KAHULUI - When it comes to promoting tourism to Hawaii, President Barack Obama gives with one hand, but he takes away with the other.
At a presentation by the Hawaii Tourism Authority on Thursday, Caroline Anderson, who coordinates marketing in Europe, said the "Obama effect" has been positive.
"Europeans are now seeing it as politically correct to travel to the U.S.," she told an audience of about 60 Maui visitor industry managers at the Elleaire Rainbow Room.
Obama curiosity helps in Asia, too, where Obama trinkets, like chopsticks, are popular.
However, Obama has not been so helpful to Neil Mullanaphy, whose job is marketing the island of Oahu to groups using the Hawai'i Convention Center. He said he has to grapple with the "boondoggle effect."
Public outrage about corporations taking bailout money and also sending people to exotic retreats has spilled over to Hawaii, and the president didn't help by piling on.
Mullanaphy said that even though Obama later said he wasn't criticizing the resorts themselves, Mullanaphy said businesses are wary about having events at alluring locations. The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau has reacted by reassigning its marketer, who used to specialize in corporate meetings.
The picture given by the HTA regional managers was of a market that is being pulled in pieces by contradictory forces.
Take South Korea. The visa waiver is expected to double traffic to Hawaii, but the fall of the won relative to the dollar makes a vacation here 40 percent more expensive than it was six months ago.
In Europe, the drop in the pound works against Hawaii tourism, but on the continent, the strength of the euro works in its favor.
HTA Marketing Director David Uchiyama says the all-important airlift situation looks better.
US Airways, which has been flying twice daily to Maui and once daily to Kauai, will double that toward the end of the second quarter.
South Korean carriers are thinking about starting the first direct charter flights to Hawaii, and other airlines are expressing interest.
But the most exciting single marketing ploy on the table this year is the attempt to sell Hawaii as a location for episodes in a Korean drama. This is still in the talking stage, but Korean dramas are huge across Asia and HTA is eager to publicize the islands in one of them, according to HTA officials.
* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.
