THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE INIKI : Hawaii Fears $250-Million Tourism Loss : Economy: Kauai normally accounts for about 10% of the state’s travel income. But the ‘Garden Island’ suffered heavy damage.

When Hurricane Iniki swept through the popular resort island of Kauai on Friday night, it leveled buildings, severed communications and may have blown away travel promoters’ chances of boosting Hawaii’s already sagging tourism industry.

Hawaii could lose $250 million of tourism revenue projected for the remainder of the year, Paul Lawler, spokesman for the Honolulu-based Hawaii Visitors Bureau, said Saturday. That would be a major blow to the state’s leading industry, which has already been hurt by the sluggish national economy. Nearly half of all jobs in the state are tourism related.

Known as Hawaii’s “Garden Island” because of its lush terrain and exotic scenery, Kauai generates about one-tenth of Hawaii’s $10 billion in annual tourism revenue. The storm has prompted many travel agencies to suspend bookings to Kauai.

The state’s ability to make up for losses caused by Iniki on Kauai depends on how successful travel promoters are in luring more visitors to the Hawaiian islands less affected by the storm, Lawler said.

“Obviously, we’re concerned about impact on tourism,” he said, noting that Kauai has one-tenth of the 74,000 hotel rooms in the state. “About 90% of the tourist facilities will continue to operate but we’re worried because Kauai has been our third-most popular tourist draw.”

Although tourism has remained stable this year on the island of Oahu--the leading Hawaiian tourist destination--it had dropped dramatically on Kauai, Maui and the other less-populated Hawaiian islands even before Iniki struck. Overall, tourism in the Hawaiian islands dropped 5% during the first eight months of 1992, compared to the same period a year ago.

Ironically, the hurricane hit about one month after the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, a nonprofit group financed by that state and some tourism businesses, launched a $3-million promotional campaign primarily designed to encourage travelers to consider Kauai and the other lesser known islands--not just the popular Oahu, where Honolulu is located. The trade group bought print and television advertising in 18 U.S. cities, Lawler said.

Kauai was a linchpin of the campaign. The island has traditionally drawn thousands of tourists in the fall from the U.S. mainland, Australia and Japan. Typically, the peak travel periods for tourism for most of the islands are the summer months of July and August and the winter months of December and January.

Kauai is known for Lumahai Beach, a film site for movies such as “From Here to Eternity” and “South Pacific.” It also has the popular tourist attraction, Waimea Canyon, known as the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific.”

Lawler said the visitors bureau is preparing a videotape to be distributed to television news departments in mainland states. It will stress that most of Hawaii was not devastated by Iniki, he said.

Hawaii tourism officials are particularly targeting California, which accounts for 30% of tourism from the mainland. Already this year, visits from California have slowed because of the severity of economic problems here.

It could be at least a week before some travel agents consider booking trips to Kauai.

“We had a couple of calls from people wanting to book reservations,” said Clara Sanchez, an agent at Hawaiian Air-Sea Holidays in Los Angeles. “We told them we are not making reservations and that we would like to wait at least a week to determine the extent of the damage.”

Some agencies are already contemplating refunds for air and hotel packages for Kauai scheduled in the near future.

“We’ll talk to our customers to determine if they would like to visit another island in Hawaii,” said Jesus Poot, manager of Hawaii’s Airline Reservations, a Los Angeles travel agency. “But we’re willing to refund Kauai trips. It’s only fair.”

Before Iniki struck, forecasters said it could be much more destructive than Hurricane Iwa, a weaker storm that caused $216 million in damage to Hawaii in November, 1982, with Kauai and Niihau taking the worst punishment. Some bed-and-breakfast operators in Kauai were still trying to recover from losses of that disaster when Iniki struck.