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The Hawaii Tourism Authority’s longest-serving contractor, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, could face stiff competition for a lucrative contract to provide marketing and brand management services as a tourist destination for the main market area of the United States, the islands’ largest source market for visitors.
Ronald Rodriguez, HTA Purchasing Manager/Senior Contracts Specialist, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an email that 27 entities have registered their intent to apply for a request for proposals for the United States Major Market Area Contract, (RFP) 22-01.
Rodriguez clarified that “this may include those registering as a partnership or sub-contractor of a prime contractor. Registrants were not required to disclose partnership or sub-contractor status when submitting submissions. their intention to apply.
The deadline for proposals is November 12 at 4:30 p.m. Finalists will be selected and notified the week of November 22. The finalists will make oral presentations the week of November 29. HTA plans to issue an award notice the week of December 6.
Not everyone who expresses an interest can complete the process. Still, early interest is significant given that in 2016, the last time HVCB submitted a request for proposals for HTA’s biggest contract, it was the only candidate for the five-year contract worth over $104.9 million.
HVCB, whose roots go back more than 100 years, predates the establishment of HTA by the state legislature in 1998. The nonprofit HVCB is so intrinsic to Hawaiian tourism that HTA has awarded the office 10 contracts since 2016 for a total of $145.9 million. HVCB and its island chapters currently employ about 48-1/2 full-time workers, down from 66 before the pandemic.
HVCB told the Star-Advertiser earlier this month that he intended to apply for the most recent US contract, which opens because the legal limit on his current contract ends this year.
While the new scope includes Destination Management, HVCB Island Chapters have been involved in Destination Management for some time. HTA also awarded HVCB a $9.4 million sole-source contract earlier this year to oversee new destination management action plans and community enrichment programs, and to develop a universal reservation system. .
HTA President and CEO John De Fries said the new tender will be the first procurement under HTA’s new paradigm, and as such has been amended to align with his new vision of “Malama Kuu Home” (“Caring for My Beloved Home”) through the principles of “regenerative tourism”.
“Because (the US market) is such an important market, it will be essential that we establish the right mindset in the visitor before they arrive here and once they are on the ground here,” De Fries told the Star-Advertiser during an interview late last month. “It’s not an easy task. We’re talking about a kind of reshaping of human behavior. But one of the things we’ve learned during this pandemic is that the community has higher expectations and standards than “she would like to see in visitors when they come to us. Entrepreneurs are now bound by our intention to keep management and marketing together and linked.”
The new US contract, which will help HTA complete its pivot towards a greater focus on destination management than brand marketing, is scheduled to start on January 1 and end on December 31, 2025. However, it could end on December 31. December 2026, if HTA exercises a one-year option.
The RFP indicates that HTA is looking for a Destination Management Contractor who, in addition to providing brand marketing in the core market, can also provide communication, facilitation, collaboration and promotion in Hawaii for community-generated initiatives through Destination Management Action Plans. (DMAP) which were published in 2021.
Kalani Ka’ana’ana, HTA’s brand manager, told The Star-Advertiser in an interview late last month, “If the Hawaiian Islands continue to be described as a playground in paradise, we are going to have that kind of expectation in the minds of potential travelers.
“But if you look at what we’ve done, we’re really trying to reshape the Hawaiian Islands as a place of authenticity, of deep cultural heritage, of sustainability,” he said.
Ka’ana’ana said the branding or marketing element is an incredible tool for destination management because “we start to change in the minds of visitors or potential visitors who we are, the values we hold and why this place is so unique and special and why it needs their protection and how they can join us in the effort.
Achieving these goals will be a daunting challenge, according to a recent blog post on the University of Hawaii’s Economic Research Organization website titled “Hawaii needs to focus on developing good governance in the management tourism”. The post was written by local economist Paul Brewbaker, UHERO researcher James Mak and former HTA marketing director and tourism consultant Frank Haas.
They write in the blog: “Hawaii has been very good at developing tourism plans that involve broad community input. The problem has been ineffective implementation due to ineffective governance.
The three said in the blog that “the action plans do not take into account what it would cost to implement the proposed actions or where the funding will come from. It is therefore difficult to assess the benefits against the costs of implementing these actions. This is a serious shortcoming, as state lawmakers passed legislation in the last session requiring HTA to compete for general fund funding; furthermore, there is no guarantee that other agencies will have funds for DMAP projects.
The three said there needed to be a system “capable of governing tourism across jurisdictions, agencies, functions and stakeholder groups”.
