Kauai Targeting Incentives With Air, Hotel Developments

<B>Kauai Targeting Incentives With Air, Hotel Developments</B>

By Judy Jacobs

Kauai now is able to play a more active role in the meetings and incentives market, thanks to additional airlift, increased funding and efforts by the Kauai Visitors Bureau, and the entry of Radisson Hotels into the market.

The additional airlift will arrive Oct. 31, when United Airlines begins daily San Francisco-Lihue service using B757 aircraft. The carrier currently flies that route twice a week. The new flights will add nearly 1,000 seats on the route, which currently has the highest load factors of any of United's flights between the mainland and Hawaii.

"San Francisco-Lihue's load factors are the highest, always in the 90s, because it operates only twice a week," said Norm Reader, the carrier's managing director of Hawaii.

The new service will help Kauai increase its share of the meetings and incentive business. "Getting direct service adds to convenience and cost and will put us more firmly on the meetings and incentives map," said Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kauai Visitors Bureau. "Convenience is first and foremost in the minds of that market."

Along with the new air service comes a major boost in efforts by the Kauai Visitors Bureau to attract the meetings and incentives business, efforts made possible by a nearly tenfold increase in the bureau's marketing budget. That increase comes as the result of extra funds made available to the various tourism bureaus through the Hawaii Tourist Authority, a government body that was established last year to increase tourism to the islands.

"This is the first year we've had a significant budget for the meetings and incentives market. Our marketing budget went from $30,000 last year to $294,000 this year," said Kanoho. The Kauai Visitors Bureau plans to use this money to conduct a California road show, targeting the corporate market, in October. The island's big players in that market will visit several cities in California to meet with corporate travel and meeting planners.

The bureau also is planning to host a DMC Mahalo party, which will bring between 25 and 30 destination management company executives in December to brief them on what Kauai can offer their clients.

Meanwhile, in early April Radisson took over the Outrigger Kauai Beach, renaming it the Radisson Kauai Beach. After a $10 million renovation, scheduled for completion by Oct. 15, the hotel is expected to be ready for the meetings and incentives market. "We're going to take it from a three-star to a four-star property," said Tom Bartlett, the hotel's director of sales.

The renovation will cover the lobby, public areas and all guest rooms and add several new facilities, including a sandy beach pool and a fitness center with massage facilities. "We have 10,000 square feet of indoor meeting space and plan to work with the Kauai Marriott to attract larger meetings and incentives. "It has tons of meeting space but doesn't have the guest rooms to complement that meeting space, since half of its rooms are timeshares," Bartlett said.

Although the two properties complement each other, they are not adjacent properties. "It's still a unique situation, since we're a mile away from each other," said Tim Pyne, the Kauai Marriott's director of sales. "With the Radisson's renovation, however, we can work more closely with them."

Meanwhile, the Radisson still is developing its own meetings and incentives market. "Right now, we're getting mostly associations. Corporate groups are waiting to see how the hotel shapes up, but we expect that market to come once the renovation is complete," said Bartlett. "We expect meetings and incentives to contribute 30 percent of our occupancy by spring."

In addition to renovated facilities, the hotel is adding services, such as a complimentary cocktail hour and an evening torch lighting show. The Radisson's high tech capabilities include T-1 lines and 60 of its guest rooms have high-speed dataports. Each room has Internet access through the television set, so guests can access e-mail without having to bring their laptops.

While the Radisson adds another player to pursue Kauai's meetings and incentives market, the island's other major hotels also are seeing more potential and improving their facilities to attract more of this business.

In January, the Sheraton Kauai will begin a two-year, $13 million renovation project, which will cover the Garden Wing guest rooms and the meeting facilities. Work on the ballroom will take place in June and July 2001.

"The ballroom needs to be updated. Once we do these final touches, we expect the meetings segment to get stronger," said Pattie Herman, the Sheraton Kauai's director of sales. She also expects an improvement in the incentives market. "This is our third year of operations, and incentives is the last segment that flourishes. This year we're targeting 2 percent of our business to be incentives and 20 percent meetings."

Another hotel to improve its facilities, the Princeville Resort, just completed a $3 million renovation, which concentrated on public areas and guest rooms. The property continues to be strong in the meetings and incentives market. "Twenty-five percent of our business is groups, and the majority of the group market is incentives, corporate meetings and continuing medical education," said Rod Lau, director of sales.

Corporate meetings and incentives also play an important role in the market mix of the Hyatt Regency Kauai, where they make up 60 percent of the resort's group business. A key element of the hotel's success with this market is its spa. "We've had a spa from day one. While other Hyatt's like Waikiki and Maui are just putting them in, we've always had one," said Katy Britzmann, the hotel's director of sales. "The spa continues to be a big hit with incentive groups. It's becoming a must for hotels to have a spa if they want to attract that market.