David Hu took over as president and CEO of Pleasant Holidays last month, succeeding Jack Richards, who ran the company for 17 years.
Hu spent 13 years as president and CEO at Classic Vacations before stepping down in 2022. We caught up with him last week to ask about his new job, what’s ahead for Pleasant Holidays under his leadership and what he expects for the tourism industry in 2025.
After about a month into the job, how do you feel about your new role, and about taking over after Jack?
Jack has done a great job shepherding this company over the last 17 years. He's done great in terms of maintaining the profitability and the growth of the company. But, do I look at what he's left me and say, "Hey, there's a huge opportunity here?” Heck yeah, I do. And a lot of that pertains to what I could do with our parent company, [AAA of Southern California].
I said to my team, “Look, I know where I messed up at Classic, so now I have a chance to redo certain things and do it the right way.” Undoubtedly, I will still mess up. But I know what not to do. And I'm excited. I know there are big shoes to fill with regards to Jack. But I've been in this world before. It's not like I'm new. It's not like it's a new industry. It's not like a new type of company. It's like riding a bike. You get back on and all of a sudden it feels natural again.
What are some of the opportunities you’re going to go after?
There are many opportunities to modernize. One of the things that Jack wanted to do but never was able to get around to was really reinventing their own technology stack and trying to figure out what to do with much of the infrastructure that is Pleasant.
The great thing is that our parent company is like, “Yeah, we want to modernize, and we have all the resources.” They’ve said “Yes, we want to do it.” They want me to take charge of reinventing the company in a way that is a little bit more future proof from a technology perspective, and also from a process perspective as well as talent perspective.
[There are] many different things that could drive Pleasant into the future [and beyond] the company of yesteryear. Again, no doubt it's a great company, with great people and great culture, but it needs that little push to kind of nudge it into the 21st century.
Are there some potential positives or negatives you see for travel in the year ahead?
The arc of travel is such that it's starting to plateau, and the tide that lifts all boats is starting to settle down. Now we're going to start seeing who can actually be innovative and smart in this new environment, where the demand funnel is not as robust.
The arc of travel is such that it's starting to plateau, and the tide that lifts all boats is starting to settle down. Now we're going to start seeing who can actually be innovative and smart in this new environment, where the demand funnel is not as robust.
I'm not saying it's not growing. It is continuing to grow, but you have lots of headwinds. You have inflationary pressures. Now, there’s a different administration that views the world differently, and people view Americans differently.
Does that mean we become more international? Or do we become more insular in terms of our outlook on how we travel? I don't know the answer to that. But if you look at history, look at what we did in 2016, 2017 and 2018, you probably saw a little bit of a dip back then in terms of international [travel] and people were probably a little bit more inward-looking in terms of where they went.
So, do I think travel will continue to grow? Yes. But I don't think it's going to be as robust as 2022, 2023 and 2024. Do I think it's going to grow as robustly internationally? I think we’ll have to look at the effects over the next couple of months, and we'll see what happens. I mean, we keep threatening everybody in the world. They're going to threaten us back. So, we'll see what happens.
Does that mean we become more international? Or do we become more insular in terms of our outlook on how we travel?
What travel trends are you seeing across the industry?
I think the revenge travel phase [will settle]. You had so many people wanting to go everywhere and anywhere that was on their bucket list. They were like, ”Antarctica, Patagonia, Europe!” I feel like there's probably a little bit of fatigue in terms of, “Okay, I don't know if I want to [travel] 18 hours anymore to go there.”
I think there's going to be a reversion of, “Hey, let's go back to what's familiar.” We're starting to see some signs of life in Hawaii, in terms of people wanting to go back. And, going back to what I said earlier, if American consumer sentiment shifts in such a way that they're less willing to go to far-flung places because of whatever our government administration is doing, you have a great domestic option.
Attitudes about tourism in Hawaii have shifted some in recent years, affecting the destination’s perception. Pleasant’s always been an important Hawaii partner. What are your thoughts there?
We grew up in Hawaii — it was Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays. Hawaii will always be a part of who we are, and so it is absolutely important to us to make sure we are deeply rooted in what goes on there and to make sure we do whatever we can to help the Islands.
A lot of things happened in the last three or four years that have muted the Islands’ ability to have a voice. The narrative behind what they want and who they want has been overshadowed by the media in terms of who's shouting the loudest, whether it be local residents or politicians.
And that has overshadowed what is actually happening on the ground. If you speak to people on the ground, they still want tourism because ultimately tourism fuels jobs. Now, do they want all kinds of tourism? No. They want to make sure it's the right kind of people, who are there for sustainable [vacations] — respectful tourists who come in and make sure the traditions of Hawaii are honored.
Hawaii needs to take control of the narrative again. They need to be able to say what they want to the audience they want. The problem is [they’ve] have had their legs cut out from under them because they have no funding. The first thing they have to figure out is how to refund the Hawaii Tourism Authority and then refund the Hawaii Visitors and Conventions Bureau. What Hawaii decides in terms of funding [and where it comes from] is up to them, but there is a desperate need for funding to control the narrative again.
