9789284414550 - Subscribers Temporary Access

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Challenges and Opportunities

for Tourism Development in

Small Island

Developing States

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Copyright © 2012, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism Development in Small Island Developing States ISBN (printed version): 978-92-844-1454-3 ISBN (electronic version): 978-92-844-1455-0

Published and printed by the World Tourism Organization, Madrid, Spain.First printing: 2012All rights reserved

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinions whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Tourism Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

All efforts were made to trace the copyright holders. If you are the holder of a copyright not acknowledged please contact the UNWTO and the relevant acknowledgement will be made or the information will be removed immediately.

World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)Calle Capitán Haya, 4228020 Madrid, SpainTel.: (+34) 915 678 100Fax: (+34) 915 713 733Website: www.unwto.org E-mail: [email protected]

Citation:

World Tourism Organization (2012), Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism Development in Small Island Developing States, UNWTO, Madrid.

All UNWTO publications are protected by copyright. Therefore and unless otherwise specified, no part of a UNWTO publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm, scanning, without prior permission in writing. UNWTO encourages dissemination of its work and is pleased to consider permissions, licensing, and translation requests related to UNWTO publications.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ v

Foreword ........................................................................................................................... vii

Introduction ....................................................................................................................... ix

1 Tourism in Sids: A Key Economic Sector ........................................................................ 1 1.1 The Definition, Character and Economy of SIDS .......................................................... 1 1.2 The Tourism Performance of SIDS .............................................................................. 6 1.3 Trends in International Arrivals ..................................................................................... 9 1.4 Tourism Spending and its Contribution to the Economy ............................................... 12

2 Tourism and Sustainable Development Challenges in SIDS ......................................... 17 2.1 Sustainable Tourism and The Green Economy ............................................................. 17 2.2 Sustainable Tourism Issues for SIDS ............................................................................ 20 2.2.1 Economic Competitiveness ............................................................................. 21 2.2.2 Local Prosperity and Poverty Alleviation .......................................................... 23 2.2.3 Social and Cultural Issues ............................................................................... 30 2.2.4 Coastal Environments and Biodiversity ............................................................ 32 2.2.5 Resource Management ................................................................................... 36 2.3 Delivering Sustainable Tourism in SIDS ........................................................................ 40 2.3.1 Maintaining Effective Governance Structures and Communication .................. 40 2.3.2 Establishing the Right Policies, Strategies and Plans ...................................... 42 2.3.3 Using a Range of Management Tools ............................................................. 44

3 Islands and the Challenge of Accessibility ..................................................................... 49 3.1 Air Transport ................................................................................................................ 49 3.2 Cruise Tourism ............................................................................................................ 57

4 Impacts and Challenges of Climate Change in SIDS ..................................................... 67 4.1 Climate Change, SIDS and Tourism – Recognizing the Challenge ............................... 67 4.2 Climate Change Projections and Implications for SIDS ................................................ 69 4.3 Climate Change Implications for SIDS Tourism ............................................................ 72 4.3.1 Direct Climatic Changes .................................................................................. 72 4.3.2 Indirect Climate Change-induced Environmental Changes............................... 74 4.3.3 Indirect Climate Change-induced Socio-Economic Changes ........................... 76 4.3.4 Climate Change Mitigation Policy and Travel Costs and Accessibility of SIDS .. 77 4.4 Moving Forward: The Climate Change Adaptation Imperative for SIDS Tourism .......... 79

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iv Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism Development in Small Island Developing States

5 Tourism Marketing Strategies for SIDS ........................................................................... 81 5.1 Current and Future Source Markets for SIDS ............................................................... 81 5.2 Marketing Strategy Development ................................................................................. 84

6 The Role of UNWTO in Supporting SIDS ......................................................................... 89 6.1 UNWTO Activities in Sustainable Development, Relevant to SIDS ................................ 90 6.2 Recent Events Involving UNWTO, Relating to SIDS and Rio+20 .................................. 95

Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................................ 99

Annexes Annex 1 Compendium of Data on Individual SIDS ......................................................... 104 Annex 2 Inbound Tourist Arrivals by SIDS region ........................................................... 107

List of Acronyms................................................................................................................ 109

Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 113

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Acknowledgments

This publication has been prepared for UNWTO by Dr Richard Denman and Jackie Denman of The Tourism Company, tourism consultants based in Ledbury, United Kingdom. Chapter 4, on the impacts and challenges of climate change, was prepared by Dr Daniel Scott of the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Thanks are due to the staff of UNWTO, in particular to Luigi Cabrini, Director, Sustainable Development of Tourism Programme (SDT), for the concept and overall review of the project; to Sofía Gutiérrez, Programme Coordinator, SDT, for the concept, supervision, review and final editing of the publication and to the various colleagues who provided valuable inputs and comments: John Kester, Programme Manager, Tourism Trends and Marketing Strategies; Marcel Leijzer, Programme Coordinator, Technical Cooperation and Services; Zoritsa Urosevic, Programme Coordinator, Institutional and Corporate Relations; and Clara van der Pol, Programme Officer, Statistics and Tourism Satellite Account.

