Hotel makes money

By PETER SUR

Tribune-Herald staff writer

The Naniloa Volcanoes Resort has taken in $17.6 million in revenue through the end of 2010, statements filed with the Department of Land and Natural Resources show.

The year-to-year figures vary with the national economy and reflect visitor uncertainty in the depths of the recession.

For the last 11 months of 2006, the Naniloa took in $4.1 million, $3.3 million of which came from its rooms.

Revenue increased in 2007 to $4.3 million, in what turned out to be the peak of the economic bubble.

In 2008, the ongoing renovations and the recession shrunk room revenue to $2.7 million. Strong business from the restaurant and the golf course helped the Naniloa post $3.7 million in revenue for that year, but the economic picture worsened the following year.

The Naniloa hit bottom in 2009, netting just $2.2 million in rooms and total revenue of $2.9 million.

In 2010, the last year for which data are available, the resort recorded a slight uptick to $3.3 million. Of that amount, $2.6 million came from hotel rooms.

Ken Fujiyama, whose Hawaii Outdoor Tours owns the lease on the hotel and golf course, said things were on the upswing in 2011 until the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. Arrivals from Japan fell, but numbers are coming back.

Wholesalers who were reluctant to steer their clients toward a hotel undergoing perpetual renovation are coming back.

“It’s actually on a rise,” Fujiyama said of bookings. “I would say from late last year to now, we’re about 25 to 30 percent more in our reservations.” He’s trying to tap the elusive Chinese market.

The Hilo businessman says it’s difficult to gauge occupancy rates because that number varies so much during the week.

There’s a bigger issue at play, he said. Fujiyama has a fundamental disagreement with the Big Island Visitors Bureau, from which he resigned a year ago, and which he said is making a major mistake by marketing to the wrong kind of visitor.

“I think (Hilo) is not getting its fair share from the market share … and even more so from our local visitors bureau,” he said.

Fujiyama said the BIVB shortchanges East Hawaii when it refers in publications to “rainy Hilo” versus “sunny Waikoloa.”

Granted, those are accurate descriptions, but he said it ignores the point that some people might want to visit a tropical rainforest setting. The Naniloa prefers to do its own marketing, independent of the visitors bureau.

BIVB head George Applegate could not be reached for comment.

“If he (Applegate) worked for me, I would fire him,” Fujiyama said.

Doug Arnott, a longtime BIVB member, came to Applegate’s defense.

“I think George and his team do a great job” in marketing East Hawaii, said the owner of Arnott’s Lodge and Hiking Adventures.

As for the Naniloa, Arnott expressed disappointment in the pace of improvements and hoped that Hilo could have a “first-class hotel in a reasonable amount of time.”

Standard rates range from $105 for a garden view room to $295 for an ocean view suite. The kamaaina rate for those three options are $89 and $272, respectively.

Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.