Hawai’i Lodging & Tourism Association President & CEO Mufi Hannemann joins Spotlight Hawaii

Hawai’i Lodging & Tourism Association President & CEO Mufi Hannemann joins Spotlight Hawaii

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it's the show where Hawaii's newsmakers come to talk and to take your questions live from the nation's capital to Honolulu Hawaii from the state legislature to the fifth floor we bring the experts to you and ask them what you want to know Spotlight Hawaii with yunji Denise and Ryan phillesuji on the digital platforms of the Honolulu star Advertiser [Music] this episode of Spotlight Hawaii is brought to you by Longs Drugs hello and good morning thanks so much for tuning in here on this Wednesday morning I'm Ryan coliseuji joined by yunji Denise and this is Spotlight Hawaii on the digital platforms of the Honolulu star Advertiser this morning we're going to kind of change things up and we are going to be actually focusing on tourism that's right we are joined by the best of the best uh hlta Hawaii lodging and tourism Association CEO and uh president mufi hanneman of course former mayor of the City and County of Honolulu thank you so much for being here this morning good morning Eugene good morning Ryan well we've got a lot to talk about so let's Dive Right In uh look for God's world how is the industry doing in this moment how has the holidays how was the holiday season and looking ahead in the next quarter and Beyond how do you think things are going well uh the uh our December numbers uh weren't as good as we had anticipated or we had hoped for uh certainly uh being at the 70 to 75 occupancy level uh in years past uh this is a time of year where because it's the festive season you know we get 90 100 occupancy so as we head into the first quarter we knew uh back then in 2022 that the first quarter was going to be a little bit of a struggle and that's what we're seeing right now numbers are still down in terms of the occupancy rate uh 70 75 percent uh for the first couple weeks in in January and uh certainly uh the international arrivals is something that we had hoped for that would happen by now uh and it hasn't happened as quickly as we wanted to so uh it's going to be a little bit of a struggle here but everyone is sort of prepared and trying to do what they need to do to ensure that uh 2023 and going to forward we can experience more robust numbers so that we can keep people employed keep them in their jobs because there's some fear that you know there may be some cut back in hours and so forth that every property is different every county is different but certainly just pleased that we are open for business and now we've just got to go forward and try to promote the fact that we're looking for the respectful mindful traveler to come here uh we're very uh intent on making sure that they understand the way they come here there's also a special obligation responsibility uh to help the local people understand uh and appreciate visitors coming here but more importantly that they're going to leave it better than they found it in certainly not going to do the kind of things that have happened sometimes in the past and continue to happen today I want to focus it a little more on the Asian market as we as you alluded to uh you know this was a industry of course that played such a significant role in Hawaii's tourism industry in the past before the pandemic uh and as you mentioned we have yet to see that return of that uh Asian traveler uh can you maybe explain a little bit about how the marketing moving forward will look like to try to entice say the Japanese visitors especially back to the islands and and what might be the reason why we're not seeing this expected rebound that was initially anticipated where there's some things obviously that are outside of our control with respect to that it's the country of Japan and some of the policies that they've put forward if you go to Japan today they are still masking all over the place indoors Outdoors what have you uh so that is uh an issue of the fear of Japanese people traveling even as much as we have welcome in the past and it's always been a great experience coming to Hawaii then there were some internal policies that they put into place there uh for example for the latter part of last year they were basically asking Japanese to stay at home and doing a staycation type of policy to help the Japanese economy first before they traveled abroad and then of course uh the Yen uh also being weak didn't help things Rising fuel prices and the like but what has been very good for us is that the Japanese travel companies the Japanese Airlines that we deal with uh want to start robust travel to Hawaii and Hawaii tourism Authority and our Japan office there have also engaged in a meaningful participation to ensure that the marketing efforts are there for Japanese to understand that we want them to come back and thirdly I thought it was a very good move on the part of Governor Josh Green before he was even Governor he went to Japan in November and started to lay the groundwork as previous Governors have done before taking a page from what governor arioshi and government used to do and I would accompany them on those trips if we'd go to Japan and thank them for all the previous travel and then say to them we need you to come back if you come back this is what we can guarantee you so we need to do some things on our end too to ensure when they come here that they're going to be able to stay at places they want to stay we need to also Market the fact that those that have been here before we like them to be able to understand that there may be some new attractions new things that may appeal to them and I think that you know definitely sooner rather than later we'll see some