Kaua’i County Mayor Maryanne Kusaka says her annual trip to the Pacific Asia Travel Association Conference was a necessary part of selling Kaua’i to the international visitor industry. Kusaka, recently returned from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the 50th PATA conference
Kaua’i County Mayor Maryanne Kusaka says her annual trip to the Pacific Asia Travel Association Conference was a necessary part of selling Kaua’i to the international visitor industry.
Kusaka, recently returned from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the 50th PATA conference (April 8-12), talked briefly Monday about the event.
PATA is comprised primarily of travel agency owners and hotel and marketing executives. One of the main talking points at this year’s conference was expanding the Asian tourist market, in addition to the thriving Japanese markets, Kusaka said.
“There is a great deal of money in the Asia Pacific area. The problem is we don’t have direct” flights from some Asian markets to Kaua’i, she said.
The mayor added that one of the speakers at the conference, Seddik Belymani, a Boeing executive vice president based in Seattle, discussed Asian travelers as part of Hawai’i tourism’s future.
“That’s where aviation is heading. They (Boeing) have lots of orders (for planes) from some of these countries,” Kusaka said.
Kusaka said she capitalized on previous contacts she’s made with Cathay Pacific executives, including chief executive officer Phillip Chen, to once again lobby for direct flights to Hawai’i.
“They are still very interested in coming. The problem is managing the return flight to Hong Kong. There is no guarantee of filling that flight,” Kusaka explained.
In Malaysia, she also reacquainted herself with Ed Fuller, the president of Marriott.
“He invited me to a cocktail reception for the press, and I was interviewed by a travel reporter from Hong Kong,” Kusaka noted.
“It’s a lot of great exposure for little old Kaua’i. These are the high executives who make the decisions” related to tourism for hotels and airlines. “We need to be out there,” said Sue Kanoho, head of the Kaua’i Visitor’s Bureau.
Kanoho, who accompanied Kusaka on the trip, said it is easier to sell Kaua’i as a tourist destination because of the mayor’s participation in travel industry gatherings around the world.
Kanoho and Kusaka, who will go to Japan for another industry conference in June, “present a unified front. The county and the private sector are working together. It’s not that previous administrations were opposed. They just weren’t as unified as we are now. The cohesiveness we have makes us that much stronger,” Kanoho said.
“The real highlight” of the conference in Malaysia “was the concern to balance the environment and cultural considerations with the bottom line. If we ruin the environment, we ruin our economy,” Kusaka said. All of the PATA attendees “have very similar destinations.”
Kanoho said Kusaka’s “commitment helps Kaua’i immensely. She understands the cultures, and having the mayor at these conferences also helps me to be seen.”
Kusaka also fields questions from travel agents at the conventions. She said that many questions concern the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“I have ADA people call me. They want to know if we can pick them up at the airport. I tell them yes we can. We make that provision with our bus company. We basically provide door-to-door service,” Kusaka said.
Gini Kapali, director of the county’s Office of Economic Development, attended the PATA conference with Kusaka and Kanoho. Kanoho paid for herself, while the county picked up the tab for the mayor and Kapoli.
Registration, air, per diem and extra money for a brief side trip to Vietnam totaled $10,387 for Kusaka and Kapali. Flights and the hotel were reduced 50 percent because the mayor and Kapali were there as conference participants.
“It is a good investment in Kaua’i’s (tourism) future,” Kanoho noted.
The cost and relative frequency of travels by Kusaka and other county officials on behalf of Kaua’i have been criticized by some citizens.
The local party were well-guarded, according to Kanoho. Malaysia and the other islands of the Indonesian archipelago are embroiled in a vicious civil disturbance which has claimed thousands of lives in the past three years.
The Kaua’i party said they were not issued a traveler’s advisory prior to their trip.
“If everyone had gotten travel advisories, that would have ended the conference,” Kusaka said.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
