In Hawaii, the Search for Sustainable Tourism

When John De Fries’s mother was in high school in the 1940s, she was forbidden from dancing the hula and speaking Hawaiian, the language of her ancestors. The school she attended was for children of Hawaiian descent, but instead of encouraging students to embrace that heritage, it tried to erase it.

“That whole generation was the byproduct of this sweeping Americanization, Westernization,” Mr. De Fries recalled recently. “What’s ironic is that, 51 years later, my mother’s great-granddaughter graduated from the same school. And by then, fluency in native Hawaiian had become a requirement — but it took half a century to get there.”

In September 2020, when Hawaii’s tourism industry was in pandemic-induced free fall, Mr. De Fries took over the top tourism role in his home state, becoming the first native Hawaiian to hold the position. As the president and chief executive of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, he is now responsible for supporting the industry that, before the pandemic, brought in $2 billion in state tax revenue and employed more than 200,000 people.