2013-05-13 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes - May 13, 2013 Chair Sylvester: Any further discussion? Then move to the next item. - Special committee update on: 3. Update from the special committee on the Hawaii Visitor’s & Convention Bureau “Focus on Group Marketing” (Tom Lodge, Rob White, and Mark Bartell). T. Lodge: I talked to Stephanie Donoho at the \[unclear\] tourism. I think she’s with marketing here. She was pretty enthusiastic about, you know, trying to help us move forward with – primarily with marketing/hunting ah here and establishing some \[unclear\]. Parker Ranch also participated in that \[unclear\] because they would like to also help in promoting hunting here on the Big Island. She \[unclear\] the - which I did – I haven’t heard back from them – but the contact for Hawaii Forest Industry Association – they went through similar programs when they got started back in the late Eighties. They needed to establish some value for the forest industry here and she thought that we could get – learn some insight – or get some guidal \[sic\] insight as to how they went about getting credibility and now they’re a pretty well respected organization. So, we’ve made contact with them as well and I’ve emailed them – I haven’t been able to reach them by phone – so I’m just waiting back from them at the moment. That’s as far as I’ve gotten, so far. Chair Sylvester: Any discussion on that… M. Bartell: An update on my progress – I’ve worked with the charter captains or at least a handful of them at the harbor – had lots of discussions on the lack of visitors coming here to fish. They would tell me stories of ah – you know fishing thirty, forty, fifty, sixty days in a row and today I think a busy charter captain might get out a hundred days a year. And, they’re all pretty excited to actually work with us – in some shape or a form to actually promote the Kona Coast as a destination fishing opportunity. But, I mean people know it in the world – it’s just not a lot goes on to actually draw people in – and – so we’ve got some help from the captains there – I just need to follow-up with what Tom (Lodge) has done – and Tom – you and I need to probably talk – so get ‘em at the same time – on a way to actually I think – take advantage of the calm water and the big fish we have. 20