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Major wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui have killed dozens, causing severe damage and thousands to flee – a harsh blow to a tourism-dependent economy. But there is hope people’s livelihoods can be restored, writes hospitality and tourism research professor Rich Harrill from University of South Carolina.

Compared to other destinations, Hawaii is very reliant on tourism – it comprises about 25% of the state’s economy. According to the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, visitor spending was projected to be US$20.8bn in 2023 and US$23.4bn in 2026.

Tourism plays an even greater role on Maui. Maui County has the state’s highest reliance on tourism, with 51% of its jobs falling into sectors directly associated with tourism. That means household incomes and purchasing power there are strongly influenced by the tourism economy.

What are the main steps that tourist-related businesses on Maui will have to take in the coming days and weeks?

The first step any business owner should take is to ensure that their business opens in line with all state protocols and laws related to the safety, health and welfare of residents and visitors.

In the short term, the top priorities are helping visitors get flights home, handling cancellations and assessing damage to facilities and property. Then, in the weeks that follow, businesses will clean up and make repairs. They will have various aid sources, including the county, state and federal governments, nonprofits and private insurers.

As we saw during the Covid-19 shutdowns, downtime can give business owners an opportunity to reflect on their product or service and how they market it. Some business owners decided to close up shop and retire. Others redoubled their efforts to accommodate the post-pandemic rebound in visitor demand.

Maui is asking visitors to leave and to delay planned trips – will a lot of tourism-related jobs be lost?

Individual businesses and corporations may offer some types of worker protection. But historically, many jobs in the tourist sector get cut in the short term when a crisis shuts down business. Then, as conditions improve, companies gradually hire employees back.

How do local governments decide when to start inviting visitors back?

This is a process that’s led by groups known in the travel industry as destination marketing and management organisations. They often have names like tourist boards, or convention and visitors bureaus, and they help promote and market local attractions.

Working with their local destination marketing organisation, local governments should make decisions carefully about inviting visitors back. First and foremost, they need to consider the health, safety and welfare of everyone who’s involved – residents, visitors and hospitality providers. All of those groups should be involved in the decision, and it needs to be communicated through carefully crafted marketing messages to reach globally diverse audiences.

Once the needs of the community and its residents have been met, a new marketing campaign takes place that typically presents a revitalised destination that is open and ready for visitors. This message may emphasize new and improved aspects of the destination, or simply show that its beloved and iconic qualities are still there to enjoy. That includes making sure that transportation is available to reach the destination and that there’s quality lodging and dining readily available for all price points.

In your experience, does interest in top destinations like Hawaii usually bounce back to pre-disaster levels?

Globally, tourism revenues are projected to grow by almost 5% yearly through 2027. Unlike other forms of economic development, travel and tourism have shown resilience through many different types of crises.

Even destinations that have been massively damaged can regain their markets, although rebuilding may be a multi-year process. New Orleans was a major destination within a decade after it was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. The same was true for the Hawaiian island of Kauai after Hurricane Iniki ravaged it in 1992.

Tourism is an experience that is unique to the human condition. It sustains our hopes and dreams, and offers relaxation and tranquillity, or excitement and adventure, through good times and bad.

Rich Harrill is research professor of hospitality and tourism and director of the International Tourism Research Institute at the University of South Carolina.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The ‘I NY’ logo was launched in the 1970s when New York City was at its grittiest and most dangerous. Since then graphic designer Milton Glaser’s creation has been emblazoned on every kind of souvenir imaginable, not to mention inspiring movies, clothing, graffiti and even food.

More than 50 years later, New York has just updated its iconic branding – not for the first time – to say ‘We NYC’ as part of an attempt to revitalise the city after Covid lockdowns.

And while lots of people hate the rebrand, it still reflects the intent behind the much-loved original logo. These days it’s hard to argue that the brand hasn’t done the job of communicating exactly how New Yorkers – and many tourists – feel about the city.

