Hotel Room Nights Are Key for Hawaii CC

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 8/8/2005

The Hawaii Tourism Authority in July approved a new method for the SMG-managed Hawaii Convention Center to measure its success: by the number of hotel room nights it generates, instead of its former strategy of calculating the number of events and attendees it attracted.

The center's 2006 goal is 700,000 room nights. Its previous annual goal was 34 events and 200,000 attendees, which was established when SMG took over the center's marketing contract from the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau in 2003.

Joe Davis, the venue's general manager, said the new way of measuring is "a clean, simple-to-understand approach," but "not a material departure."

"It's not so much the number of events," he said. "It's the quality."

Rex Johnson, HTA president and CEO, said the change was agreed to because "we just felt that it was a better way to measure the economic impact."

In 2004, the center hosted 40 events with more than 95,000 attendees, generating 675,970 room nights. The HCC is expected to hold 39 events with an estimated 109,000 attendees generating 872,000 room nights in 2005.

The HTA and HCC are also investigating their current formula for calculating convention visitor spending.

Also, the HTA on July 12 became an independent agency when Gov. Linda Lingle removed her office's oversight. Johnson dubbed the change part of "an ongoing process of efficiency and effectiveness."