HTA president and CEO Chris Tatum will retire on Aug. 31 after 40 years in the hospitality industry. Tatum has been at the helm at Hawaii Tourism since December 2018 after “retiring” from a 37 -year career with Marriott International.

“I let the board chair know on Monday and I told my staff today,” Tatum said. “I’m happy with what we’ve accomplished. I’m very proud of the HTA team and our refocused plans to develop a balance strategy for tourism. Now, I’d like to get us through the quarantine and help with the recovery piece and long road back.”

Tatum, who took over leadership at HTA after his predecessor George Szigeti was ousted by the board in 2018 following the abrupt resignations of former chief operating officer Randy Baldemo, and former chief marketing officer Leslie Dance.

Some state Legislators were displeased with the agency’s destination management at the time, and with a February 2018 finding by the state auditor that the agency suffered from “lax oversight (and) deficient internal controls.”

HTA is in a very different place now. It’s made strides to convert from a primarily marketing agency to a primarily destination management agency and to address the audit. Also, all key leadership positions are filled.

However, the visitor industry has collapsed amid COVID-19 fears and tourism lockdown and HTA’s transient accommodations tax funding stopped in April, a month that saw arrivals plummet 99.5%.

HTA’s fiscal year 2020 budget was US $86 million, but the agency has reduced its fiscal year 2021 budget to $55.2 million. HTA plans to reduce its branding budget from more than $51 million in fiscal year 2020 to about $28 million, a 44.5 % drop.

Tatum said he plans to spend the next three months working with the HTA board on the transition and supporting the state’s tourism recovery efforts. After that, he and his wife of 28-years Peg plan to relocate to Colorado.

“I don’t want to look back and say I had a chance to spend more time with family but I kept working,” Tatum said. “The visitor industry is 24/7, there was a lot of time spent away from family. We made 16 moves. In addition to Hawaii, my career took me to the U.S. mainland, Asia, Australia.”