Looking Beyond the Surfline
I love Hawaii, I really do. But things have to change.
I spoke to a business group in Honolulu about why Hawaii firms need to venture into international trade. All the standard stuff about diversifying your customer base, meeting your competition, help that is available. I used a tagline something like: “Business has got to look beyond the surfline“. A reporter was in the room and turned that into a wire service report that was printed worldwide. That was 25 years ago.
It can be better
Fast forward to 2004 when I moved back to Hawaii after 18 years overseas. I was sitting on our lanai with a good friend, Charlotte Vick, when I remarked that there was less international consciousness in Hawaii in 2004 than there had been when I made that speech. Our brainstorming eventually led to a two-year run for a radio show that Charlotte and I masterminded. We called it “Business Beyond the Reef” and it was the forerunner of the blog you are reading.
I sense I am coming to another pivotal moment with regard to business in Hawaii, this time regarding Hawaii’s top export industry – tourism. I saw two articles last week that sparked this introspection. One was Tyler Brûlé’s column in the Financial Times entitled “Hawaii needs a Miami makeover“. The other, “Asia’s Permanent Advantage” by Chan Akya, appeared in Asia Times.
Brûlé tells how he searched in vain for a decent bookstore or even a magazine shop in Waikiki – and couldn’t find one. He’s right, there isn’t one. There used to be a good shop, back on Kuhio Avenue, but it has been gone for years. That gets him thinking about Waikiki’s infrastructure, especially how few of Waikiki’s hotels measure up to the standards of excellence now considered normal in Asian resorts and cities. He’s got that right, too. Yes, there has been some renovation and reconstruction. Outrigger has done a good job of it, and it looks like Sheraton has a good thing going. But so much of Waikiki still looks like the 1970s. He draws a parallel with Miami’s South Beach before the city positioned itself as the place to do business with Latin America, which drew in throngs of businesses that rebuilt South Beach. Brûlé alertly sees that too much of Hawaii’s visitor industry faces towards its old traditional customer base in North America, with only casual glances west across the Pacific.
I would go further. If you look at the marketing budget of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, you will discover that much of the world is simply ignored or given no more than short shrift, while virtually all the funding goes to the traditional markets of U.S. West Coast, Canada, U.S. East Coast, Japan and China. China is a recent change that I applaud. Money on occasion goes to promotions in South Korea and a venture to Australia has just been announced. Notice what isn’t mentioned. Hawaii does little marketing in Europe and doesn’t participate officially in the major European travel shows. And zero promotion dollars go to the nascent tourism markets of Latin America, S.E. Asia, India or the Middle East. I suspect there are at least a few well-to-do travelers in those markets that Hawaii might entice.
Even in its traditional markets, Hawaii’s marketing has not changed in forty years. Sun, sand and surf only gets you so far. Hawaii needs to tell its potential customers about ocean sports, local culture (not only Hawaiian, but the many ethnic festivals Honolulu hosts), hiking opportunities, educational possibilities and so much more. And there is virtually no marketing to the gay and lesbian community, except by Aqua Hotels.
Chan Akya’s article points out what has to change, not specifically in Hawaii, but in the entire Western World. The article crows in a self-congratulatory way about Asia’s wonderful infrastructure. But it is warranted, as virtually any traveler to Asia can tell you. I lived in Singapore and coming into Changi International was always wonderful. I have flown in and out of Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai and others in recent years. I used to loath Japan’s Narita, but now Narita is a delight. By comparison, the airports in Honolulu, Los Angeles, London and many more are distinctly Third World. That’s what happens when some countries devote funds to infrastructure and others do not. It shows. (Don’t get me started on how little of the U.S. “stimulus” package has actually gone to infrastructure.)
Where is she now?
It’s not just airports. Hotel facilities in the West are generally run down and faded when compared to their Asian competition. When I think of the most impressive hotels I know, most of them are in Asia, where, ironically, most have been designed by Western architects. Honolulu has world class architects who have designed highly acclaimed resorts worldwide. How come more of their designs aren’t used at home?
The Asia Times article also points out the dismal service on Western airlines, the parlous state of road and rail systems in the West, and the overall lack of modern infrastructure for travel and tourism. Reminds me of the constant bickering in Honolulu over whether or not to build a state-of-the-art rail system. I know people in the visitor industry who say they don’t want to pay for modern rail; they apparently expect a free lunch from somewhere. And Hawaii, of course, managed to lose the SuperFerry, a modern ferry system that, by now, should have been whisking tourists between our magnificent islands.
