Monday is the end of a comment period for a proposal by President Trump to make it more difficult to get a visa to the U.S. by mandating the vetting of a visitor's social media history.
It is seen by tourism officials as another barrier to the tourism industry. The Conversation checked in with marketing in Europe and reached out to Amy Thomas, the director of the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority Europe office.
HPR connected with her through the opening of a new Hawaiʻi exhibit at the British Museum in London. HTA is a sponsor of the show. It was a different approach to leverage exposure for the islands and an unusual opportunity to partner with the world's largest museum.
Thomas said that Hawaiʻi being exhibited in the British Museum represents an exciting moment.
“Particularly, we're hearing from a lot of tour operators that the U.S. is down. It's really challenging at the moment, but Hawaiʻi is doing great, phenomenal, is what one person said to me in October, one of our major tour operators,” Thomas said. “So it definitely is having a moment.”
She added that television shows and films like “Chief of War” and “Moana” have also helped to encourage people to visit Hawaiʻi.
Thomas told HPR that the HTA is working on a March campaign to reach new audiences in Europe.
“The campaign we're doing really feeds into this exhibition, and we will be using Hawaiian words. We will be putting them in Hawaiian on digital advertising and sharing those words with people and what they mean, and using that as a way of encouraging them to go to Hawaiʻi," she said.
“One very interesting part of this campaign that we'll be doing with the digital advertising part in and around London will be doing geo-targeting digital ads, which basically means people that have been in and around the museum or are in tube stations or stations where the British Museum are advertising the exhibition, they will also be served ads,” Thomas said.
“So the hope is that people will see it on the tube, on a poster, and then they'll get it popping up on their phone, and suddenly something will be spark in them and say, ‘Actually, yes, I need to go to Hawaiʻi.’”
View the HTA Europe Marketing Plan here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Feb. 6, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
