Hawai’i Tourism Authority Issues RFPs for Destination Stewardship, Visitor Education, and U.S. Brand Management & Marketing

The Hawai’i Tourism Authority (HTA), the state agency responsible for holistically managing tourism and The Hawaiian Islands brand, has released two Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to procure brand management and marketing services for the United States, as well as support services for destination stewardship, reflecting HTA’s pivot toward destination management in pursuit of a regenerative model of tourism.

RFP 23-03: Hawaiʻi Tourism Destination Brand Management & Marketing Services for the U.S. Market

The focus of RFP 23-03 is brand management and marketing in the United States, Hawai’i’s largest visitor source market. The solicitation calls for a pre-arrival communications program to educate visitors with specific information about safe, respectful, and mindful travel that will be coordinated with HTA’s on-island programs to provide a seamless message throughout the entire visitor journey.

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Another key emphasis of the marketing will be to drive visitor spending into Hawai’i-based businesses as a means to support a healthy economy, including supporting local businesses, purchasing Hawaiʻi-grown agricultural products, and promoting Hawai’i-made products in-market in partnership with HTA, the state’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT), and the private sector.

This brand marketing will be targeted to mindful travelers with an emphasis on lifetime trip expenditures and increasing per person, per day expenditures in alignment with the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) established in HTA’s 2020 – 2025 Strategic Plan: increased average daily visitor spending, increased total visitor spending, increased visitor satisfaction, and increased resident sentiment toward tourism.

Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to register and participate in HTA’s pre-proposal conference via Zoom to be briefed on the procurement process and to ask questions. The pre-proposal conference will be held at 8:00 A.M. HST on February 21. Registration details are in the RFP document.

Interested applicants must register their intent to submit proposals by 4:30 P.M. HST on March 1. Proposals are due to HTA by 2:00 P.M. HST on March 30.

The U.S. Brand Management & Marketing contract will commence on June 1, 2023, offering a transition period from the current contract, and will end on December 31, 2025. The existing contract for this work is expected to end on June 30, 2023, subject to contract extension approval from the State Procurement Office.

SOURCE: PR Newswire