA's long-standing and largest contractor, the Hawai 'i Visitors and Convention Bureau, back in the driver's seat—after all the private nonprofit membership organization was founded in 1945 making it many decades older than HTA. In the meantime, HTA is facing more immediate changes from SB 1571, which will take effect upon Gov. Josh Green's signature. The bill :—Downgrades the HTA board to an advisory board.—Amends eligibility requirements to serve on the HTA advisory board.—Removes the director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism from the board.—Requires a member of the board to represent a tourism-impacted entity.—Allows the House speaker and the Senate president to each appoint an HTA advisory board member.—Exempts all positions filled by HTA within DBEDT from the state civil service law.—Allows the HTA advisory board to appoint the HTA president and CEO, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.—Requires the HTA president and CEO to report to the governor.—Allows the HTA advisory board to set the term of the HTA president and CEO in the hiring contract.—Clarifies that the Hawai 'i Convention Center must reflect a 'Hawaii ' sense of place instead of a 'Hawaiian ' sense of place. Tam clarified that the shift in the sense of place 'was meant to be inclusive.' But Paishon told the Star-Advertiser that she is concerned that the change from a 'Hawaiian ' sense of place to a 'Hawaii ' sense of place may leave too much open to interpretation. 'I don't want it to be interpreted as a policy change that means we are supposed to deemphasize Hawaiian culture, ' she said. Tam said lawmakers passed SB 1571 because 'we just wanted to have some oversight over the Hawai 'i Tourism Authority—what we have seen and it has been made clear to other members of the legislature as well as the public that the politics of the board has really seeped into the governance and to the policies of the authority and the authority (has been ) negatively impacted because of it ' Tam said lawmakers were trying to send HTA a strong message with the passage of SB 1571 and 'were hoping that things would start to get better and improve. However, unfortunately to myself and to others, it has progressively gotten worse so I am already trying to really tune into the governance study that was created and look at each recommendation and possibly start to craft a bill.' Tam said he was reluctant initially to use SB 1571 to downgrade HTA into an advisory board ; however, 'due to basically what was negatively put into the press to the audits to the unpaid invoices, interest, allegations of toxic work environment and the list just goes on, the Legislature and I myself felt like this would be a step in the right direction.' In the past several months, HTA has undergone dramatic leadership shake-ups as it has struggled to address allegations of inappropriate freebies at the Hawai 'i Convention Center and inconsistencies in its Hawaii Tourism Conference partnerships. There were also allegations about potential procurement violations and State Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach ), HTA contractors, former HTA employees and some board members also alleged in a on May 4 that HTA and the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism failed to respond promptly to complaints about a hostile work environment—including alleged racist and sexist comments—that they claim contributed to the recent resignations of five Native Hawaiian members of HTA's leadership team. Isaac Choy, HTA vice president of finance and acting chief administrative officer, was put on unpaid leave May 9 at the direction of the state Department of the Attorney General and the Department of Human Resources amid allegations he made racist and sexist remarks on the job. Since Choy was the project manager for $100 million of repairs at the Hawai 'i Convention Center, his absence could extend the center's planned construction beyond two years, putting the state at in group tourism bookings. While the state Comptroller Keith Regan told the HTA board Wednesday that the Department of Accounting and General Services would take on the project, he advised that the timetable was 'aggressive. ' Tam said the public has started to take notice of HTA's challenges and that members of the Ala Moana Neighborhood Board on Tuesday night told him that 'they were genuinely concerned about the loss of (Hawai 'i Convention Center ) business, the reputation behind that and whether or not those clients would come back.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State audit criticizes Hawai‘i Tourism Authority's destination management
The Hawai 'i Tourism Authority's destination management focus is 'not new—or effective—and the agency remains unable to gauge its own performance, ' according to the latest state audit, which was especially critical of its community-driven Destination Management Action Plan effort. The state audit done by the office of Auditor Leslie H. Kondo also said, 'HTA's expedited DMAP effort was poorly planned and executed with key decisions deferred to third-party contractors and island steering committees. The result : many of the actions did not address hot spots, were underway or already achieved, or were impractical.' The DMAPs are HTA's latest destination management strategy, and the plans approved by the HTA board in 2021 were intended to detail the steps that the community, the visitor industry and other sectors deemed necessary to improve tourism management over a three-year period. The DMAPs were an outgrowth of the past HTA Strategic Plan, which ran from 2020 to 2025, and was touted as the first strategic plan that HTA developed as part of