Hawaii conference travel took another bashing last week, this time in Detroit. The Fox News affiliate in Detroit flagged the trip by trustees of the public employees pension funds to “a very exotic locale” for the International Foundation’s Annual Employee Benefits Conference, being held this week at the Hawaii Convention Center.
Jeff Wattrick, writing on MLive.com, took a tongue-in-cheek view.
If this conference teaches the pension trustees to not invest in dubious Alabama-based airline start-ups or Jim Papas’ stupid toxic deep injection well then maybe it’s worth the cost. Of course, previous travel experiences don’t exactly inspire confidence.
Most worrisome for tourism officials, I imagine, are the scathing comments. People are angry about Hawaii as a destination.
I notice that the conference web site includes, along with hotel information and speaker listings, an “Attendance Justification Toolkit“, with sample justification letters, “ten tips for building your case,” testimonials, and advice on “budget-conscious planning.”
I wonder whether the Hawaii Tourism Authority is supporting this effort at justifying Hawaii travel in any way?
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The “ten tips for building your case” are pretty generic, and could be used to make a case for attending any conference that is one of the largest of its field.
Hawaii tourism is somewhat fragile, and aside from military support contracts, it’s all we have.
If the price of oil should go up for any reason, travel here could become expensive or prohibitive.
If someone should detonate a bomb in Waikiki, that would put a dent in it even if no one is hurt.
Should there be riots or demonstrators killed during APEC 2011, that could similarly impact tourism.
Should there be a serious outbreak of salmonella or something in a hotel …
etc.
It’s too bad that there are so far no alternatives on which to base an economy. We need one or more, but what is an island state to do for a living besides tourism?
Education – see the EWC and HPU models for building a national and international brand
Applied research, consulting, and management – see Outrigger’s operation of hotels in Australia
World class science – see Big Island Astronomy and UH oceanography