Steve’s breakdown: In an effort to get more agencies involved, the Hawaii Tourism Authority has issued an RFI in anticipation to an RFP.

HONOLULU, HI: The Hawaii Tourism Authority on Monday issued a request for information from qualified entities interested in participating in the upcoming procurement for the contract to manage and market the Hawaii Convention Center for meetings, conventions and incentives.

SMG Hawaii holds the contract until the end of the year.

Last week, HTA’s board of directors met in executive session for about an hour with President and CEO Mike McCartney and some consultants at its regular monthly meeting to discuss a request for proposals for convention center operations and marketing.

McCartney told me last week the HTA was in the final stages of preparing to issue an RFP for convention center managers after issuing a request for information last year, and he reiterated to the board that they were in the process of developing the final scope of the RFP before entering executive session on Thursday, so I was surprised to see another request for information issued on Monday.

When asked about this, McCartney sent a statement to PBN explaining the reasoning behind holding off on issuing an RFP.

“We issued another request for information (RFI) for management and marketing of Hawaii Convention Center for meetings, conventions and incentives to get more competitors,” he said. “We are still targeting the end of March to issue the RFP.”

The request for information is for market research purposes in preparation for a future procurement acquisition solicitation of the Hawaii Convention Center, according to a statement issued by the HTA on Monday. Respondents’ information will be used to develop a list of interested entities, and no evaluation will occur as a result. Additionally, responding to the request for information is not required in order to compete in future solicitations.

Responses to the request for information are due by March 22, but the HTA says the official dates and times may be amended “as necessary.”

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ACLink: [acLink name=”Hawaii Tourism Authority” type=”advertiser” id=”bWxsnKc=”]