Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau receives contract extension

The Hawaii Tourism Authority is extending the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau’s U.S. tourism contract and its global support services contract for three months as a stop-gap measure to give HTA time to sort out a procurement protest.

Mike McCartney, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, in his role as head of the purchasing agency, said in a statement Wednesday that he made the decision after conferring with the state’s chief procurement officer, as well as with HTA President and CEO John De Fries.

“The Hawaiian Islands are in the middle of the busy summer travel season and planning needs to be done for the upcoming fall period,” he said. “We agreed that granting this extension is in the best interest of our state and creates the necessary timeframe within which the protest can be resolved.

“My ultimate goal is to provide for a fair and smooth transition in which the best partner for HTA is found.”

On June 21, HVCB formally protested HTA’s June 2 decision to award a multiyear U.S. tourism contract to the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement worth more than $34 million during the first two years.

HTA had previously awarded HVCB a multiyear U.S. tourism contract worth $22.5 million the first year, but rescinded it when CNHA protested in December. HVCB lost by a wide margin this year when HTA resolicited the U.S. brand management and global support services contracts.

HTA’s previous contract extension to the bureau, which was executed in December after CNHA’s protest, had been set to expire Wednesday. HVCB will be paid $4.25 million for the most recent U.S. tourism contract extension and $375,000 for the global support contract extension. The new contracts expire Sept. 28.

News of the contract extensions comes as CNHA firms up the transition team for its Kilohana Collective, the tourism arm it formed to fulfill HTA’s Hawaii destination brand and management services contract.

CNHA announced Tuesday that it had appointed Douglas Chang, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach, as transition team chair, and that it had added new team members Corbett Kalama, executive vice president of the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation, and Sun Wong, principal at CM Marketing Group and former chair of the Oahu Visitors Bureau.

“We understand and respect the integrity of the contract procurement process that HTA is still working through,” said CNHA CEO Kuhio Lewis in a statement. “We also felt it was important that we continue to move forward with our planning so that the Kilohana is ready, pending the outcome of that process.”

Chang, a 40-year veteran of the hospitality industry, is a former HTA chair and currently serves on the boards of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association and the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association.

“We are starting to focus on what resources we need to pull together. There is a lot of energy and excitement,” he said. “My job as the lead is to harness all of that energy and start to get some actions done. It really is going to be all facets of industry, all facets of community having a voice in how we move this forward through this change.”

Other Kilohana transition team members, along with Lewis, include: Ann Botticelli, a former member of Hawaiian Airlines’ senior leadership team; Frank Haas, a tourism consultant and former HTA vice president and director of marketing; Amy Kalili, interim executive director of the Kilohana Collective and a partner at Pilina First LLP; Micah Kane, CEO and president of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation; Ku‘uipo Kumukahi, Hyatt Regency Waikiki manager of Hawaiian culture; Aaron Sala, Royal Hawaiian Center director of cultural affairs and former HTA chair; Rebecca Soon, Ward Research president; and Roy Tokujo, ‘Ulalena founder and former HTA chair.