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Tourism is everyone’s business in Hawaii, no matter if you’re employed in that industry or not. Tourism is the lifeline for the Aloha State.
Chris Tatum is the CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the State agency in charge of the largest industry here, travel and tourism.
COVID-19 became a threat to Hawaii’s visitor’s industry in March 2020, and in June 2020 Chris decided to retire and move with his family to Colorado.
His last board meeting at HTA is scheduled for August 27 and Chris will take some vacation dates to get out of Hawaii early.
Ever since March the phone system at HTA and also at HVCB (The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau) only goes to voicemails, and voicemail boxes are mostly full and never acted on. Emails are not responded to, and a complete breakdown in communication is preventing good and potential initiatives to be made impossible
Mufi Hannemann is the head of the Hawaii Lodging Tourism Association and former mayor of Honolulu. In the midst of COVID-19 he decided to leave tourism and was running for election. He wanted to become a mayor again but recently lost big time. Running for mayor is a full time job, and it shows and explains his non-responsiveness.
Daniel Chung is one out of 12 board members of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. He did talk to eTurboNews host Juergen Steinmetz and remains the only one out of 12 HTA board members to do so.
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