its shift from a mainly marketing focus to a greater emphasis on destination management. The audit findings were presented to the HTA board May 1 prior to a board discussion on setting the timeline and objectives for it next strategic plan and DMAP efforts, which are expected to conclude around November. State law requires that the Office of the Auditor at least every five years conduct a management and financial audit of all contracts or agreements awarded by HTA valued in excess of $15 million as well as additional audit issues that the auditor deems appropriate. HTA was last audited by the Office of the Auditor in 2018, and the latest audit, which spanned 2019 to 2023, is the fifth state audit conducted under state law. The most recent audit's stated objectives were to 'assess the Hawai 'i Tourism Authority's achievement of its 2016 and 2020-2025 strategic plans' destination management goals ' and to 'evaluate the effectiveness of the Hawai 'i Tourism Authority's Destination Management Action Plans (DMAPs ).' More than 500 people participated in the Oahu DMAP meetings, and HTA received more than 300 online responses. The concerns on Oahu played out across the islands, where many respondents expressed concerns about overtourism hot spots across the isles. Hawaii broke the 10 million visitor arrivals benchmark in 2019—prompting anti-tourism pushback from some residents. Concerns about the potential for visitors to spread COVID-19 during the pandemic kept anti-tourism sentiments high even when arrivals plummeted. Some residents came to enjoy the pandemic-created renewal so much that DMAP participants even placed Waikiki on a list of Oahu tourism hot spots, which also included North Shore / Haleiwa, Kailua, Hanauma Bay, Laniakea /Turtle Beach, Diamond Head, Lanikai, Makapuu, Kaena Point, Haiku Stairs, Maelieli Trail, Maunawili Falls and Lulu mahu Falls. A main takeaway that emerged during the DMAP process was that participants wanted managed tourism that protects natural and cultural resources. The DMAPs also promoted the use of reservations or other tools to manage hot spots where tourism has resulted in overcrowding, traffic congestion, degradation of resources and safety hazards, and is creating negative experiences for both residents and visitors. People like K.C. Connors, moderator of the Facebook site Enough Tourists Already, which has more than 3, 000 members, said the DMAP idea was 'great in theory, but poorly executed. Where were the benchmarks ? Why didn't they identify the carrying capacity of each island for tourism arrivals ? They also needed to look at the hidden costs of tourism and the diminishing returns ; the degradation of the aina ; and the impact of 'touristification' on communities when places that serve the community like dry cleaners get replaced by gift shops. The DMAPs seemed just as haphazard as HTA's marketing efforts.' Kondo also noted that an 'absence of reliable performance tracking undermines HTA's ability to make effective data-driven decisions and allocate resources to achieve destination management objectives. It also results in reduced transparency and public accountability over HTA's performance in relation to its destination management efforts.' For example, his audit noted that HTA dollars went to a myriad of DMAP efforts, including :—$8, 000 to clean up the Malae Heiau on Kauai, which is not open to the public.—$2, 500 to fund a coloring book about deforestation specifically for hotels.—$44, 505 to pay for reusable water bottles to be given to guests at five Maui hotels.—$105, 000 to install reef-safe sunscreen dispensers at 24 high-traffic Maui beaches ; and for a mineral-only sunscreen awareness campaign. Connors said Kondo's examples hit a nerve as 'hotels should not be getting DMAP money to fund projects. It's the local people that need the money.' Upon conclusion of the audit, Kondo recommended that 'HTA should focus on efforts that address hot spots, balance visitor and resident needs, and are more likely to improve resident sentiment towards tourism. HTA also needs to meaningfully hold itself accountable for its performance. This includes identifying goals with benchmarks and targets, and tracking and publicly reporting performance against these goals.' Connors said she hopes Kondo's audit recommendations revamp the upcoming DMAP process, which is currently handled in-house by HTA staff. Kuhio Lewis, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement CEO, said in an email that CNHA's Kilohana Division currently leads the Destination Stewardship contract, which is separate from HTA's DMAPs, and that the capacity extends far beyond stewardship. However, Lewis said CNHA is ready to take on a larger role, including the DMAPS. 'At CNHA, we believe respectful collaboration and cultural understanding are essential to successful destination management. Our breadth of programming spans workforce development, cultural preservation, small business incubation, community resilience, and comprehensive economic advancement, all essential components of responsible tourism and long-term destination management, ' he said. 