Hawaii to Award U.S. Tourism Marketing Contract Despite Funding Cuts

Hawaii will reopen most of West Maui to tourists starting on October 8, Governor Josh Green announced on Friday. Only Lahaina will be remained closed to the public. Tourists will be able to visit Kā‘anapali, Nāpili, Honokōwai, and Kapalua.

Destination DC will spend nearly $20 million on marketing in an upcoming advertising campaign as the city deals with a slow travel recovery.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America will resume its weekly trips to Kahului, Maui starting on September 3, the cruise company announced on Wednesday. Norwegian Cruise suspended trips to the island in early August to avoid taking up local resources dedicated toward relief and combating the wildfires in West Maui.

Multiple Colorado counties and towns approved ballot measures on November 8 to shift lodging tax revenue—a key funding source for tourism promotion— toward local community initiatives. The passage of the measures underscore the Skift megatrend that communities are no longer spectators in travel.

The Hawaiian government this week rescinded the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s U.S. tourism contract with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, a community non-profit, providing a potential setback for the authority’s sustainable tourism efforts. The reason for the government’s rescission was that the contract needed to be separated into two, one for marketing and the other for visitor management and community relations.

Multiple state tourism agencies ended their growing participation on the short-form video sharing platform TikTok to comply with their state executive orders. As they exit, they plan to move the resources allocated for TikTok into their other social media channels.

Hawaiian Airlines reported a net loss of $240 million for all of 2022 on Tuesday, largely attributed to a slower than previously expected return of Japanese travelers and competition for inter-island service between the eight major Hawaiian islands.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority put two contracts up to bid, one for marketing to the U.S. and the other for destination management, on February 14.  The two contracts are essentially a split of the previous one that included both responsibilities and had been awarded to a community non-profit. A government official canceled the it minutes before his term ended on December 5.

The great promise and hype by travel executives several years ago about the potential of voice search to revolutionize the industry have gone nowhere. Voice-based search hasn’t progressed as serious destination marketing avenue because the technology underpinning it yet can’t drive effective engagement, inspire travel and handle the complexity of travel search.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority may not be around for long. Last week, the state legislature’s House committee approved a Senate bill that would repeal the Hawaii Tourism Authority and create a government office dedicated solely to destination management, leaving the island without a tourism marketing agency. The bill now has to face two hearings before leaving the House, bringing it closer to passage.

A national TikTok ban in the U.S. would put an end to tourism agencies’ growing investment in the platform and push them to redirect it into Meta and Google’s social platforms as well limit their ability to influence global conversations about their destination.

Brazil’s plan is to reinstate tourist visa requirements for the the U.S., Japan, Australia and Canada will reduce tourism from those markets and make the country a less competitive destination. The reinstated visa application procedure details haven’t yet been announced.