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As one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, international tourism has become the main economic activity for many island nations creating much needed job opportunities and bringing in important income and foreign exchange earnings.

Tourism is of particular significance for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as one of the, so often, few activities for which their location, coupled with exceptional natural and cultural resources, is a strong competitive advantage. In the last decade, the number of international tourists visiting SIDS destinations increased by over 12 million to reach 41 million in 2011. The tourism sector accounts for more than half of the exports in at least 12 SIDS and over one quarter of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in at least seven of them. International tourism has increased fastest in the less developed SIDS.

Tourism has a central role to play in the sustainable development of island states and in the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The adoption of sustainable tourism development practices has been instrumental for many SIDS in their pursuit of growth and development; some have graduated from the category of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) due to the benefits from the tourism sector. These require tourism to continue delivering the growth that brought them to this point, with many more relying on the sector for their increasing prosperity. As in all destinations, this requires careful planning and management.

To support these objectives, UNWTO identifies in this publication key challenges and opportunities that need to be considered by small island nations to develop tourism in a sustainable manner for the benefit of their population. It further provides National Tourism Administrations, the industry and other tourism stakeholders specific policy orientations, guidelines and other tools aimed at ensuring a sustainable planning and management of the tourism sector.

During the twenty years since the 1992 Earth Summit, tourism has played a strong part in developing the economies of SIDS. Several UN Resolutions have highlighted the role that sustainable tourism can play for the development of SIDS. Most recently, the Resolution adopted by the General Assembly in October 2010 stresses that “the Mauritius strategy recognizes the need for sustainable tourism as an important contributor to employment, foreign exchange and economic growth”.

Within this framework, I am confident that this publication, to be released at Rio+20, will give us a strong basis to continue advancing this important work in supporting the SIDS and ensuring that tourism in their countries is able to meet its great potential to deliver sustainable development and contribute to the livelihoods of their communities.

Taleb RifaiSecretary-General, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

Foreword

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Introduction

The 52 Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which span the globe from the Caribbean to the eastern Pacific, are a distinct group of developing countries with specific social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities. SIDS face many challenges for their future development arising from their limited resources, sensitive environments, distance from markets and other characteristics as small, remote maritime nations.

Tourism is a major economic sector, responsible for one in every twelve jobs worldwide. The current level of around one billion international tourists is forecast to reach nearly 1.8 billion by 2030. The sector presents particular opportunities for SIDS, as one of the few activities for which their location, environments and traditional heritage can present a strong comparative advantage. However, to make the most of the opportunities, tourism, like all other sectors, has to address the special challenges and needs of SIDS and, in particular, ensure that its very development enhances and does not damage their special environments and cultures upon which it depends.

SIDS, tourism and sustainable development

SIDS were recognised as a special case, both for their environment and development, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992. Subsequently, the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA) for the Sustainable Development of SIDS was agreed in 1994. This recognised tourism as one of only a few development options for SIDS, important for their future growth and also able to stimulate the development of other sectors. It firmly underlined that tourism must be properly planned, with mutual support between tourism development and environmental management.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 reaffirmed the special position of SIDS and called for more support for them from the international community. Amongst general priorities for SIDS, including coastal management, climate change, energy, resources and trade conditions, tourism was specifically singled out, with a requirement to develop initiatives in sustainable tourism and develop capacities to diversify the sector.

A ten year review of the BPOA led to the 2005 Mauritius Declaration and Strategy for the Further Implementation of the POA for SIDS, recognising the contribution tourism makes to their economic growth, while pointing to the opportunity to make more of this through linkages to other sectors. Again there was a call for sound tourism planning, involving local stakeholders. By 2010, the five-year review of the Mauritius Strategy found continuing growth in tourism’s contribution to the economy of many SIDS, with a number of sustainable tourism plans in place, but the need for more progress in developing diversified forms of tourism.

