“[Visitation] is still soft according to pre-2019 or 2019 numbers. In the US market, we were up 114% but in 2019, the US market was 60% of the overall visitors,” Aaron Sala, President and CEO of the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau, told Travel Daily.
“We’re now up to 75%, so we’re really trying to focus on infusing some energy into the international market, relieving some of the pressure on the US market.”
By investing in the MICE space and making it a core part of Hawai’i’s tourism business, leisure will eventually follow, explained Sala (pictured right).
“[People] will come for business with colleagues, and then they will say, ‘Oh, my kids need to experience this, my partner needs to experience this’,” Sala said.
“So that becomes a legacy engagement, rather than first-time visitors who [think they] have ‘been there, done that’.”
According to Kris Phadungkiatipong from Meet Hawai’i (pictured left), the aim is for conferences and meetings to work with Hawai’ian small businesses to create meaningful events, from using local suppliers to visiting family-run farms as part of their itineraries.
“Yes, Hawai’i is a popular destination for leisure, but we also have all these incredible local businesses that we can incorporate into programs for meetings, incentives and conferences,” he said.
In an effort to expand the potential of Hawai’i as a MICE destination, the organisation is now exploring new opportunities in the B2B space and “deepening our understanding of the kinds of meetings and incentive programs that are well-suited to Hawai’i’s unique offerings”, added Sala.
As Hawai’i has hosted major events in the past, such as the (APEC) Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit and FestPAC, that means the island nation also has the ability to host events such as COP (the UN Climate Change Conference) or the Democratic or Republican National Convention, Sala added.
“It tells us that we can start to bring people that are of likeminded to a location like Hawai’i to do really important things that have global impacts,” he said.
“I want to be the Davos of the Pacific.”
“I want to create opportunities for us to have really important conversations about the power that Hawai’i has to ultimately save the world.”