'These existing initiatives directly align with the goals outlined in the DMAPs and position CNHA as a natural and capable implementer.' Lewis said CNHA's statewide membership network exceeds 1, 400 people and organizations and uniquely positions CNHA to engage community voices, amplify cultural values and ensure solutions are place-based and community-driven. Caroline Anderson, interim HTA president and CEO, said at the HTA board meeting, 'I thank the auditors for conducting the audit and providing us with recommendations. We heard their findings and we took it all in. There are many things that they put in the report that we actually already are doing because we did our own audit last year. We are putting more metrics, milestones, targets into not only DMAPs, but also our strategic plan as well.' Anderson acknowledged that HTA could improve and would take the auditor's findings seriously. Still, more than half a dozen people from across the state testified in favor of the DMAPs and questioned the findings, which some testifiers pointed out were inexplicably drawn without interviewing any of the DMAP workers. Toni Marie Davis, executive director of the Activities & Attractions Association of Hawaii, who was on the DMAP for Maui, told the HTA board, 'I found this audit very different fro my experience on DMAPs. The group in DMAP was very diverse. We had very strong opinions on that committee, and we were able to get a lot done.' 'I found this very new to have it just be Maui-specific. Meagan DeGaia, who was our organizer /manager, did an excellent job, ' Davis said. 'I don't know how this audit came to the conclusions that they did. They never talked to me.' Anderson said, 'It really means a lot to me to hear from you and to know that your efforts with us in DMAPs made a difference. The community wants to have a say in tourism, and that's what this effort did.' DESTINATION MANAGEMENT EFFORTS FALL SHORT Key takeaways from the state Office of the Auditor's look into HTA's self-proclaimed 'destination management refocus ' included the following :—HTA's change in emphasis did not translate into substantively more money directed toward destination management over time.—Although HTA has been practicing destination management for years, it has yet to establish policies and procedures or complete organizational restructuring to support those efforts.—By omitting meaningful measures of effectiveness, HTA evades accountability for destination management efforts that have failed to achieve goals.—HTA did not report its underperformance of its current strategic plan goals, escaping scrutiny and avoiding accountability. The main audit criticisms of HTA's community-driven Destination Management Action Plans (DMAPs ) included the following points :—HTA's DMAPs were developed too fast and were implemented and monitored in an indiscriminate and nonsystematic way.—DMAPs are intended to 'rebuild, redefine, and reset ' tourism ; however, many of the actions had already been achieved, were well underway or were impracticable.—An HTA contractor hired to facilitate the DMAPs was not required to establish metrics to measure actions, classify the time period for actions or identify the agency responsible to carry out those actions.—HTA's DMAP tracker shows that few hot-spot activities were completed, and results took the form of meetings rather than mitigation. Source :
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
HTA scrambles to fill void after departure of another president and CEO
The Hawai 'i Tourism Authority has appointed Caroline Anderson as its new interim president and CEO following the resignation of its current interim top leader Daniel Naho'opi'i, who had been in the role for the past 18 months. Naho'opi'i, who ends his tenure Friday at HTA, had been the agency's 11th top leader since the state Legislature created the HTA in 1998. Naho'opi'i was HTA chief administrative officer when he took over duties for former HTA President and CEO John De Fries, who left HTA on Sept. 15, 2023, at the close of his three-year contract. He also took on the duties of chief brand officer last year after Kalani Ka 'ana 'ana was named chief stewardship officer. HTA board Chair Mufi Hannemann said in a statement Thursday, 'Daniel's leadership has been instrumental in guiding HTA through a transformative period with integrity and vision, ' Hannemann said. Hannemann added that he has a strong working relationship with Anderson, and called her 'the ideal choice to lead us as interim President & CEO. I know she has the skills and deep knowledge of all facets of the HTA.' Naho ʻopi ʻi is leaving HTA to join JLL's Global Tourism & Destination Advisory Group as lead for industry data and research. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. His departure follows a January decision by Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism Director James Kunane Tokioka to hold up the HTA board's executive search for a new president and CEO over salary considerations raised by Gov. Josh Green. Executive search firm Bishop & Co. had advertised the job at $300, 000, the level set by the HTA board. But Tokioka said Green would not approve a hire that makes more than $188, 800, which aligns with the salary parameters for lieutenant governor. Naho 'opi 'i's departure leaves Anderson, HTA director of planning, also serving as HTA's interim chief administrative officer and as its interim president and CEO. Her appointment is temporary until the board takes formal action. Anderson has more than 20 years of tourism leadership experience, and played a key role in developing and implementing HTA's Destination Management Action Plans, which manage tourism impacts in communities. 'With the support of our dedicated staff, board, legislature, and industry partners, we will continue promoting Hawaii globally, supporting Maui's recovery, and strengthening our commitment to destination stewardship, ' she said. This latest personnel change follows the recent departure of Ilihia Gionson, who had served as HTA's public affairs officer, a role that has now been temporarily assumed by Kalani Ka 'ana 'ana, HTA chief stewardship officer. 23 Comments By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our. Having trouble with comments ? .
