The roots of Hawaii’s cultural history are intertwined with many of the Asian races. The Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans immigrated to the islands and worked side by side on the pineapple plantations, sharing their food and stories and joining with each other during celebrations.
It is no surprise then that today, the Japanese represent Hawaii’s largest tourism market, and it is no surprise that Asians in their own countries have a love affair with Hawaii. In Korea, they call Jeju Island “Korea’s Hawaii.” In China, the Chinese said they will make Hainan “the Hawaii of Asia.” And in Hainan, the Chinese are spending upwards of US$1,400 per night for a hotel room during Golden Week – the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration that lasts for seven days and begins this year on February 14.
“China should be a market that Hawaii tourism is going after” believes Hawaii Tourism Associations’ (HITA) president, Juergen Thomas Steinmetz. “It should be going after every tourism market that presents itself, but it doesn’t.”
Last year, Mr. Steinmetz says he connected with a group that wanted to start bringing Russian tourists to Hawaii. HITA secured the support of the US Department of Commerce and the US Embassy in Moscow. When he presented the information to a leading representative of the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), he was told, “We don’t want foreign-speaking tourists on our island, since signs on the beach are only in English.”
Mr. Steinmetz touts his own group. “The reason I created HiTA was not to compete with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, but to assist in growing Hawaii’s tourism. It is true that it was born out of frustration upon seeing all these missed opportunities, but the intent was to officially represent Hawaii’s tourism sector while I am out in the world wearing my hat as the publisher of eTurboNews and then bring potential opportunities back to the state when I returned home,” Mr. Steinmetz stated.
Downtown Honolulu / Image via Sullynyflhi
ETurboNews (eTN) is a Hawaii-based global travel industry publication with 235,000 travel trade professionals worldwide as subscribers. ETN is an exclusive partner with the CNN International Destination Task Group, and ETN attended and partnered with 58 travel industry events in 2008 and 2009. “Unfortunately, I think HTA sees me as trying to barge in on their business, even going so far as to tell people that HiTA is a fraud,” says Mr. Steinmetz. “I don’t understand this mentality. I love this state, and I am only trying to help tourism in what I perceived as a logical partnership.”