Improvement in that area and it's no question the 1.5 million that we used to depend upon from Japan uh we're far from that now hopefully we'll get closer to that by the end of this year and certainly by 2024 so it's still a long haul but there's no question we like the Asian visitor the Japanese travel to come here they stay longer they're respectful mindful Travelers although obey our rules and our regulations especially now as we talk about malamaing Hawaii they've done that they have been the epitome of the respectful mindful traveler uh they take omiyagi back and then they also make sure that their friends and neighbors know a wonderful an experience it is in Hawaii so that's where we're aiming for uh we're not giving up hope and certainly we see some signs out there that we could see a more Japanese Travelers come here you know with tourism you want to eliminate any barriers to entry and I'm interested to know your thoughts you you mentioned the governor the governor's so-called green free proposal this idea of charging some kind of an environmental tax if you will upon entry for all visitors coming to Hawaii um you know what are your thoughts as an industry on that do you think that creates any kind of a barrier for folks wanting to come here uh and you know what's your organization's position and what are you hearing from your members that's a good question UNG um uh governor knows we talk a lot I've always had a personal and professional opposition to just a basic Green fee where you're going to assess someone a fee uh that will go into the general fund you're adding to the cost of coming to Hawaii for example secondly what's the Nexus to the tourism industry what's the connection especially if you're taking it from a traveler and you're not taking it from a local resident so what we have basically advocated Through The Years in our opposition to a green fee that has come through legislature at times is that you need to assess what is called impact or user fee we can support that when I was on the Honolulu city council back in the 1990s I authored and championed the legislation that created a special fund for Hanauma Bay where we said in effect that we're going to charge the visitor to go down to the bay and it will be put into a special fund for the ongoing maintenance preservation of the bay and that everyone have to go through a educational program that's when you go through that video and you're able to understand what is expected of you when you actually visit uh the bay or the nature preservers we like to call it and we also said they need to be closed uh at least one full day a week again keeping in mind they need to preserve it going forward and to make sure that the locals understood that they were welcome so the fee was excess is accessed only to visitors who come from other places but if you're a local resident or it's anathema to even think about charging you to to use to use the beach if you will so that is what we support and we're very very happy to see that the governor has kind of pivoted his position uh because some legislative leaders have also said uh in particular Senator Ron Kochi uh that a fee being charged to use some of our state parks or to access our state parks is something that the Senate could support I know speaker psyche and the house in the past has been opposed to Green feasts but they support this concept of an impact user fee the industry can support that because there's a Nexus to the visitor industry the parks will make it not only better maintain or whatever it's going to be assessed Trails what have you uh not just for uh visitors to benefit from for far local residents because we're not going to exclude locals from being able to access our valleys our Parks our Trails what have you so uh we encourage that and we think that with what has happened with some of the bills that we've seen coming from the legislature it's not a blanket Green fee anymore we're seeing more of a fee that talks about an impact fee a user fee that goes back to a specific fund to that particular asset or preserve or what have you that they're trying to ensure uh that has good maintenance going forward we can support that and so I think it surprises people whenever I say that but I say look we we want to be part of the community this is part of all we want the malama uh our land and therefore having visitors pay for it especially if it's something very very popular we have no problem with that we just don't like when he sneaks into a general fund and then he gets used for other purposes and there's no Nexus back to that particular place that it was a fee was extracted for well in staying on this when you were talking about this from a practical standpoint uh how do you think that is going to be one developed and assessed to figure out which locations would qualify for this fee and how would that be implemented in some of these locations we've already known the establishment of some of these fees uh in such areas as you mentioned uh you know like hanama Bay we have some Diamond Head there's other locations on the neighbor Islands as well uh but looking at uh identifying these locations how would you think that it's going to be determined and uh also just how would you logistically collect these fees at these locations yeah that's a good question too right you know actually some of the neighbor islands are already doing and they're doing it well they're doing it on the North Shore so I think the first thing you have to look at is uh upgrading your your reservation system if you will and there's some apps that are being developed right now across the board uh that will ensure that there's an orderly way of being able to assess a number of people that are going to visit it at a particular time uh so that's uh has to be put