Indeed, unlike the kind of brand advertising created for a product, this campaign was never designed to sell anything, but to communicate a feeling about the city by its people. And if people feel more positive about a city or an area, they will be more ready to help improve it.

Such campaigns are developed as part of a branding process used to whip up feelings about a place. These so-called “place branding” efforts can gather communities around whichever ideas matter most to these people, whether they are social, economic, or even environmental.

Developing a place brand can be complex and challenging, but also immensely rewarding. It can involve government, companies and society in general. It can include events, ideas and investments focused on winning over visitors, residents and investors – all to help social community and local businesses thrive and grow.

‘People Make Glasgow’ is an example of a flexible place brand that can be associated with a wide range of assets and activities. But this kind of brand doesn’t have to convey a straight, positive message about an area, town or city, it can also be connected to specific challenges.

More recent attempts at branding a location have aimed to galvanise communities to work together to create and communicate a shared identity – not just right now, but also in the future. In many cases, this includes highlighting challenges such as the impact of climate change.

Using branding to inspire support

As climate change increasingly affects areas in different ways, communities are starting to use place branding to help address specific environmental challenges. This makes sense since people tend to be attached to where they live, and communities often seek ways to act locally to work against or mitigate the effects of climate change.

‘Inspired by Iceland’ is a good example of this. The country launched a “premium tap water” brand in 2019 to encourage residents and visitors to go plastic-free while in Iceland by drinking its tap water.

Integrating climate-related issues into the branding process communicates to everyone – including tourists, investors, residents and public and private sector bodies – that climate action is a priority. It shows that it’s integral to local identity and discourse, as residents seek to protect their home’s environmental features.

Place branding may also affect local or even national government policy making. This is what happened in Palau, a Micronesian island in the western Pacific. In 2017 its government started to require all visitors to sign a pledge to be “ecologically and culturally responsible” before they could set foot in the country.

The Faroe Islands in the north Atlantic, took a slightly different approach in 2019 by declaring itself “closed for maintenance, open for voluntourism”. This initiative was used by islanders and local businesses to promote community cohesion. It also offers tourists a unique chance to connect with the core values of the country.

Adapting to new challenges

Most places are limited in their ability to adapt to challenges such as climate change. Unlike residents, local businesses and tourists, a city or country can’t relocate itself. Instead, an area must adapt, which can become a multifaceted and politically challenging process simply due to the range of people and organisations involved. Diverse community needs and imbalances of power held by public and private sector organisations only add to the challenge.

In reality, even though place branding is very much about community cohesion, diverse communities are not necessarily equally involved in the decision-making process. It’s important to recognise that initiatives – whether national, regional, or local – can only go so far, and policy-led change is also required, especially when dealing with challenges such as environmental degradation.

Place branding has become a useful tool to accompany such policies. People can also become quite attached to these brands. Indeed, rather than any reluctance to help the city face new challenges, the opposition to the ‘We NYC’ update shows the strength of feeling for the city and perhaps even for its brand.

Sonya Hanna is a lecturer in marketing at Bangor University, UK, and Thora Tenbrink is a professor of linguistics, also at Bangor University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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The airline said on Friday that it expected to resume its existing service to Auckland from Los Angeles at the end of October – slightly later than the early October start date that had been slated.

It suspended flights to New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Europe and South America in mid-March.

The carrier’s planned new services to Auckland from Dallas Fort Worth, Texas, and Christchurch from Los Angeles, which were to begin in October 2020, would now start in the New Zealand summer of 2020-21.

The new schedule means the airline had suspended more than 60% of its total international capacity this northern hemisphere summer, compared with the same peak period in 2019.

This includes an 80% reduction in Pacific capacity, 65% reduction in Atlantic capacity and 48% reduction in Latin America capacity.

“These changes are due to significantly decreased customer demand as well as government travel restrictions — both related to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic,” said the carrier.

American Airlines Group was the world’s largest airline by fleet size, passengers carried and revenue passenger mile in 2019, although fellow US carrier, Delta, was the largest by revenue coming in at US$44.9bn ahead of Americans US$44.5bn.

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