About

The professional history of Tom Kiely includes:

Began hotel career with the San Francisco Hilton Hotel & Towers. Started as a trainee and progressed to Sales Manager. 1973-76

Joined Fairmont Hotels as Sales Manager and was promoted to Director of Sales to open a new Fairmont Hotel in Denver at age 27. Promoted again to Director of Sales of the headquarters hotel, The Fairmont in San Francisco. 1976-81

Recruited by Hyatt Resorts to be the Director of Sales and Marketing of the Hyatt Regency Maui. Promoted to Director of Marketing for the Hyatt Resorts of Hawaii group of hotels. 1981-88

1988 - Created The Kiely Company for the purpose of advising in areas of strategic marketing for hotels, resorts, destinations and travel-related companies.

1990 - Started new business… Television, Events and Marketing Inc. …. producing events, television and media for the purpose of promoting and marketing tourism/resort destinations. Events and media included:

Hawaiian International Ocean Challenge
Waikiki Kings Race
Tour of Hawaii Cycling Classic
Hawaiian Mountain Tour [mountain bike classic]
Hawaiian Sports Adventure – ESPN TV series
Action Sports New Zealand – Fox Sports TV Series
Produced 300+ national and international television shows
Won 47 Emmy and Telly Awards for television production excellence.
Consulted and designed tourism marketing strategies for Hawaii resorts, Lake Tahoe, Tahiti, New Zealand, Enchantment Resort, the Bahamas, Hyatt Resorts and others.

1996 - Created the new sport of off-road multi-sport endurance competition and branded it “XTERRA”. Grew the XTERRA World Tour to 300++ events in 35 countries. [sold the business in 2019]

2019 – 2022 – founded www.ActiveTravelVideos.com to tap into the growing high-value active and experiential travel market. Built that out to a platform of 1,200 short-form videos with website links. [Donated to the University of Hawaii School of Business]

2023 – started V*S*T .... [Vision / Strategy / Tactics] advisory group. Assisted friends/clients in areas of travel, destinations, food/beverage businesses, charity causes, activities/attractions and others.

Other:

Produced the first strategic sports marketing plan for the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Advised and consulted with Rosewood Hotels, Enchantment Resort [Arizona], Choice Hotels [New Zealand], Atlantis Resort [Bahamas], Hyatt Resorts, Princess Resorts and others.