The mass resignation of the Hawai’i Tourism Authority board earlier this month represents more than damage control. It is a rare opportunity to rebuild one of the state’s most important agencies from the ground up.

After years of financial missteps, procurement controversies, and leadership chaos culminating in lawmakers declaring, “Houston, we have a problem.” Hawaiʻi finally has a chance to create a tourism authority that is responsive to community needs, not just visitor demand.

The problems are well documented. They include an $80,000 lūʻau buried in the LA Rams marketing contract, $780,000 in interest charges on late payments to contractors, and a pattern of removing agenda items to avoid bad press.

Meaningful reform, however, cannot stop at personnel changes. The HTA’s structural issues call for deeper scrutiny into how we govern tourism in Hawai’i, especially at a time when the stakes have never been higher.

Governor Green and the Legislature have restructured the board into an advisory body with Senate-confirmed appointments. While this may improve accountability, it risks politicizing tourism policy if not handled with care. To safeguard balance, appointees should reflect diverse expertise, including cultural practitioners, environmental scientists, local business owners, and tourism workers.

This is not just about who gets appointed. It’s also about how we define qualification and ensure appointees are independent from political influence. These appointments should be protected by statutory expertise requirements, conflict-of-interest rules, and removal-for-cause protections.

More importantly, any reformed HTA must operate with clear, public metrics for success. Tourism is not just about arrival numbers. It is about quality of life for residents, protection of cultural heritage, and the resilience of local infrastructure.

A restructured HTA should publicly report on environmental impacts, community satisfaction, and equitable economic outcomes. These metrics should guide both marketing strategy and budget decisions.

Have Clear ‘Deliverables’

Fiscal controls also need to be strengthened immediately. The LA Rams contract and hidden costs in outreach agreements have shown what happens when procurement outpaces oversight. A reformed HTA should adopt a public-facing contract tracker with timelines, benchmarks and clear deliverables. Every major contract should include community impact assessments.

Transparency is not optional. It is foundational to rebuild public trust.

It is also time to re-center the purpose of tourism in Hawai’i. For too long, the narrative has revolved around economic recovery and visitor counts. However, this moment invites a different question: Who should tourism really serve? A reimagined HTA can help shift the frame from extraction to stewardship, from promotion to protection.

This is not anti-tourism. It is responsible tourism, grounded in the values that make Hawai’i worth visiting in the first place.

There will be pressure to move quickly, to fill seats and return to business as usual. Yet this moment calls for something more: humility, reflection, and genuine public dialogue. Residents deserve not just transparency, but a say in how their home is portrayed and promoted to the world.

Structural change is hard. When done well, it can help restore confidence not just in one agency, but in the public institutions meant to serve us all.

The HTA’s crisis is also its opportunity. It can become a model for how Hawai‘i can balance economic needs with community values, and how good governance can emerge from dysfunction.