The Hawaii Visitors and Conventions Bureau (HVCB) launched a monthlong marketing campaign last month in New York and Chicago, two of the Aloha State’s biggest U.S. markets not located on the West Coast.
Financed with $500,000 in special funds released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) in late January, the initiative will be similar to media saturation blitzes first utilized by the HVCB in several major West Coast cities in 2009.
“This effort is more than just a branding campaign to raise awareness of the Hawaiian Islands,” John Monahan, the HVCB’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “It’s an initiative to increase demand in these key markets to more sustainable levels that will support current service from the New York area and increase air service from Chicago.”
According to Jay Talwar, the HVCB’s senior vice president of marketing, load factors on nonstop flights to Hawaii from both New York and Chicago have been “great” in recent months, but the current fares charged by airlines for those seats have been somewhat soft.
“It’s a good news, bad news scenario,” Talwar told Travel Weekly. “In the short term it’s real good news for consumers, but in the long run it could be bad news [for the Islands because] if the airlines aren’t yielding on these routes,
they’ll move that equipment.”
Talwar noted that in 2012, a year in which the destination set new visitor arrivals and spending records, the total number of available air seats to Hawaii on nonstop flights from the U.S. West was off just 1% from the state’s all-time high.
Available air seats on nonstop flights last year from elsewhere in the mainland U.S., however, were off more than 40% from their peak.
“We’ve done these marketing blitzes before when we really focused our marketing on the U.S. West coming out of 2007, ’08, ’09 and ’10, and that seems to have a made a big difference,” Talwar continued, noting that the HVCB is hopeful this latest saturation campaign will spur increased lift to the Islands from beyond the West.
“We certainly see an opportunity there,” he said.
Running through March 17, the HVCB’s Chicago and New York blitzes will emphasize a different island each week via print, broadcast and online advertising; social media; and public relations outreach, including a deal with NBC affiliates in both cities that will feature a range of 30-second television commercials highlighting different island experiences.
Talwar also said the HVCB has coordinated its marketing efforts with suppliers and wholesalers in an effort to reach out and inform travel agents in both cities.
“It’s just a full-out effort to make sure everyone’s aware of it,” he explained. “There are going to be people interested in Hawaii, and now’s your time to go ahead and convert that business.”