What Hawaii is doing to bring more visitors

It is appropriate for the kickoff of fall football season that Hawaii tourism marketers can sum up their strategy for increasing fall visitor bookings in two words: the blitz. Hotel, airline, attraction and other marketers are running around California this week to get more West Coasties to come at us through the air with the goal of interrupting their recession with a nice vacation in Paradise. "There's great demand still, but motivating people in these times is difficult," says John Monahan, head of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, which is the North American marketing contractor for the Hawaii Tourism Authority. There will be singing and dancing and cooking and briefings for travel agents and contests for radio stations and free trips for bloggers and anything else they can think of, targeted at this subset of Californians: those who have secure enough jobs that they can afford such a visit, and who are already sold on Hawaii. These are people who intend to come here sometime, and can afford to come here anytime, so the pitch is: for the love of God do it now, because we need your business and prices will never be lower. Monahan's deputy Jay Talwar uses the term "productive visitor" to describe the visitors we want most, who spend more money on spas, golf, tours and other attractions, and hence have more positive impact on our economy. "Those who plop and drop on the beach eventually find a beach that's closer and cheaper," Talwar explains. "Those who really get into Hawaii are more likely to be satisfied." Months ago, public and private tourism marketers did the blitz in San Francisco. Not only did it produce a measurable bump in bookings right away, but traffic from the San Francisco Bay area has been a little bit better ever since. The Los Angeles blitz underway this week is the most coordinated marketing strategy Hawaii has ever done. And there are signs that rival destinations are eyeing it closely with a view to trying the same thing, hence the continuing focus on Hawaii's beauty, diversity and aloha, the better to offer something that is not to be had for any price in Cancun, Cabo or the Caribbean. Not only domestic visitors are being sought with this approach. Kristine Klein, discussing European tourism marketing efforts, says, "Europeans don't just want to relax, they want an experience." And it had better be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, because the travel time to Hawaii from Frankfurt or London is roughly 24 hours. Hawaii is actually doing pretty well compared to most tourist destinations. South Korean outbound travel is down 32% but to Hawaii it's up 9.7%. Hawaiian Airlines has an expanding codeshare deal with Korea Airlines that includes a neighbor island trip, and it is doing a similar piggyback to put more butts in seats on its own service here from Sydney. Tourism marketers are hoping for a September bump from Japan due to a first-time cluster of holidays that allows Japanese consumers to take a week off without taking too much leave. ANA is laying on some extra flights, too. Citic Bank of China has launched a credit card that accrues points toward a Hawaiian vacation, and China has lifted some swine flu-related travel restrictions that had been discouraging travel in both directions. Hainan Air, which has applied for permission to fly between Beijing and Honolulu, expects approval in September. Hawaii tourism officials say they will be surprised if China arrivals in Hawaii do not include next year by at least 20%.