in place secondly uh it's going to require buy-in from the community so what uh HCA has done through their destination management plan uh they have basically uh gathered these uh groups throughout the counties working very closely with County offices where it's a residents that are identifying hot spots if you will or Troublesome areas that need to be addressed and when the topic of user fee comes on then of course they weigh in let's say on our particular Island this is where we think would be appropriate the other thing is going to be important is a collaboration from state government so if you're talking about many of these outdoor attractions and the like then you got to bring in the department of land and natural resources they have to weigh in and they have to be a part of it so all of these components is going to be something that's very important to put into place but the model is bakes basically there starting with hanama Bay also with what's happening with some of the neighbor islands and therefore the collaboration that will take place I think will lead to a very orderly transition and more importantly for people to understand the visitor industry is not going to oppose impact fees as long as as I said earlier you're going to do it the way that we like to see it done uh and that's one of the problems that we had was just collecting a green fee to your very question who's going to collect it the airlines said they'd have difficulty doing it certainly the hotels didn't want to do that because we already collect the hotel room tax so this way here it's done you collected at that particular spot that they're going to be going to uh which is how hanama Bay fees are collected is how we like to see it done with an appropriate app that takes advantage of Technology you know given that the tourism Market is not where you know you and the in the industry would like to see it that there is a softness to it if you will I'm interested to know what your thoughts are on how things are going in Waikiki there were several high-profile incidents uh you know violent incidents that happened in recent months the mayor has said that this is a priority to crack down working closely with Honolulu prosecutor Steve oh I'm on the safe and sound program how do you think that's going and are things turning around is that message that Waikiki is safe and is it actually safe getting out you know yunji uh we cannot lose our Competitive Edge in that regard from the time I was mayor uh to uh today we need to continue to say that we are one of the safest big cities in America to visit uh it's one thing to to to promote this place is a great place to come and uh it's one thing too for our people to welcome them here have great attractions hotels Resorts restaurants what have you Hawaiian music culture and the like but if people don't feel safe they will not come so I give big kudos to prosecutor um mayor blanchardi and his administration and working with the major stakeholders in Waikiki uh starting with our organization Hawaii lodging and tourism Association the Waikiki business improvement district Waikiki Improvement Association uh Vash and the Hawaii hotel visitor industry security Association it was the five of us that got together and for the past couple of years have been very loud uh in our need for a program here that replicates weed and seed that we've seen in other areas because we thought that maybe that was the missing piece that we needed to do here I've had great success with weed and seed when I was mayor I see it today working wonders in Chinatown it's worked very well out in Eva in the Waipahu area so we wanted to see it established here and the difference with Waikiki is that we were willing to put our money where our mouth is so it's thanks to paulco salsa with ABC stores at one of our meetings he basically stepped forward and said hey look I'll put up the initial seed money for my Foundation but I'd like the city uh to match it uh and so he offered ninety thousand dollars to get it going the city uh and we worked with uh Council chair Tommy Waters to make sure the council was supportive um mayor's Administration brosky's office and so that's what we have in place now so we're at the beginning stages of what we call now safe and sound so what does that mean uh it's a weed and seed type of approach number one we still have to implement uh strong uh measures uh to make sure that we are identifying those uh troublemakers those who are continuing to wreak havoc in a place like Waikiki with two square miles uh and thousands of visitors every day with residents to keep in mind with workers that come in there so um that's the part that the police department and police chief Logan is very much engaged in this coming in and working with the folks that are in charge of Waikiki and the prosecutor's office where we come in from the community is the seating part and that is making sure that we have programs that we can put into place so if they're youth that are creating problems we have engaged the adult adult friends for youth uh to identify the use that are infiltrating uh Waikiki from time to time and they come from all over the island and they have a great track record with identifying who these juveniles are because people who work for adult friends for youth many of them have gone through that particular problematic time of their childhood and now want to be able to ensure that the kids know that that's not the way to do it we also have to engage other aspects of positive uh programs that are going to put them to work also job training programs we have to deal with the homelessness that are often part of the problems that we have here so all of those things require a joint collaborative effort so it's just starting we're very happy that safe and