WAIKAPU - The new visitor industry marketing campaign is just beginning to reach the public, but in test views on the Mainland, the reaction has been just what was hoped for, Maui Visitors & Convention Bureau Executive Director Terryl Vencl told the Maui Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
The campaigns - one for each island - are based on a sort of "gotcha." One for Maui shows a young couple walking down a beach. A label identifies them as "Joe and Leah Kent, married 47 years."
It takes a second for viewers to catch the joke, but then "I see smiles, I see heads nodding," Vencl told about two dozen people at a breakfast meeting at the Maui Tropical Plantation.
The idea is to have potential visitors "captured by the images, then talk to their partner and say, 'What is this?' "
The Molokai and Lanai campaigns will begin toward the end of the year.
Vencl discussed marketing strategies in a year that started out strong but has turned problematic. Total visitor spending through August is up 15 percent on Maui to $2.1 billion, and up 27.8 percent on Lanai to $59 million. It is down 1.4 percent to $18 million on Molokai.
Per-person-per-day spending is up 10.5 percent on Maui to $180.30 (not counting airfare), and up 15.4 percent on Lanai to $323.20. It is down 6.2 percent on Molokai to $108.30.
But visitor numbers, while still positive for the year, have been trending down since April, and the worrisome international and national economic situation foretells problems ahead, Vencl said.
She predicted over the next two years that increased airlift will stimulate visitor arrivals from Japan, China and especially South Korea. But the marketing focus has been on the most productive North American locations with the best air service to Maui: New York; Toronto; Denver; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Calgary, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia; San Diego; Orange County, Calif.; Los Angeles; and San Francisco.
Those are the places the visitors bureau has planned "blitzes" with its marketing tour, she said.
In the question period, Vencl was reminded of the lousy weather much of the Mainland has been having and was asked if the bureau is flexible enough to take advantage of that by reminding cold, hot or wet Mainlanders how nice it is here.
"Yes," she said. Two of the best marketing tools the bureau has are the Internet sites Weatherbug and Weather.com.
"We love the Internet," Vencl said, because it is so easy to redeploy advertisements, compared to magazines, newspapers, radio and television.
* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.
