STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3357

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1692

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1692, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TOURISM,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to adopt the recommendations made by the Auditor in Auditor Report No. 13-09 to improve the efficiency, transparency, and accountability of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

 

     Specifically, this measure:

 

(1)  Requires the tourism marketing plan to be a single, comprehensive document;

 

(2)  Defines the "Hawaii brand" as the programs that collectively differentiate the Hawaii experience from other destinations; and

 

(3)  Requires the Hawaii Tourism Authority to have a permanent, strong focus on Hawaii brand management.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Office of the Auditor and the Hawaii Tourism Authority.  The Office of Information Practices submitted written comments on this measure.

 

     Your Committee finds that the current tourism marketing plan for Hawaii is nearly six hundred pages long and dispersed across over a dozen different documents.  Requiring the Hawaii Tourism Authority to create a tourism marketing plan that is a single document, and to include that document with its report to the Legislature on the progress towards achieving the plan's strategic goals, will increase efficiency, transparency, and accountability.

 

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Clarifying that the brand management referenced in the measure is for the "Hawaii brand";

 

(2)  Requiring the Hawaii Tourism Authority to include the tourism marketing plan in its annual report to the Legislature;

 

(3)  Authorizing the Hawaii Tourism Authority to withhold competitively sensitive information from public disclosure; and

 

(4)  Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of style, clarity, and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1692, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1692, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair