Officials vote no on cutting Hawaii County tourism promotion
May 24, 2021
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KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) — Some Big Island officials questioned the need to pump money into tourism promotion, but a measure to reallocate budget funds was voted down.
The issue came up at a county council budget meeting last week, West Hawaii Today reported Monday.
North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba was concerned that other areas of Hawaii County's $609.1 million budget were being neglected. Inaba proposed removing $359,000 from the Department of Research and Development’s $459,000 line item for tourism promotion contract services.
“I feel that this money could be better used elsewhere,” Inaba said. “We have goals that state that tourism is compatible with historic and natural resources. That it’s not intrusive on our local communities, that it helps to strengthen private, public and international partnerships and makes us a resilient community," Inaba said. "And I don’t believe that to be true, as we’ve seen over the last year. With tourism gone, we were in the hole.”