John De Fries remembers fishing in the waters off Waikiki Beach in Oahu as a child in the 1960s. “When I was growing up, my family’s fishing grounds were first and foremost a source of food and, secondly, a source of relaxation,” he says. “Today they are a playground, surrounded by hotels.”
Born and raised in Waikiki, De Fries was named president of the Hawaii Tourism Authority in September 2020 when the coronavirus shutdown shook the state’s economy but the community and the environment flourished. In 2019, the state, with a population of 1.5 million, hosted a record 10.4 million visitors – unsustainable numbers that the residents were pissed off. Although tourism grossed $ 2.07 billion in tax revenue that year, Hawaiians lamented the impact on traffic, beaches, and the cost of living.
