The struggling Hawaii Tourism Authority emerged from this Congress with strong financial support.
HTA has faced significant budget cuts in recent years. This time last year, HTA’s funding was stripped by lawmakers and its future was in jeopardy.
HTA currently has the funds to repair the Hawaii Convention Center’s leaking roof.
Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hanneman was appointed chairman of the HTA board in December.
“I was very clear to the board and staff that we needed to take them off the defunding list. For two years, Congress had not funded Hawaii Tourism,” Hanneman said. he said.
He said HTA is pleased that lawmakers have agreed to give more than $60 million annually to state agencies this year.
“Hopefully we can build out of there or at least maintain that level of funding. So that was a big win,” he said. “Another big victory is that the talk and measures that were introduced to strip the HTA of its responsibilities, or eliminate it altogether, have really been abolished, so to speak, or are no longer being discussed.”
HTA is launching a new campaign called “The People, The Place, The Hawaiian Islands.”
The agency is under pressure to do a better job of managing tourism, rather than simply promoting the state to increase visitor numbers.
This interview was broadcast on The Conversation on May 7, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
