At the recent Travel Weekly Leadership Forum, when Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau CEO Aaron Sala said, “Tourism as we have known it is over,” it surprised many. Debate followed.

With this headline in Travel Weekly, “Hawaii Tourism Isn’t Going Away. It’s Just Changing,” Hawaii tourism reporter Christine Hitt explained, “Sala has successfully gotten everyone to actively think about what the future of Hawaii tourism could look like.”

He referred to the HVCB as “becoming a destination futures enterprise, a force for cultural stewardship, economic innovation and geopolitical fluency.”

“In addition to the work that we are doing to reimagine ourselves internally as a visitors and convention bureau, through strategic efforts of our team, we challenge all of you to join us in the co-creation, perhaps, of a new tourism compact,” he said. “That compact is meant to be a global framework rooted in regenerative principles, cultural integrity and systemic equity.”