Promoting Obama
By B.J. Reyes
As you may have read in Richard Borreca’s column on Sunday, the Hawaii Tourism Authority plans to meet early next month to discuss whether the state should actively promote President-elect Barack Obama’s ties to Hawaii.
The city of Chicago already has tapped the incoming First Family in its new marketing slogan: “Experience the city the Obamas enjoy.”
While Gov. Linda Lingle stopped short of saying similar promotions would be a good use of Hawaii tourism dollars, she did say she believes the idea is worth discussing.
“Certainly it is a big deal that the president-elect went to school here in Hawaii — was born in Hawaii — and I know the Hawaii Tourism Authority is going to be addressing what, if anything, should be spent,”the Republican governor said today at a news conference. “I think the nature of their decision has to be not, are we proud because the president-elect is from Hawaii, but will the expenditure of public funds in the inaugural time period help us to attract more people to the state,
or are there other ways to do that further down the line separate from the inauguration.
“I think it’s something that has to be discussed and thought through. Separate from just the inauguration, are there things that we could be doing to highlight the fact that the new president is from our state and was born here? That’s something that I think marketing people need to have a real good discussion about.”
