The Price Tag of a 5-Star Culture: Cultural Performance and the Politics of Luxury in Oʻahu’s Hotel Industry

<p>This thesis examines the intersection of cultural tourism and luxury branding with settler colonial dynamics in Oʻahu’s high-end hospitality industry. Focusing on Disney’s Aulani Resort, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, and the Moana Surf Rider, the study investigates how Hawaiian culture is performed, curated, and commodified as part of a five-star guest experience. Through ethnographic research and interviews with Native Hawaiian performers, artists, and cultural advisors, it traces how Indigenous identity is shaped by the demands of the tourism economy and the aesthetics of authenticity. These hotels function not only as sites of leisure but also as stages of cultural performance where issues of labour, sovereignty, and representation are continuously negotiated. Grounded in Indigenous studies, performance theory, and critical tourism studies, the thesis argues that the politics of luxury in Hawaiʻi are inseparable from the logics of colonial tourism, where Native culture is marketed as experience while underlying structures of settler colonialism persist.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

History, MA

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Master's Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Arts and Humanities

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Acker, Kendall Hutchison

Contributors dc:contributor

• Joshua Goode

• Cultural tourism
• Disney aulani resort
• Hawaii
• Indigenous representation
• Native hawaiian
• Oʻahu
• History

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1010

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-2032