New From Hawaii: Fresh-Cut Prices

For a quarter of a century, the elegant Mauna Kea Beach Hotel has never needed to lure guests at this time of year. Well-heeled travelers happily flocked to the secluded resort, one of Hawaii’s finest.

Not this year. Slapped by the Persian Gulf War and the recession, the exclusive hotel on the Big Island’s Kohala Coast has been forced to take drastic action. For the first time ever, it has dropped its rates in the peak season.

And the Mauna Kea is hardly alone. Across this island chain, hoteliers are taking radical measures to try to tempt back vacationers who have been sitting out this season.

“We are in for a very, very tough time,” Adi Kohler, Mauna Kea’s longtime general manager, said with a sigh. “I don’t think Hawaii has ever gone through a situation like this. A situation like this needs a special response.”

That response is good news for consumers. At Mauna Kea, which boasts a museum-quality art collection and spectacular golf, rooms that started at $250 a night are now available for $200. The second room booked under its “Family and Friends Getaway” receives a $75 discount; the third, $100 off the going rate.

While that’s not exactly cheap, other hotels are cooking up similar deals. ITT Sheraton Hawaii Hotels, from the lush Hotel Hana-Maui to the lovingly restored Moana Surfrider in Waikiki, are offering visitors who book three nights a fourth night free. The offer is good on reservations made through travel agents, and applies through May 31.

Sheraton has also put in effect “Value Line” rates, steeply discounting available oceanfront rooms. At the historic Moana, a room overlooking Waikiki Beach that normally fetches $240 can be had for $155. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the “Pink Palace of the Pacific,” is offering $350-a-night rooms for $195.

“For somebody who’s got mileage credits to burn, it’s a hell of a value,” said Peter Jenkins, director of communications for ITT Sheraton Hotels Hawaii-Japan.

The state’s largest innkeeper, Outrigger Hotels Hawaii, is promoting “Instant Stress Relief,” giving a free rental car to hotel guests staying at regular rates, starting at $60 a night. The Hilton Hawaiian Village has priced rooms in its Rainbow Tower--which go as high as $275--at $149 a night including breakfast. The Coco Palms Resort on Kauai will give families two rooms for the $199 price of one, plus a free rental car and a $50 food credit. Most of the specials are good until December.

When the Gulf War first broke out, Hawaii’s tourism industry hesitated to come on strong with sales pitches for fear they would seem insensitive. But as occupancies slipped to less than 70%--at a time when Hawaii hotels are usually full--managers realized they didn’t have much choice. “You just can’t sit back and wait,” said Jenkins. “You’ve got to do something.”

The state had been slow to feel the effects of the recession, thanks to strong Japanese traffic. Although the number of U.S. and Canadian visitors began leveling off last November and dropped 11% in December from the previous year’s period, Japanese tourists more than made up for it. Hawaii finished the year 5% ahead of its record-breaking number of visitor arrivals in 1989.

But the reprieve didn’t last long.

When the war started, the bottom fell out of the Japanese market. Shokei Arai, a member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, helped trigger a wave of cancellations among his countrymen. “We should ban trips to Hawaii,” Arai told colleagues in Parliament in late January. “At a time when young Americans and Europeans are shedding blood, many of our Japanese youth are heading abroad on package tours.”

As if on cue, the number of tourists from Asia sank 27% in February over the year-earlier period, according to the Hawaii Visitors Bureau. Meanwhile, traffic from North America was down 18%. “We’ve been riding the bottom for a while now and I see nothing that says we’re not going to ride it for a while longer,” said Joe Collins, HVB vice president of market research. “It (traffic) will come back, but it will come back slowly.”

In an effort to speed that up, the HVB launched a $1.5-million advertising blitz Feb. 24, an anti-recessionary effort that was planned before the war. It also is seeking $6 million from the state legislature for emergency TV advertising designed to reverse the war’s effects.

The slide in tourists is cause for alarm to the state as a whole, which depends heavily on tourism. The double whammy of the recession and the Gulf conflict affects not only hotels, but spin-off businesses as well.

Judging from advance bookings, the HVB has estimated that Hawaii will lose $450 million from January through April in visitor spending on hotels, food, entertainment, clothing, etc.

And the drop in Japanese visitors hits the economy especially hard because they spend so much more than their U.S. counterparts--a whopping $589 per person per day as compared to $129, according to the HVB. Hawaii Gov. John Waihee has already paid a call on the Japanese ambassador in Washington, pleading with him to encourage travel to Hawaii, and plans to travel to Japan soon to make a personal pitch.

Local residents are being asked to do their bit as well. The Hawaii Visitors Bureau has urged people to call acquaintances and invite them to visit, and it has prepared packets to promote Hawaii. So don’t be surprised to get a call from a long-lost friend or a kit in the mail.

Tourism managers contend that this is the best time to come to Hawaii. The crush of visitors that normally crowds the islands this season is gone. Sunbathers can stretch out on the sand of Waikiki Beach without bumping into anyone. And prices are lower all around. Aikane Catamaran Cruises, for example, is offering from 20% to 50% discounts on its dinner and snorkel cruises.

Along with the published specials, wholesalers have deals available at the discretion of travel agents, so customers may be able to bargain. It doesn’t hurt to push for free upgrades to better rooms or other perks when making reservations.

“It’s really an ideal time for the consumer in terms of what they can get, the variety of things they can do and the value for their dollar,” said Ken Phillips, spokesman for Westlake Village-based Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, the largest tour packager to Hawaii.