In 2010, through Resolution 65/2, the General Assembly of the UN adopted the outcome document of the High-level Review Meeting on the Implementation of the Mauritius Strategy. This recognised the commitment of SIDS to sustainable development but noted with concern the continued challenges they face. In a specific reference to tourism (paragraph 20), it stated:

“[…] that for most small island developing States, tourism is an important contributor to employment, foreign exchange and economic growth, and that the Mauritius Strategy recognizes the need for sustainable tourism. Climate change, along with other sources of environmental degradation, can have an adverse impact on the sustainability of the tourism industry in small island developing States. We therefore call upon the World Tourism Organization, the relevant

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x Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism Development in Small Island Developing States

United Nations agencies and other relevant stakeholders to support the development and implementation by small island developing States of measures to promote sustainable tourism in such States”.

At the time of writing this document there is much debate on sustainable development priorities leading up to the Rio+20 conference in June 2012. It has been agreed that SIDS remain a special case for sustainable development and that their vulnerability has worsened over the last two decades primarily because of higher exposure to external shocks. A call has been made for increased efforts to assist SIDS in sustainable development and to take into consideration their vulnerability (during UNCTAD XIII in Doha in April 2012). A third international conference on SIDS is proposed in 2014.

The focus of Rio+20 is on the green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and on the institutional framework for sustainable development. It is clearly important to identify the different ways in which SIDS can benefit from expansion of the green economy to help their particular sustainable development needs, while also ensuring that any new institutional structures fully represent and support the position of SIDS.

Tourism can contribute positively here. The UN has recognised tourism as one of ten economic sectors best able to lead the shift to a green economy. In October 2011 a special event, as a lead-up to Rio+20, was held on the SIDS Tourism, Biodiversity and Culture Nexus. This highlighted the opportunity that tourism presents to SIDS to take a bigger role in the international economy, as well as touching on important issues for the sustainability of the sector in so doing. The UNWTO has contributed to a number of other events as a run up to Rio+20, which have covered aspects of sustainable development through tourism which are directly relevant to SIDS. These are set out in the final chapter of this document. Through increasing collaboration between the UNWTO and its partner UN bodies and international agencies, tourism can be made to work even more effectively to meet the needs of less developed countries and other vulnerable states such as SIDS.

The role of UNWTO in sustainable tourism development

As a specialised agency of the United Nations, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) promotes the development of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. It is committed to strengthening the contribution of tourism in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In its submission to Rio+20 it has shown how tourism, through its cross-cutting nature, can address meaningfully a range of priority issues in sustainable development as a key component of the green economy.

UNWTO is committed to supporting the sustainable development of SIDS. Much of its work in the area of tourism competitiveness, knowledge sharing, education, marketing and innovation is relevant to their needs. More specifically SIDS are well placed to benefit from UNWTO’s work on the sustainable development of tourism, including ongoing and new initiatives in areas such as climate change, energy efficiency, biodiversity and poverty alleviation.

In order to better position tourism in the development agenda UNWTO has joined with eight other bodies (ILO, ITC, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNIDO and WTO) in the Steering Committee on Tourism Development. The mission of the Committee is to promote sustainable tourism for job creation and poverty alleviation, demonstrating the potential of tourism as an engine for growth and development.

The purpose of this publication

The purpose of this publication is to demonstrate the importance of tourism to SIDS and to identify and address some key challenges and opportunities for its further contribution to their sustainable

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xiIntroduction

development. It renews and replaces a previous document on the subject published by UNWTO in 20041, launched in Mauritius in 2005 during the BPOA+10 event.

The document contains six chapters:

Chapter 1 considers the characteristics and economic context of SIDS and the performance of tourism in SIDS in recent years, presenting data on the volume and value of tourism movements and the relative contribution of the sector to the economy of individual SIDS.

Chapter 2 is concerned with the sustainability of tourism in SIDS. It breaks down the various elements of the sustainable tourism agenda and considers how much of a challenge they present to SIDS and some of the ways of addressing them. It covers a wide range of issues affecting the impact of tourism on the economy, society, culture and environment of SIDS, reflecting their size, characteristics and vulnerability.

Chapter 3 focuses on the specific topic of the accessibility of SIDS for tourists and how this has changed in recent years. It looks in particular at issues relating to air access and cruise tourism.

Chapter 4 concentrates on the relationship between tourism and climate change as it relates to SIDS. It summarizes the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on SIDS tourism and looks at adaptation measures and the impact of mitigation policies.

Chapter 5 looks at tourism markets for SIDS, including the relevance of recent trends, and considers the development of marketing strategies.

Finally, chapter 6 presents information on UNWTO’s role in supporting SIDS and in addressing the various issues which affect their vulnerability, including relevant events, programmes, publications and technical assistance.

