The Miss USA pageant organizers had planned on holding the competition on Oahu this year, but instead the pageant is heading to Reno, Nevada.

It’s been 20 years since a major pageant took place in Hawaii. Back in 1998, Miss Universe was held at the Stan Sheriff Center.

It was estimated to generate more than $9 million dollars for Hawaii’s economy.

Alicia Michioka, executive director for the Miss Hawaii USA pageant thinks the same thing could have happened if the Miss USA pageant was held here.

“It’s exposure to our state around the world, not just nationally but globally,” said Michioka. “It also puts the state of Hawaii on the map in terms of the huge fan base of pageant followers worldwide.”

In a statement, the Hawaii Tourism Authority said:

“We recently received a proposal to bring the Miss USA event to Honolulu this May. After a thorough review, we advised the organization that HTA would not be able to provide the funding being requested this year.



HTA evaluates every proposal and opportunity to enhance the Hawaiian Islands’ brand, perpetuate the Hawaiian culture, and positively impact the community. We aim to balance priorities with the funds provided by the State to manage tourism. The timing of requests and market conditions also impact our decisions.



We develop annual plans for the fiscal year in June and allocate funds from the available budget, however, we will consider short-term proposals when possible.



We are fortunate to receive many great opportunities. The market is ever changing and we encourage repeat submittals as early as possible.”

We’re waiting to hear back from the HTA on how much funding was requested.

Michioka declined to say how much funding was requested to bring the event to Honolulu, but says the economy would have benefited from this event.

“There’s a lot of job opportunities created for the two weeks that the pageant is here. There’s a lot of excitement, a lot of events, a lot of parades,” said Michioka. “It could have been a great event for all the tourists that are here in town, that are not here in the pageant’ but get to experience it as well.”

Michioka says they will try again next year to bring the pageant to Hawaii.

“Hopefully next time or in the future, now that we have sort of this information or this event sitting on the table, the state can look at this and prioritize making it as an event that we can host,” said Michioka.