State audit criticizes Hawai‘i Tourism Authority's destination management

Yahoo

23-05-2025

The Hawai 'i Tourism Authority's destination management focus is 'not new—or effective—and the agency remains unable to gauge its own performance, ' according to the latest state audit, which was especially critical of its community-driven Destination Management Action Plan effort.
The state audit done by the office of Auditor Leslie H. Kondo also said, 'HTA's expedited DMAP effort was poorly planned and executed with key decisions deferred to third-party contractors and island steering committees. The result : many of the actions did not address hot spots, were underway or already achieved, or were impractical.'
The DMAPs are HTA's latest destination management strategy, and the plans approved by the HTA board in 2021 were intended to detail the steps that the community, the visitor industry and other sectors deemed necessary to improve tourism management over a three-year period. The DMAPs were an outgrowth of the past HTA Strategic Plan, which ran from 2020 to 2025, and was touted as the first strategic plan that HTA developed as part of its shift from a mainly marketing focus to a greater emphasis on destination management.
The audit findings were presented to the HTA board May 1 prior to a board discussion on setting the timeline and objectives for it next strategic plan and DMAP efforts, which are expected to conclude around November.
State law requires that the Office of the Auditor at least every five years conduct a management and financial audit of all contracts or agreements awarded by HTA valued in excess of $15 million as well as additional audit issues that the auditor deems appropriate. HTA was last audited by the Office of the Auditor in 2018, and the latest audit, which spanned 2019 to 2023, is the fifth state audit conducted under state law.
The most recent audit's stated objectives were to 'assess the Hawai 'i Tourism Authority's achievement of its 2016 and 2020-2025 strategic plans' destination management goals ' and to 'evaluate the effectiveness of the Hawai 'i Tourism Authority's Destination Management Action Plans (DMAPs ).'
More than 500 people participated in the Oahu DMAP meetings, and HTA received more than 300 online responses. The concerns on Oahu played out across the islands, where many respondents expressed concerns about overtourism hot spots across the isles.
Hawaii broke the 10 million visitor arrivals benchmark in 2019—prompting anti-­tourism pushback from some residents. Concerns about the potential for visitors to spread COVID-19 during the pandemic kept anti-tourism sentiments high even when arrivals plummeted.
Some residents came to enjoy the pandemic-­created renewal so much that DMAP participants even placed Waikiki on a list of Oahu tourism hot spots, which also included North Shore / Haleiwa, Kailua, Hanauma Bay, Laniakea /Turtle Beach, Diamond Head, Lanikai, Makapuu, Kaena Point, Haiku Stairs, Maelieli Trail, Maunawili Falls and Lulu ­mahu Falls.
A main takeaway that emerged during the DMAP process was that participants wanted managed tourism that protects natural and cultural resources. The DMAPs also promoted the use of reservations or other tools to manage hot spots where tourism has resulted in overcrowding, traffic congestion, degradation of resources and safety hazards, and is creating negative experiences for both residents and visitors.
People like K.C. Connors, moderator of the Facebook site Enough Tourists Already, which has more than 3, 000 members, said the DMAP idea was 'great in theory, but poorly executed. Where were the benchmarks ? Why didn't they identify the carrying capacity of each island for tourism arrivals ? They also needed to look at the hidden costs of tourism and the diminishing returns ; the degradation of the aina ; and the impact of 'touristification' on communities when places that serve the community like dry cleaners get replaced by gift shops. The DMAPs seemed just as haphazard as HTA's marketing efforts.'
Kondo also noted that an 'absence of reliable performance tracking undermines HTA's ability to make effective data-driven decisions and allocate resources to achieve destination management objectives. It also results in reduced transparency and public accountability over HTA's performance in relation to its destination management efforts.'
For example, his audit noted that HTA dollars went to a myriad of DMAP efforts, including :—$8, 000 to clean up the Malae Heiau on Kauai, which is not open to the public.—$2, 500 to fund a coloring book about deforestation specifically for hotels.—$44, 505 to pay for reusable water bottles to be given to guests at five Maui hotels.—$105, 000 to install reef-safe sunscreen dispensers at 24 high-traffic Maui beaches ; and for a mineral-only sunscreen awareness campaign.