1 World Tourism Organization (2004a), Making Tourism Work for Small Island Developing States, UNWTO, Madrid.

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Chapter 1

Tourism in SIDS: A Key Economic Sector

This chapter considers the dimensions of tourism in SIDS. It starts by taking a look at this remarkable group of countries – defining them and then describing some of their key characteristics and varying economic performance. Next, it provides some contextual information about global tourism before considering the dimensions of the sector for SIDS as a group and for individual states. Finally, it looks at the relative importance of tourism within the economy of SIDS.

1.1 The Definition, Character and Economy of SIDS

The UN has never established criteria to determine an official list of SIDS. In the absence of one agreed definition, a number of lists are in use. The UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) lists 52 SIDS, of which 38 are Members of the UN. Some, but not all, agencies also include the remaining 14 Non-UN Members or Associate Members of the Regional Commissions amongst their list of SIDS. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) uses its own unofficial list of 29 SIDS, for analytical purposes only.

Table 1.1 List of Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS)

UN Members

Antigua and Barbuda* Mauritius*

Bahamas* Micronesia, Federated States of*

Bahrain Nauru*

Barbados* Palau*

Belize Papua New Guinea*

Cape Verde* Saint Kitts and Nevis*

Comoros* Saint Lucia*

Cuba Saint Vincent and the Grenadines*

Dominica* Samoa*

Dominican Republic Sao Tome and Principe*

Fiji* Seychelles*

Grenada* Singapore

Guinea-Bissau Solomon Islands*

Guyana Suriname

Haiti Timor-Leste*

Jamaica* Tonga*

Kiribati* Trinidad and Tobago*

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2 Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism Development in Small Island Developing States

Maldives* Tuvalu*

Marshall Islands* Vanuatu*

Non-UN Members/Associate Members of the Regional Commissions

American Samoa Guam

Anguilla Montserrat

Aruba Netherlands Antilles

British Virgin Islands New Caledonia

Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Niue

Cook Islands Puerto Rico

French Polynesia United States Virgin Islands

Note: *) Sub-group of small island states defined by UNCTAD.

When discussing SIDS in general in this report, reference will normally be to the 52 SIDS listed by UN-OHRLLS, and any data will be based on this list wherever possible. Inevitably, data availability is most limited for the smallest and least developed of the SIDS. Some agencies collect and publish data for UN Member states only. Where data limitations apply, this will be stated.

The natural, economic and social systems of SIDS have very high levels of vulnerability, which arise from the following shared characteristics:

small size;

remoteness;

vulnerability to external (demand and supply-side) shocks;

narrow resource base;

exposure to global environmental challenges.

Although not expressed as formal criteria, it is these characteristics which define SIDS.

External events which have presented considerable challenges for SIDS include the global financial crisis of 2007–2010, the food and fuel crises of 2007–2008 and the large-scale natural disasters which occurred in 2009–2010. Ongoing climate change may further increase their vulnerability to external shocks and may jeopardise the recent development progress made by many SIDS.

Key characteristics of SIDS

While the group of SIDS have important characteristics in common, there is no such thing as a state that can be taken as generally typical of SIDS. They exhibit great variation in many aspects, such as their land area, form, population size, income levels, human development index and the importance of tourism to their economy. Although all SIDS share the common feature of a coastline, not all are islands: four are low-lying coastal states.

SIDS are not scattered randomly around the globe but are concentrated geographically into three main regional groupings: the Caribbean (22), the Pacific Ocean (20) and the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South China Seas (AIMS) (10). In addition, all SIDS are located within the Tropics, with the exception of the Bahamas and Bahrain which lie just to the north of the Tropic of Cancer.

There is enormous variation in the land area of each of the SIDS. Four SIDS (two islands (Papua New Guinea and Cuba) and two low lying coastal states (Guyana and Suriname) each have an area exceeding

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3Tourism in SIDS: A Key Economic Sector

100,000 km2. Eleven SIDS, including the other two low lying coastal states, are between 10,000 km2 and 100,000 km2. At the other end of the scale, 30 SIDS have a land area of less than 1,000 km2, including three which are less than 100 km2. Tuvalu and Nauru are just 26 km2 and 21 km2 respectively.

There is a similar range in the size of population1. The total population for each country is shown in annex 1, where population size can be seen alongside other economic and tourism related data. Five SIDS (Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea and Singapore) have a population in excess of 5m; a further seven SIDS have populations of 1–5 million. However, at least2 eleven SIDS have a population under 100,000; the population of Tuvalu is just 9827.

