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Hawaii-based travel trade publication "eTurboNews" (eTN) has announced that because of an overwhelming response to its recently conducted survey on Hawaii tourism, it has decided to establish an organization called Hawaii Tourism Association.
Juergen Thomas Steinmetz, publisher and co-founder of eTN, says: “The response to our has been phenomenal. We have found that there are at least 15,000 active members of the travel trade interested in issues pertaining to Hawaii as a tourism destination. Those who have pledged their support for Hawaii Tourism Association are well known Hotels, Airlines, crisis management experts, Association, larger and smaller players, as well as some of the most distinguished public relations agencies in the US and abroad.”
Quick to identify the immediate need to promote Hawaii because of the ongoing tourism slump. Hawaii Tourism Association has found key markets interested in doing business with Hawaii tourism. “The Middle East is a fantastic new market, considering that Emirates Airlines now offers non-stop flights to many US gateways, including Los Angeles, San Francisco,” says Steinmetz. “Arabs have the money and the time to travel and they usually travel in large groups. This market is rife for Hawaii, but it has very specific needs. It is our aim to build a task force to ready Hawaii for this market by identifying such needs in terms of food requirements and basic cultural education. It has been my experience that this market is very much interested in person-to-person business dealings and is not necessarily receptive to the idea of traditional Western ways of conducting business.”
Steinmetz adds, “Other destinations that we have identified that are very much interested in Hawaii are the new European Union countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.
Responses reached us from almost every European country. Potential responses also came from Russia, India, South Africa, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia.”
According to Steinmetz, the eTN survey garnered huge response from India’s travel trade. “Kuoni, one of the world’s largest tour operators had tried for two years to put a specialty brochure and program for Hawaii together. They had no help from Hawaii and gave up the idea, and are ready to work with us to introduce this in the coming days,” says Steinmetz.
“The kind of network eTN has arduously established over the years, are now being out to use for Hawaii tourism. We have strategic alliance with not only destinations, but organizations and events that Hawaii Tourism Association will be able to tap,” adds Steinmetz. “We are not charging anyone to join our efforts. What we are trying to achieve is to build a global team of Hawaii ambassadors that is similar to what eTurboNews has put in place. The goal is to create a dynamic forum whereby travel professionals from around the globe talk about Hawaii."
Steinmetz added, by designating interested professional the title “Hawaii Ambassadors,” Hawaii’s visibility is increased. “We already noticed some potential ideas how the industry sees to make Hawaii a more attractive destination and add new spice and idea to the Hawaii tourism experience,” says Steinmetz.
He added that Hawaii tourism can expect very specific measures to be implemented in the coming months. For instance, Steinmetz said Hawaii Tourism Association will offer the main film award stage at ITB Berlin, which is the world’s largest travel exhibition to Hawaii to showcase Hawaii as a destination free of charge. “We intend to give Hawaii a chance to showcase its tourism products at every major tourism exhibition that eTN participates in,” says Steinmetz. “We will take a group to Duesseldorf, which is the most important aviation gateway in Germany, as well as the Netherlands and Belgium to introduce Hawaii to key trade in that region."
With eTN’s partnerships with various events and organizations, Hawaii Tourism Association will gain further exposure at more than 40 events around the globe, including six adventure expos in the United States.
"With our network and our new online discussion forum, we will be able to respond to questions, suggestions and criticism instantaneously. Our goal is to constantly identify problems and share this information instantly with tourism leaders in the state".
Hawaii Tourism Association has ambitious aims. Among them is establish specific lobby groups which will cover airlines, tourism policies, communication. Details on the specifics of this will be made available in the coming weeks.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
