The Hawaii Tourism Authority is trying to cash in on the gold since surfing has been elevated to an Olympic sport for the 2020 games in Tokyo.
Historically, the state’s lead marketing agency has spent most of its $9.1 million sports budget on land-based events. However, the focus on surfing and water sports will ramp up as the games approach, said Leslie Dance, HTA’s vice president of marketing and product development. For starters, HTA and its marketing contractor, Hawaii Tourism Japan (HTJ), will ask Japan’s Olympic Committee to allow Hawaii to highlight surfing in the opening ceremony.
“It would be a great honor to bring all the surfers from all the teams together to celebrate the first time that surfing has been involved in the Olympics, ” said Eric Takahata, HTJ managing director. “We also want the members of the U.S. team, whoever they may be, to carry the message that surfing was born in Hawaii. We don’t know who will be on the U.S. surfing team, but we’re hoping that it will have a Hawaii presence either through the coach or a team member.”
Dance said the HTA had hoped Hawaii could host surfing trials, but has learned the 40 Olympic surfers might be selected by a point system instead of Olympic trials. HTA also expects Hawaii surfing will be promoted through local contenders like John John Florence and Carissa Moore, she said.
New York-based Ascendent Sports Group, which has a $200,000 marketing contract from HTA, is working with Dance to develop sports marketing for 2017-2018, which likely will include more water sports promotion than prior years. Additional support could come from HTA’s international marketing contractors, especially in Japan, where Olympic surfers will hit the waves in Chiba. Takahata said interest in the sport is high in Japan, which has an estimated 2 million surfers.
HTA’s Olympic push, which began in August when the International Olympic Committee added the sport, is the linchpin in a new strategy to grow tourism through surfing. HTA gave $150,000 to the amateur Hawaii Surfing Association contests and $200,000 to the Junior Lifeguard Program this year.
Aging surfing legends Buffalo Keaulana and George Downing were honored at the Hawaii Tourism Conference, marking the first time the sport was part of the tourism legacy awards.
Bitsy Kelley, vice president of corporate relations for Outrigger Enterprises Group, said surfers like Keaulana and Downing were key to the growth of Hawaii tourism. Their legacy continues to deliver the authentic visitor experience that today’s generation of travelers seeks, Kelley said.
“Surfing is now a recognized Olympic sport. That’s happening at the same time that visitors are looking for new experiences,” she said. “More than ever, the ocean is key to people coming to Hawaii. It’s our No. 1 physical asset. You can surf year-round on every island, and everyone can do it, although some people will just sit on boards and others will go extreme.”
With proper investment, Kelley contends surfing could become a core market for Hawaii. Others who see potential are Randy Rarick, co-founder of the Hawaii-based Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, and Jodi Wilmott, World Surf League (WSL) Hawaii/Tahiti general manager.
To date, HTA has not made water sports a priority. Through 2017 only seven out of 27 HTA-funded or partially funded sporting events will be water-based. The agency turned down a roughly $2 million sponsorship proposal from the Santa Monica, Calif.-based World Surf League.
HTA spent much of its sports marketing budget on a controversial $5.3 million National Football League contract to host the Pro Bowl, which has moved to Orlando, Fla., for the next few years.
“Hawaii is one of the only markets in the world where the World Surf League stages top-level Championship Tour events but has so far not achieved success in their efforts to partner with the local tourism bureau,” Wilmott said.
The professional surfing tour began in Hawaii 40 years ago, and only last month opened its first official WSL Hawaii headquarters. The 1,900-square-foot facility provides WSL with office and educational space in the North Shore Marketplace.
Wilmott said Hawaii’s financial support to WSL lags surf destinations like Australia, Brazil, Portugal and Tahiti. She wants to see more funds, given that Fortune.com has forecast the surf industry will hit $13 billion next year.
The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing alone generates more than $10.9 million in direct spending and $20.9 million of indirect spending, said Rarick, citing a 2011 Brigham Young University study. George Kam, Quiksilver’s ambassador of aloha, said last year’s Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational drew 100 million TV and online views. The event was produced by WSL.
Dance called WSL’s proposal “cost-prohibitive” but said HTA will meet with WSL to explore further opportunities.
“We really do love surfing and support it from a community level and professional level in many ways — just not in a major way, not millions of dollars,” she said.
Dance said the HTA has put $400,000 of its former Pro Bowl funds into a sports opportunity fund. The rest of the Pro Bowl millions were shifted to broadly attract North America, Japan and developing markets, she said. But it will be 2018 before any major investments are added, Dance said.
Kam, who also is an HTA board member, said more money is needed to promote water sports in Hawaii — either from HTA or corporations. Kam prefers HTA fund programs that “strengthen the community,” serving as a “direct nexus to creating Hawaii’s future surfing Olympians.”
Unless HTA gets lead credit, Kam said corporate sponsors are a better fit, and there’s no shortage of possibilities. For instance, Quiksilver is seeking another sponsorship after failing to reach terms with the Aikau family on this year’s Eddie, he said.
“Quiksilver made more than a $1 million investment just in operating costs for the last Eddie. Everything that we put into it, we at least want to put that much back into the surfing community and the ocean,” he said. “Other surf companies like Vans and Billabong have a vested interest in investing in Hawaii, too.”