Taking the group as a whole, there is no correlation between land area and size of population: population density also varies. The most densely populated of the SIDS (Singapore, Bahrain, the Maldives, Mauritius and Barbados) have more than 600 people per km2; in fact Singapore has a population density of 7150 per km2. On the whole, population densities tend to be higher in the Caribbean and AIMS than in the Pacific Ocean. Fifteen SIDS, the majority in the Pacific, have a population density of less than 100 per km2.

The configuration of each of the SIDS is unique, and can vary from one single island to enormous numbers of scattered islands. The Maldives consists of 2000 islands across 26 atolls, while the Bahamas include over 700 islands and over 2000 cays. Kiribati has 33 atolls spanning 3.5 million km2 of the Pacific Ocean. Together with the factor of size, this leads to considerable variation in the length of coastline of each of the SIDS. In fact, SIDS have both the fortune and the responsibility of holding a disproportionate amount of the world’s coastline; together, they occupy less than 1% of the global land area but 14.1% of the coastline. SIDS with the longest length of coastline are Federated States of Micronesia (6112 km), the Solomon Islands (5313 km) and Papua New Guinea (5152 km). Just nine SIDS have a coastline of 100 km or less. The average length of coastline for all of the SIDS is 966 km.

Economic and social performance of SIDS

Based on consideration of the World Bank (WB) classification of economies by gross national income (GNI) per capita and of the Human Development Index (HDI) ranking from the United Nations Development Programme, it is possible to view the SIDS as four main groups, which span the whole range of economic performance and of human well-being. The groups are shown in table 1.2.

The first two of these groups include SIDS with high or middle upper income economies and high or very high HDI rankings, which are performing relatively well despite the challenges that they face as SIDS, although of course they remain vulnerable to external shocks. Amongst the two groups with middle or low income economies and medium or low HDI ranking are the ten SIDS which are also classified as Least Developed Countries (LDC). Two further SIDS (Cape Verde and Maldives) have graduated from LDC status relatively recently, in 2008 and 2011 respectively. The impact of tourism on development status is considered later in this chapter (section 1.4).

1 World Bank Indicator (2010).

2 Comparable figures are not available for seven of the SIDS.

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Table 1.2 SIDS grouped by level of developmenta

WB: High Income WB: Upper Middle Income

HDI: High/very high (or none shown) HDI: High (or none shown)

Bahamas Antigua and Barbuda

Bahrain Belize+

Barbados Cuba

Singapore Dominica

Trinidad and Tobago Grenada

Aruba Jamaica

Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Mauritius

French Polynesia Palau

Guam Saint Kitts and Nevis

Netherlands Antilles Saint Lucia

New Caledonia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Puerto Rico Seychelles

United States Virgin Islands Tonga+

Q Non-UN Member American Samoa

+ High HDI, Lower Middle Income.

WB: Upper or Lower Middle Income WB: Lower Middle or Low Income

HDI: Medium HDI: Low (or none shown)

Cape Verde** Comoros*

Dominican Republic Guinea-Bissau*

Fiji Haiti*

Guyana Marshall Islands++

Kiribati* Nauru++

Maldives** Papua New Guinea

Micronesia, Federated States of Sao Tome and Principe*

Samoa* Solomon Islands*

Suriname Timor-Leste*

Vanuatu* Tuvalu*

++ No income group given by World Bank.

Notes: a) It has not been possible to include the following SIDS in this table, as no comparable data is available from either the World Bank or UNDP: Anguila, British Virgin Islands, Cook Islands, Montserrat and Niue.

*) Least Developed Country (LDC);. **) Recently graduated LDC.

Source: World Bank (2011), UNDP Human Development Report 2011.

Growth in GDP is one indicator of economic performance. The average growth in GDP3 between 2000 and 2010 amongst SIDS was 105.8%, with Cape Verde and Maldives recording growth in excess of 200%. The latter half of this period has seen some slowdown in growth, which can be partly attributed

3 Based on World Bank Indicator NY.GDP.MKTP.CD, UN Members only.

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to global recession. Nevertheless, SIDS recorded an average growth in GDP between 2005 and 2010 of 46.5%. SIDS posting a five year growth in excess of 50% include Timor-Leste, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, Haiti and Mauritius. These rates of growth in GDP are a little above the global average (95.8% for 2000–2010; 38.3% for 2005–2010). However, they are around half the rates of growth for Least Developed Countries (227.0% for 2000–2010; 92.4% for 2005–2010). The inclusion amongst SIDS of some more affluent and successful economies can tend to mask the position of less affluent SIDS.

