A bill allowing the Hawaii Tourism Authority to “maintain the confidentiality of competitively sensitive information” became law on May 12.

Put another way, authority members can now talk about spending more than $50 million in taxpayer dollars behind closed doors.

HTA President and CEO Mike McCartney argues the law that came from Senate Bill 2187 is “necessary for Hawaii to maintain its competitive advantage as a visitor destination.”

The Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association and other visitor industry players agree, saying that Mexico, Las Vegas, the Caribbean and other leisure destination competitors could use Hawaii’s strategies to lure travelers away. State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert also supported the bill, which zipped through the Legislature with little objection from lawmakers.

Marketing decisions by the HTA make up the bulk of the $71 million budget, funded by the state’s Transient Accommodations Tax. Those decisions are eventually made public through the ads that show up in key Hawaii tourism markets like California. Hawaii’s competitors already know this, so why the big push for secrecy?

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