Is Hawaiian Tradition a Commodity to be horse traded via tourism?
Hawaii is seeing record increases in visitor arrivals despite the ongoing pandemic, but Hawaii tourism director Jon de Fries has additional concerns. Seeing Hawaiian culture reduced to a mere commodity again, he fights the Hawaii State Senate for taking control of the temporary housing tax.
- Today we saw that our Hawaiian culture is reduced back to a mere commodity that can be traded in horses, and that trend and historical pattern has to stop – and will stop on my watch at HTA (Hawaii Tourism Authority).
- Such words do not come from a cultural or environmental watcher or an organization opposed to the visitor industry, but from John De Fries, the man responsible for rebuilding the travel and tourism industries in Hawaii.
- Watch the introduction by Patricia Herman, Vice President of Marketing at HTA, presented to the World Tourism Network (WTN) earlier this week. WTN is a global discussion with tourism leaders in 127 countries