The level of exports and imports of goods and services are higher in relation to GDP for SIDS4 than for developing economies as a whole (UNCTAD, 2011). Both have consistently been over 50% of GDP. SIDS are among the most trade-open economies in the world, and thus particularly vulnerable to external shocks. This is exacerbated in many SIDS economies by their heavy dependence on a few markets and the erosion of trade preferences with these markets in a time of global recession. Over the ten years to 2009, many SIDS experienced considerable increases in trade deficits (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2009). The value of exports from SIDS5 peaked in 2008 at US$ 33,298 million, dropped to US$ 19,865 million in 2009 and showed a small recovery in 2010, reaching US$ 22,713 million. Nevertheless, exports have seen long term growth: the unit value index of SIDS exports in 2010 was 219, relative to a base value of 100 in 2000 (UNCTAD, 2011). Exports in services mirror this picture, although both growth and fluctuations are less extreme.

The continuing global economic and financial crisis, coupled with the uneven pace of insertion into global trade and development processes, have exacerbated the structural vulnerabilities of SIDS.

The Human Development Index has been established by UNDP as an indicator of social progress. HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development:

a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth;

knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy and school enrolment;

a decent standard of living, as measured by Gross Domestic Product per capita.

SIDS have seen an average annual percentage growth in HDI over the period 2000–2011 of 0.65%. As with GDP, this is very similar to the equivalent world average figure of 0.66%, whereas LDCs experienced an average annual growth in HDI of 1.73%. Data is also available for 28 SIDS on the change in HDI Rank over the period 2006–2011. SIDS lost a little ground over the period, moving down in rank by an average of 1.6 places. A total of 20 SIDS moved down, seven of them by more than 5 places, including Dominica (–7), Samoa (–6), Palau, Tonga, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia and the Solomon Islands (–5). Just 8 SIDS saw any rise in their HDI rank; a rise of 3 or more places was achieved by Singapore (+3) and Cuba (+10).

Global, regional and national reporting in 2009 indicated that SIDS had made some progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. However, several SIDS were not on track to achieve the MDGs and some had regressed. In particular, the impact of multiple global financial, economic, food and security crises has continued to threaten progress and has further widened socio-economic disparities (UN-OHRLLS, 2011a). SIDS have progressed well in terms of the gender, health, and certain education and environment goals. However, the SIDS group has progressed less than most other groupings (or even regressed) in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction, as well as in terms of debt sustainability (DESA, 2010). The MDG Report 2009 highlighted the importance of renewed and sustained action, especially in the light of the high vulnerability of the natural, economic and social systems of SIDS.

4 Based on 29 SIDS used as basis for UNCTAD Statistics.

5 ibid.

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1.2 The Tourism Performance of SIDS

Before considering the tourism performance of SIDS, it is important to reflect on how the sector has been performing as a whole.

Global performance of tourism

As an internationally traded service, inbound tourism has become one of the world’s major trade categories. The overall export income generated globally by inbound tourism, including passenger transport, exceeded US$ 1 trillion in 2010, or close to US$ 3 billion a day. Tourism exports account for as much as 30% of the world’s exports of commercial services and 6% of overall exports of goods and services. Globally, tourism is ranked fourth as an export category. For many developing countries it is one of the main sources of foreign exchange income and the number one export category, creating much needed employment and opportunities for development.

In 2010, worldwide international tourism rebounded strongly from the knock that it had taken from global recession. At 940 million, international tourist arrivals were up 6.6% over 2009. The increase more than offset the decline caused by the economic downturn, with an additional 23 million arrivals over the former peak year of 2008. Inbound tourism expenditure was up 4.7% in real terms. Recovery in this expenditure still lags that of international arrivals, bucking the historic trend for income to grow at a stronger rate than arrivals (UNWTO, 2011a).

While in 1950 the top 15 destinations absorbed 88% of international arrivals, in 1970 the proportion was 75% and by 2010 it was 55%, reflecting the emergence of new destinations, many of them in developing countries. As growth has been particularly fast in the world’s emerging regions, the share in international arrivals received by emerging and developing economies has steadily risen from 31% in 1990 to 47% in 2010 (UNWTO, undated). Between 2000 and 2010, average annual growth in international arrivals was 5.6% for emerging economies and 1.8% for advanced economies (UNWTO, 2011a).

UNWTO is predicting that growth in international tourism arrivals, which has been virtually uninterrupted for the past sixty years, will continue, reaching 1.8 billion by 2030 (UNWTO, 2011b).

Tourism arrivals in SIDS

As with so many aspects of SIDS, there has been considerable variation between individual destinations in a number of the key indicators of tourism performance.

Table 1.3 shows the average number of international tourism arrivals during the period 2006–2010, for each of the SIDS economic groups identified above. The first column shows the number of visitors who stay for at least one night; the second includes those who are same day arrivals, who are mainly cruise passengers.

