Gov. Josh Green on Friday morning said in an online interview he would be appropriating more than $60 million for tourism promotion, marketing and management when he signs the state budget into law in mid-June.
“We’re going to have to fund what we did commit to tourism,” Green said.
According to Green, the lion’s share, $38.7 million for tourism promotion and marketing, is going to the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. Another appropriation, $27.1 million, will go to the Hawaii Tourism Authority for “management of Hawaii.”
That’s a far cry from the $75 million HTA requested for fiscal year 2024 and the $60 million sought for 2025.
The state Legislature, in the session just completed, defunded the HTA.
And a pair of bills that failed to pass the legislative session sought to dissolve the HTA entirely.
Senate Bill 1522 and House Bill 1375 made it to conference committees but neither advanced. But the intent in the language of both bills were clear.
“Due to mismanagement by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the award of a $34 million contract for the marketing of Hawaii as a tourism destination to the United States major market area has been in a state of uncertainty since 2021,” the measures state. “This situation has been widely publicized and has demonstrated the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s noncompliance with the Hawaii public procurement code.
“The Legislature finds that it is necessary and appropriate to dissolve the Hawaii Tourism Authority.”
The intent of the legislation was to move HTA’s functions to an Office of Tourism and Destination Management within the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
The Legislature in 2021 axed HTA’s funding from the Transient Accommodations Tax-funded Special Tourism Fund. Although then-Gov. David Ige vetoed House Bill 862, both houses of the Legislature overrode his veto.
The agency tasked with tourism marketing and destination management received at least a temporary reprieve through federal coronavirus relief funds.
Green spoke in measured terms Friday while answering a question about HTA’s future.
“I’m going to put new board members on the HTA board in the coming days,” he said. “We’re finalizing that list of names. There will probably be some change there.
“There also is going to have to be a decision about the executive director. That’s their prerogative, the board’s prerogative — but sometimes, change is needed.”
John De Fries, HTA’s executive director, swung back at critics during a press conference last month, saying state tax revenue generated by tourism is an indicator that HTA is doing the job it was created to do. Those revenues were $2.09 billion in 2019, $1.53 billion in 2021, $2.21 billion in 2022, and $409 million in the first two months of 2023. No numbers were available for 2020 because of the lockdown phase of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
If the 2023 numbers hold steady, direct state tax revenue from tourism would be $2.45 billion for this year.
“John De Fries is a very good person, but they have to make a decision about the road forward,” Green said. “Because I think that the Legislature did not have a lot of faith in the direction of the HTA. I’m simply going to fill in the contract that we are committed to.
“They have enough money for operating. They’ll have to use that money to operate.”
Green said that he thinks the next legislative session in 2024 will decide whether HTA will survive or if their functions will be absorbed under the DBEBT umbrella.
“Either road’s possible, but I think they have to produce this year,” he said. “And that’s why I’m being cautious and just putting those resources in somewhat carefully.”
Green said he believes De Fries “has the right intent and believes in the right things for Hawaii.”
“John has been very good about the cultural component of marketing Hawaii and tourism,” Green said. “I do worry that John was, essentially, not able to win over the hearts and minds of those that have to fund the HTA. And I worry that John does not have the ability, right now, to get the Legislature to fully fund what he would like to do.
“Again, he is an extremely good human being and has done a lot of good for Hawaii. But sometimes, people have to change out at certain positions and move on to other careers. I have a feeling that John will probably move on. And I think that’s what they’re discussing right now at the HTA board level.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