sound is in Waikiki we're in the process of selecting an executive director that will run safe and sound on a daily basis and we've tasked Waikiki improvement district Association to basically lead our efforts in that regard but we are all going to help them because we recognize uh if we lose our Edge on some of these things that are happening in Waikiki and people feel it's not safe they will not come so we're pleased that the police department and the blanchardi administration understand that as they focus on Chinatown the concern has always been well you're going to focus on Chinatown and not look at Waikiki anymore we know they're going to do both you can't do one or the other can't focus on Waikiki and not look at Chinatown but certainly Waikiki is very important because we get the bulk of the visitors that come here I want to switch gears a little and talk more about just the overall Workforce here in the islands and specifically as it pertains of course to your industry what you're seeing and hearing from the hotels we know that shortly after the pandemic there continues to be this need for workers and and many of them come from the hospitality and food service industry where hotels and other restaurants within the area were looking for workers what are you hearing from the hotels right now in terms of the overall Staffing and and what are uh where have these workers returned are these hotels still having any staffing issues with the labor shortage yeah it just depends on the hotel uh some of them are doing quite well workers are coming back and as you know we lost a lot of them uh during the pandemic many of them left the islands they went to uh ninth Island uh They're Up in Vegas or other areas uh so therefore it's been an ongoing challenge to get them back but as we continue to experience better numbers and arrivals and we can plan in advance that we're going to need them to come back so it's not just a problem that and a challenge with the hotel industry some of the restaurants retail we're all facing that and we just need to continue to press forward so that's the short-term answer to that it just varies from hotel to hotel uh certainly we're looking more now at thinking what we need to do is a long-term challenge through this now the hospitality industry will always employ the greatest number of people and so we need to make this industry much more appealing and exciting to those that are going to enter the workforce no longer should it be construed it's just well I don't want to be a housekeeper I don't want Even though housekeepers are the best paid housekeepers basically in the United States uh what we pay here with full health benefits and the like there are a lot of jobs that we need in the industry from housekeeping jobs is this important integral part of the industry as well as jobs and management marketing food and beverage promotion and basically just operating a hotel or Resort so we have engaged in a major robust Workforce Development initiative where for the first time we are going to engage with the state to do paid High School internships at one of our Hospitality Properties or operations so we have a program going forward with the Department of Education where we're identifying uh a number of schools in every County and we've actually engaged the council native Hawaiian advancement cnha that specializes in Workforce Development but they haven't really done major Workforce Development of the tourism industry so they're providing some seed money we're providing some money from hlta working with the Department of Education and we're going to begin with a hotel uh and Airlines and our transportation company offering paid internships uh so we've got schools Innovative we're calling it a pilot program because eventually uh thanks to Ways and Means chair Donovan De La Cruz he's put some money into the budget that's with the Department of Labor and then we're going to expand that program once we show how it's going to work so we've got for example Lanai High School whoever thinks of Lanai high school they often get left out but I wanted them to be a part of it because we have a major Resort there they can take a student from Lanai and put them on a paid internship program the whole idea is that they'll get to understand and appreciate the importance of the industry number two to make it attractive and appealing for them to work and if they do well uh it can actually translate into a job and that's what exactly has happened with many of our mentoring programs that we do right now with University students engaged in Hospitality for the past five years we've done a program called generational mentoring where these students have come in uh and they've often been employed full-time after they've completed their six-month internship uh with a property manager we also have revived another important aspect of this which we want to provide full four-year scholarships the public high school students to go to the uh-tem school we started it a couple years ago and Chris Tatum was the head of HTA uh and we call it our whole Lena Scholars to get a full four-year ride if they're selected to go to the Scheider School of travel and tourism and therefore be able to now come out of it with a very robust experience of having been having their expenses at college paid for so thanks again to chair De La Cruz we've now added a room and board component to it and this year we've revived it because of the pandemic they had to slow that down and so I know that Dean rolling us are very very happy that we'll have qualified eager high school student who will be enrolled at the Tim school with a full four-year scholarship paid for by the state of Hawaii uh and they'll be able to hopefully have the incentive stay at home that's always been the concern