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Table 1.3 Volume of inbound tourism arrivals (annual average 2006–2010, x 1000)

High/very high HDI, high income

Overnight visitors

Inbound tourism arrivals

High (or no) HDI, upper middle income

Overnight visitors


Singapore 7,995 10,295 Cuba 2,299 2,337

Bahrain 4,727 7,561 Jamaica 1,780 2,868

Puerto Rico 3,671 4,990 Mauritius 886 917

Bahamas 1,458 4,725 Saint Lucia 294 893

Guam 1,166 n.a. Antigua and Barbuda 249 873

Aruba 777 1,336 Belize+ 243 921

United States Virgin Islands

577 2,482 Seychelles 159 173

Barbados 551 1,162 Grenada 123 409

Trinidad and Tobago 438 521 Saint Kitts and Nevis 115 484

Northern Marianas 387 394 Palau 87 n.a.

French Polynesia 190 n.a. St Vincent and Grenadines

84 277

New Caledonia 101 247 Dominica 80 495

Netherlands Antilles n.a. n.a Tonga+ 46 71

Average overnight visitors 1,836 American Samoa 25

Average overnight visitors 462

+ High HDI, Lower Middle Income

Medium HDI, upper or lower income

Overnight visitors


Low (or no) HDI, lower middle or low income

Overnight visitors


Dominican Republic 4,008 4,411 Haiti* 305 798

Maldives** 682 n.a. Papua New Guinea 99 120

Fiji 570 617 Timor-Leste* 31 31

Cape Verde** 293 n.a. Comoros* 22 n.a.

Suriname 166 166 Guinea-Bissau* 21 n.a.

Guyana 134 n.a Solomon Islands* 16 n.a.

Samoa* 124 n.a Sao Tome and Principe* 12 n.a.

Vanuatu* 88 196 Marshall Islands++ 6 n.a.

Fed States of Micronesia 22 n.a Tuvalu* 1 1

Kiribati* 4 22 Nauru++ n.a. n.a.

Average overnight visitors 609 Average overnight visitors 57

++ No income group given by World Bank

Notes: *) Least Developed Country (LDC). **) Recently graduated LDC.

Source: UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook, Basic data.

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Average figures for each of the four groups group show a degree of correlation between visitor numbers and the level of economic and social development, with higher volumes of inbound tourism tending to be associated with higher measures of income and HDI. There are of course exceptions, the most notable being the Dominican Republic.

The average number of overnight visits amongst all SIDS is 693,000 per annum, but there is a high degree of variation with figures ranging from 1,000 visitors a year in Tuvalu to almost 8 million in Singapore. Other leading destinations with over 2 million staying visitors per year are Bahrain, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

In many SIDS the addition of non-staying visitors, predominantly cruise passengers, is very significant. In total across the group they account for almost two in five (36%) of all arrivals.6 However, this is far more dominant in the Caribbean than elsewhere. Cruise tourism accounts for more than 60% of total arrivals in twelve SIDS. Those with the greatest proportion of cruise visitors include Dominica (88%), Kiribati (79%), St Kitts and Nevis (75%), United States Virgin Islands (73%), and Belize (73%).

Evidence on domestic tourism performance appears to be limited; very few SIDS return any data on domestic tourism at all.

Purpose of visit

By far the majority of inbound tourism to almost all of the SIDS is personal in its main purpose, accounting for 91% of total arrivals if cruise tourism and overnight visitors for personal purposes are taken together.

The majority of these personal visits are for holidays, leisure and recreation, with just 13% for other purposes such as visiting relatives. However, in a few SIDS the latter is relatively significant (e.g. Suriname, Anguilla, Singapore and Tonga).

Business visitors represent a small share of inbound arrivals; on average just 9%. Again, a small number of SIDS show a different picture: inbound arrivals for business purposes appear to be well above the norm in Papua New Guinea (54%), Singapore (32%), Montserrat (21%) and Trinidad and Tobago (19%).

Length of stay

Information is available from 34 SIDS on the average length of stay in the country from overnight visitors.7 This shows that visitors to SIDS spend a little longer on their visits than the global average. The average length of stay for SIDS is 8.8 days, compared with 6.4 days for all countries returning data.

The SIDS recording the longest average length of stay are New Caledonia (19.9 days), Trinidad and Tobago (15.5 days) and Solomon Islands (14.0 days). A further 8 countries, mostly in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, have an average stay of 10 or more days.