Connors said Kondo's examples hit a nerve as 'hotels should not be getting DMAP money to fund projects. It's the local people that need the money.'
Upon conclusion of the audit, Kondo recommended that 'HTA should focus on efforts that address hot spots, balance visitor and resident needs, and are more likely to improve resident sentiment towards tourism. HTA also needs to meaningfully hold itself accountable for its performance. This includes identifying goals with benchmarks and targets, and tracking and publicly reporting performance against these goals.'
Connors said she hopes Kondo's audit recommendations revamp the upcoming DMAP process, which is currently handled in-house by HTA staff.
Kuhio Lewis, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement CEO, said in an email that CNHA's Kilohana Division currently leads the Destination Stewardship contract, which is separate from HTA's DMAPs, and that the capacity extends far beyond stewardship. However, Lewis said CNHA is ready to take on a larger role, including the DMAPS.
'At CNHA, we believe respectful collaboration and cultural understanding are essential to successful destination management. Our breadth of programming spans workforce development, cultural preservation, small business incubation, community resilience, and comprehensive economic advancement, all essential components of responsible tourism and long-term destination management, ' he said. 'These existing initiatives directly align with the goals outlined in the DMAPs and position CNHA as a natural and capable implementer.'
Lewis said CNHA's statewide membership network exceeds 1, 400 people and organizations and uniquely positions CNHA to engage community voices, amplify cultural values and ensure solutions are place-based and community-driven.
Caroline Anderson, interim HTA president and CEO, said at the HTA board meeting, 'I thank the auditors for conducting the audit and providing us with recommendations. We heard their findings and we took it all in. There are many things that they put in the report that we actually already are doing because we did our own audit last year. We are putting more metrics, milestones, targets into not only DMAPs, but also our strategic plan as well.'
Anderson acknowledged that HTA could improve and would take the auditor's findings seriously. Still, more than half a dozen people from across the state testified in favor of the DMAPs and questioned the findings, which some testifiers pointed out were inexplicably drawn without interviewing any of the DMAP workers.
Toni Marie Davis, executive director of the Activities & Attractions Association of Hawaii, who was on the DMAP for Maui, told the HTA board, 'I found this audit very different fro my experience on DMAPs. The group in DMAP was very diverse. We had very strong opinions on that committee, and we were able to get a lot done.'
'I found this very new to have it just be Maui-specific. Meagan DeGaia, who was our organizer /manager, did an excellent job, ' Davis said. 'I don't know how this audit came to the conclusions that they did. They never talked to me.'
Anderson said, 'It really means a lot to me to hear from you and to know that your efforts with us in DMAPs made a difference. The community wants to have a say in tourism, and that's what this effort did.'
DESTINATION MANAGEMENT EFFORTS FALL SHORT Key takeaways from the state Office of the Auditor's look into HTA's self-proclaimed 'destination management refocus ' included the following :—HTA's change in emphasis did not translate into substantively more money directed toward destination management over time.—Although HTA has been practicing destination management for years, it has yet to establish policies and procedures or complete organizational restructuring to support those efforts.—By omitting meaningful measures of effectiveness, HTA evades accountability for destination management efforts that have failed to achieve goals.—HTA did not report its underperformance of its current strategic plan goals, escaping scrutiny and avoiding accountability. The main audit criticisms of HTA's community-driven Destination Management Action Plans (DMAPs ) included the following points :—HTA's DMAPs were developed too fast and were implemented and monitored in an indiscriminate and nonsystematic way.—DMAPs are intended to 'rebuild, redefine, and reset ' tourism ; however, many of the actions had already been achieved, were well underway or were impracticable.—An HTA contractor hired to facilitate the DMAPs was not required to establish metrics to measure actions, classify the time period for actions or identify the agency responsible to carry out those actions.—HTA's DMAP tracker shows that few hot-spot activities were completed, and results took the form of meetings rather than mitigation.
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