The embattled Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority emerged from this legislative session with strong financial support.
HTA has faced significant budget cutbacks over the last few years. Around this time last year, HTA's funding was stripped away by lawmakers — and its future was in jeopardy.
Now, HTA has money to fix the leaky roof at the Hawai’i Convention Center — and then some.
Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann became chairperson of the HTA board in December.
"I was very clear with our board and our staff that we needed to get off the defunding list. For two years, the Legislature had not funded the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority," Hannemann said.
He said HTA was pleased that lawmakers this year agreed to give the state agency over $60 million annually.
"Hopefully we can build from that or at least maintain that level of funding. So that was a big win," he said. "The other big win was any more talk or measures introduced to strip HTA of its responsibilities, or eliminate it altogether, has really been eliminated, if you will, or it's not discussed anymore."
HTA is about to launch a new campaign called “The People, The Place, The Hawaiian Islands."
The agency has come under pressure to do a better job of managing tourism, rather than just marketing the state to increase tourist numbers.
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 7, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
