{"id":175528,"date":"2023-04-10T13:53:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T23:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=175528"},"modified":"2023-04-10T14:42:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T00:42:30","slug":"future-of-hta-uhero-brief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/10\/future-of-hta-uhero-brief\/","title":{"rendered":"Should lawmakers dissolve the Hawai\u02bbi Tourism Authority?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"buildings<\/p>\n

The future of the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Tourism Authority (HTA<\/abbr>) is uncertain as two bills (SB<\/abbr>1522 SD<\/abbr>2 and HB<\/abbr>1375 SD<\/abbr>2) propose to repeal HTA<\/abbr>. A new brief by the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Economic Research Organization<\/a> experts argue that neither measure would improve tourism governance.<\/p>\n

If passed in its current form, the senate bill would establish an Office of Tourism and Destination Management within the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT<\/abbr>). It would be governed by a nine-member board of directors appointed by the governor and would essentially do what HTA<\/abbr> is presently doing plus tourism research (which is currently housed in DBEDT<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

The house bill would replace HTA<\/abbr> with a destination management agency that\u2019s attached to DBEDT<\/abbr>. The agency would be headed by a commission (akin to the Public Utilities Commission) that would consist of three paid members appointed by the governor; members would serve terms of four years (but not to exceed eight years).<\/p>\n

Will replacements be more effective?<\/h2>\n

An effective tourism governance system in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> is able to provide horizontal coordination (i.e. coordination across state agencies), vertical coordination (i.e. coordination between state and county agencies) and interaction with the industry, the community and all other tourism stakeholders, according to UHERO<\/abbr> brief authors Paul Brewbaker, Frank Haas<\/strong> and James Mak<\/strong>. They suggest a new model of tourism governance in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, such as a revamped HTA<\/abbr>—a super-HTA<\/abbr>—that is endowed with the authority to marshal the expertise and resources of other agencies in addressing tourism\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n

The UHERO<\/abbr> brief also suggests looking at the composition of the board. The HTA<\/abbr> board was designed to have a balance of industry, community, Hawaiian culture and other diverse representatives. The reality has been that this diversity hasn\u2019t always been represented on the HTA<\/abbr> board. The long-term solution for sustainability will require buy in and participation from a broad range of experts and stakeholders.<\/p>\n

Repealing HTA<\/abbr> without an improved replacement is unwise.
—UHERO<\/abbr> brief<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The current bills at the Legislature don\u2019t adopt the two suggested changes,” according to the UHERO<\/abbr> brief. “In each case, a new governing board\/commission moves into the building replacing the old board that\u2019s moving out. The same structural deficiencies remain. Hence, there is no assurance that the proposed HTA<\/abbr> replacement agencies will be able to manage ‘Destination Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>’ any better than HTA<\/abbr>.”<\/p>\n

The authors said that Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> is not alone in trying to fix its destination governance system.<\/p>\n

“Other destinations are doing the same, and some—especially in Europe—have a head start on us. We can benefit from studying what other destinations are doing,” according to the brief. “There is a bill (HB<\/abbr>1381) at the Legislature that proposes to do just that, but it didn\u2019t get a hearing and, thus, died during the session. Repealing HTA<\/abbr> without an improved replacement is unwise.”<\/p>\n

Background about HTA<\/abbr><\/h2>\n

HTA<\/abbr> was formed in 1998 after members of the Economic Revitalization Task Force felt that a separate tourism authority with substantial autonomy would bring tourism more visibility and attention than when it was just another responsibility assigned to DBEDT<\/abbr>. In recent years, HTA<\/abbr> has established its 2020–25 Â鶹´«Ã½ and Destination Management Action Plan (DMAP<\/abbr>) for each island to “rebuild, redefine and reset tourism\u2019s direction” over a three-year period.<\/p>\n

To assist in the implementation of DMAP<\/abbr>s, HTA<\/abbr> solicited requests for proposals (RFP<\/abbr>) to manage U.S. marketing and destination management. The contract was first awarded to the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Visitors and Convention Bureau—DBEDT<\/abbr>\u2019s long-time marketing contractor. The competing bidder, the Council on Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA<\/abbr>), protested the award. The DBEDT<\/abbr> director rescinded the award, and HTA<\/abbr> issued a second RFP<\/abbr>, which resulted in the selection of CNHA<\/abbr>. HVCB<\/abbr> protested the award. The outgoing DBEDT<\/abbr> administrator rescinded the award to CNHA<\/abbr> and expressed his preference for two separate RFP<\/abbr>s, one for U.S. marketing and the other for destination management. This means that a third round of RFP<\/abbr> would be required.<\/p>\n

Read more at UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UHERO<\/abbr> is housed in UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s College of Social Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authors of a new UHERO<\/abbr> brief argue that neither bill would improve tourism governance over what is in place today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[301,197,1363,1026,74,9,343],"class_list":["post-175528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-economics","tag-manoa-research","tag-social-science","tag-tourism","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uhero","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175528"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175544,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175528\/revisions\/175544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}