of the legislature and they look at management positions they say well how many of them are local how many of them are actually here are you folks still bringing folks in from the mainland well we always look to have local people involved but from time to time we need folks to come from the outside to be here and hopefully they adapt our culture they want to be part of it and they do well and so this I think will accelerate uh the incentives for local residents who want to go into the hospitality industry because of these incentives that we're offering and we're going to be very aggressive and ambitious about Workforce Development I want to ask you about some personal news as well we know that you were recently appointed to the U.S travel and tourism board along with Peter Ingram from Hawaiian Airlines uh just briefly tell us about you know the paper did an article about this folks can look that up but uh just briefly tell us about what this means and and how this could benefit the state oh this is a big benefit for the state I'm very humbled to have been appointed by the Biden Administration to advise uh secretary ramundo Secretary of Commerce uh there are 32 of us uh from Across the Nation representing different aspects of the industry and Peter Ingram and I got picked from Hawaii so we have two of the 32 slots and this is a very very important because our main emphasis is first of all is we'll be looking at how we can increase international travel to the United States safely and that's what every state wants not just Hawaii but they also have legislation that they've approved at this 32-member board is going to help with a new position that Congress is calling for which is an assistant Secretary of tourism in the Department of Commerce every major foreign country has a tourism Czar the United States has never had one and I've lobbied for this for a long time since I was chair of the U.S Conference of mayor's Tourism Committee back then in 2010 of the need to have this kind of position so it's finally coming to pass uh and we're excited about it because now we'll have a champion within the government uh basically uh making sure that our lawmakers the administration understands the importance of hospitality so uh it's a great appointment for Hawaii I'm humbled by it and uh Peter Ingram and I have already talked about the things that we'd like to do to ensure that Hawaii has a strong voice and at the end of the day we'll benefit from this and also be able to put things on the table that'll help the 49 other states and territories uh and possessions of the United States in the Pacific and the Caribbean well staying on personal news your name was actually brought up in an article in the Honolulu Advertiser yesterday about a potential interest in the new athletic director position of course we know that David Matlin will be retiring at the end of this athletic season and the search is now underway for a new athletic director your name was in uh mentioned in this article we got to ask you is there any interest there is this something that you would actually pursue well let me focus on The Pursuit part I am not pursuing that position uh at this point in time I'm in a great place I love what I'm doing but you know I've always been one uh to basically take a call or we're looking at text and so forth so I can tell you right now uh that's not the first time my name's been mentioned uh every time that happens I get a lot of calls I get a lot of texts and so forth and so I'm listening uh obviously the uh athletic director's position is very key I love sports both of you love sports uh it's not just something that's important for the University but it's important for the state so at this particular point in time I'm just listening to what people have to say uh and certainly I've been very interested uh in in sports all my life I do a girls basketball program I've got three of my players I played for team Aloha right now playing for Coach Beeman and contributing at a very high level uh to that and I've always been part of the football program helping to recruit and so forth and uh you know I I I love University of Hawaii Athletics so it's an important program but at this point in time I'm just listening uh because I've got a lot on my plate as we've talked about today uh yeah we always like to bring in the comments and here we're hearing it movie would be perfect for the A.D job I'm sure you're hearing quite a bit of that you know given that where you are in at this point in time your recent appointment that we just talked about with the Biden Administration the stars are sort of a line for what would it take if you will to get you to move over to uh oh wow you know I I just have to uh you know think about it a little bit more but uh you know I recognize that you know if there's someone for example that's going to apply that I think could really do a good job and I could say for say go call that person let's go and recruit that person to come uh to do this job uh so at that point in time I I think um I think still very early on in the process we don't know who else might be in the mix and so forth uh so uh you know I'll just have to wait and see but it is an important position let's not minimize the importance of having a sports uh uh fever throughout this time we've seen that with uh Dave Shoji all people just got all excited we've seen that now with Charlie Wade we've seen it with June Jones and Dick told me uh in the past it just lifts the community in ways uh beyond measure and then also it's a major Revenue generator I personally would like to see hopefully that this could be the impetus to move that Stadium along we need a new stadium I'm sorry 15 000 seating capacity and the University of Hawaii will not do why because again it speaks to