The Hawaii State Auditor today released a report on the Hawaii Tourism Authority stating that tourism marketing would benefit from improved plans, reporting and oversight.

“We found that HTA’s ‘marketing plan’ is nearly 600 pages, spread
across more than a dozen documents, and falls short of statutory requirements,” according to the audit. “Monitoring HTA’s progress against measures of effectiveness required reviewing even more documents and was slowed by missing targets, outdated benchmarks, and a lack of analysis by the authority.”

The auditor advised that the HTA could do with better monitoring of its marketing contracts: “Without improved contract monitoring, HTA cannot ensure contractors are held accountable for the use of those taxpayer funds. The HTA’s lack of policies, procedures, and training and its incomplete contract files are troubling since we found similar problems in our 2002 report.”

The HTA responded that it appreciated the feedback and did not disagree with nor dispute any of the findings.

Photo: View from the Hawaii Convention Center. (jdnx)

—Chad Blair