Hawaii governor warns of dangers of having tourism-based economy

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

Hawaii Gov. Benjamin J. Cayetano sees a lot of his island state in Las Vegas, and that may not necessarily be a good thing.

Cayetano, who will chair a meeting of the Western Governors Association at the Four Seasons Hotel starting Thursday, believes a tourism-based economy can only take a state so far.

"Hawaii has had a bubble-type economy ever since it became a state because of our reliance on tourism," Cayetano said. "There are a lot of parallels with Nevada, which is also very reliant on tourism."

Cayetano is hoping that this conference will spark a discussion about new economic influences and how high technology industries and other varied business intrests can be drawn to the Western states, including Hawaii and Nevada.

"While the economy on the mainland has been doing pretty well in the last six or seven years, the Hawaiian economy has become stagnant," Cayetano said. "We have learned that you can't rely too much on any one area.

"We let tourism carry us along for about 35 years before this, and I think the same thing that happened in Hawaii can happen to gambling in Nevada. Nevada will be facing some of the same problems we are."

The governors of 12 Western states and the U.S. territory of Guam are expected to attend the conference, which Cayetano sees as a chance for the governors to share strategies and experiences in how to deal with the new millennium's technology based economy.

"The governors will discuss the idea of creating a Western High Technology Council with industry leaders such as Michael Maibach, Vice President of the Intel Corporation, and Philip Englehardt, a senior executive of Silicon Graphics," Cayetano said. "The idea is to have a strategic alliance among the states, technology firms and universities to advance their common intrests in a knowledge-based, technology driven economy."

Cayetano said that Hawaii has found an interesting market to try to diversify its economy.

"We had always thought that high technology industries wouldn't want to come to the islands because we're so far away from the mainland," Cayetano said. "What we found is that we have a niche because these companies are looking for locations that have a high quality of living."

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman also has been pursuing high technology companies to diversify Las Vegas's economy, most recently with Bill Gates, chairman and CEO Microsoft Corp.

Governor Kenny Guinn said he is looking forward to the chance to exchange ideas at the conference.

Besides Guinn and Cayetano governors from, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and Guam are expected to attend the conference.