tourism we're able to do major sports tourism events there you know I rugby soccer football it goes just beyond the University of Hawaii and so forth and entertainment Bruno Mars you can put him back in the stadium during get more than 10 000 people to come and see him perform so it's major aspects of that job that could be very important is very important for the state of Hawaii so at this point in time it's just wait and see uh how things pad out there but I'm very busy with what I'm doing here and I'm just going to continue to make sure we can get back to our robust tourism recovery which is what I do each and every day getting up I love what I'm doing but as I said I don't stop taking phone calls and so forth well we definitely know you'll be getting probably more phone calls after this conversation so thank you so much from HLT for joining us this morning give us an update of course on everything that's happening in the tourism industry and also uh those uh personal decisions that you may or may not have to make soon uh down the line but thank you so much Ruby for joining us we appreciate it now I know that's a question you really wanted to get after all it took half an hour for us to get there thanks so much thank you always enjoyed being with you folks Aloha thank you well great to get an update on him from him from the you know aspect of the tourism industry you really hear about all the work that his organization is doing to try to lift up this industry you know every time we've talked to him Ryan we've talked about this Japanese visitor the Asian tourist you know more broadly and and when that market is coming back they are hopeful he says that they're not giving up hope but it is not happening as fast as they would like and as a result uh the the market is softer than they would like to see we did not have a hundred percent uh bookings in December the holiday season was not as robust as they would like and that is due in part to the lack of the Asian tourists so how we built that back that is a complicated process but something that he says that he was pleased that the governor is already working on laying the groundwork visiting before he was even sworn in so all of that sort of working toward rehabilitating uh that sector of our economy the economic engine if you will for our state you did hear him pushing back on green fees there saying that he doesn't necessarily early oppose an impact fee but a blanket a tourism tax or arrival tax is not something that the industry supports yeah and this is in line with what we heard the Senate President and house Speaker talk about as during our conversation with them last week about uh some of the challenges that may exist with trying to implement such a green fee and that this uh more centralized localized impact fee for certain destinations may be the path forward you heard him speak a little bit about some of the mechanics that would have to go in place to implement something like that at various system Nations throughout the state but the thing is that these are this are these are things that are already happening at a few destinations that would just have to be replicated in other areas but they are open to a more specialized and specific impact fee rather than an overarching Green fee that would be taxed to every tourist member that is coming in we also got an update on the importance of of course safety especially in the Waikiki area and how that continues to be top of Mind ensuring that visitors as well as residents who live in Waikiki feel safe with the environment that they are in through the safe and sound program the weed and seed if you will of that area in working with the mayor and the prosecutor's office to ensure uh that this is something that is top of mind the visitors feel safe when arriving here in Hawaii yeah Steve allm will be on the program next week as will the governor so we'll ask both of them about uh the things that we discussed today we also heard about Workforce Development uh that's happening and more of what they'd like to see when it comes to integrating tourism as part of the education experience for a lot of young people here and creating career Pathways to that industry and of course we couldn't resist the personal news uh you know a big big win for Hawaii if you will to have two people nominated by the Biden Administration to serve on that advisory committee um and then of course the question of whether or not he would perhaps go to University of Hawaii yeah a lot of names being tossed around right now but no doubt movies name is one that continues to come up in the conversations that I'm hearing every time that I'm at uh uh you know everyone's always asking me who's going to be the new athletic director well his name definitely in the mix and we heard His Thoughts there he's listening uh but no but made it clear that it is not something he's pursuing per se but uh always great hearing from him we thank him for joining us on uh Friday we're going to be Switching gears and focusing in on the hospital on the big island that's right Kona Community Hospital's new CEO Clayton McGann is going to be joining us he's been lobbying the legislature saying that his organization needs 20 million dollars um that their hospital is really at a critical juncture that there are a lot of programs that they simply cannot afford to continue on with um and that is such an important literal Lifeline for that part of our state so we're going to be talking with him and we hope that we'll be talk we'll be talking with you as well so join us right back here 10 30 on Friday for another edition of Spotlight Hawaii Aloha we'll see you then aloha this episode of Spotlight Hawaii is brought to you by Long's Drugs

2023-02-01 16:04

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