Six SIDS show average stays of less than 1 week – Bahrain, with the shortest stay at 1.9 days, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Guam, Singapore and Marshall Islands. Three are hubs for international air traffic.

Number of rooms and room occupancy

38 SIDS return data on the number of rooms in hotels and similar establishments, giving a total of 343,000 rooms and an average of 8,790 rooms per country. The results for those with the highest and lowest number of recorded rooms are given in table 1.4.

6 Based on figures from 29 SIDS returning figures.

7 UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook, Indicator 1.41.

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Table 1.4 Number of rooms in hotels/similar establishments, where reported (average value 2006–2010)

Top 10 SIDS for number of rooms Bottom 10 SIDS for number of rooms

Dominican Republic 65,796 Bonaire 1,229

Cuba 50,593 Solomon Islands 1,190

Singapore 40,846 Samoa 1,092

Jamaica 25,546 Vanuatu 1,072

Bahamas 15,370 Dominica 901

Puerto Rico 13,520 Timor-Leste 707

Maldives 11,684 Anguilla 652

Mauritius 11,308 Sao Tome and Principe 479

Aruba 9,459 Comoros 282

Fiji 9,150 Niue 56

Source: UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook, Basic data 4.14.

The significant size of the hotel sector in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, which cater more for mass market tourism than other SIDS, is striking. At the other end of the scale, the lack of hotel capacity is a challenge for a number of SIDS that are seeking to increase tourism as a sector of their economy, such as Comoros and Sao Tome and Principe.

The period 2006–2010 saw the number of recorded rooms available in SIDS grow on average by 15%. Seven SIDS recorded growth of more than 20%: Cook Islands (53%), Timor-Leste (39%), St Lucia (36%), Singapore (25%), Fiji (22%), Maldives (22%) and Cuba (20%).

During the same period, 2006–2010, data is available from 21 SIDS on their annual hotel room occupancy. The average for this group as a whole was 61.2%. This is significantly higher than the equivalent annual average room occupancy rate worldwide, which was 54.7% for hotels and similar establishments. Amongst the SIDS providing data, top performers were Singapore (82.8%), Curaçao – for the Netherlands Antilles (78.7%) – and Aruba (76.5%). Despite its very high stock of rooms, Dominican Republic also saw a high average room occupancy of 69.6%. Four other SIDS were at or above average in terms of room occupancy: Mauritius (67.2%), Puerto Rico (66.8%), Guam (64.2%) and Jamaica (61.2%). Belize recorded the lowest average room occupancy for the period (39.5%). Amongst those returning data, Fiji was the only other country amongst SIDS which failed to achieve 50% room occupancy.

1.3 Trends in International Arrivals

An important part of the story of the relationship between tourism and SIDS is told by the data on performance over time. Information is available from 37 SIDS on the volume of international arrivals of tourists staying for at least one night, for each year since 2000.

Table 1.5 shows SIDS ordered according to relative growth over the 10 year period 2000–2010. It also shows the growth achieved split between 2000–2005 and 2005–2010. The figures are expressed as an equivalent annual average for the period (i.e. the growth achieved is divided by 10 or 5 according to the length of period).

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Table 1.5 Growth in arrivals of overnight tourists (average annual growth rates for 5 and 10 year periods, %)

2000–2005 2005–2010 2000–2010

Solomon Islands 17.6 23.6 31.0

Suriname 36.5 5.5 26.0

Cape Verde 14.4 18.6 23.2

Niue 8.0 24.3 21.0

Fiji 17.1 3.2 11.5

Curaçao 3.2 10.8 7.9

Tuvalu 2.0 10.9 7.0

Maldives –3.1 20.1 7.0

Vanuatu 1.4 11.3 6.7

Singapore 3.4 5.9 5.1

Samoa 3.2 5.5 4.8

Jamaica 2.4 6.0 4.5

Cuba 6.0 2.2 4.4

Mauritius 3.2 4.6 4.3

Cook Islands 4.1 3.6 4.2

Anguilla 8.2 0.0 4.1

Dominican Republic 4.8 2.4 3.9

Seychelles –0.2 7.1 3.5

Tonga 4.0 1.4 2.9

Saint Kitts and Nevis 18.6 –7.0 2.6

Belize 4.2 0.2 2.2

British Virgin Islands 4.8 –0.4 2.1

Sao Tome and Principe 25.1 –9.9 1.4

Saint Lucia 3.6 –0.8 1.3

Antigua and Barbuda 3.7 –1.2 1.1

Puerto Rico 2.1 0.0 1.0

Dominica 2.6 –0.5 1.0

United States Virgin Islands 1.7 –0.1 0.8

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6.3 –5.0 –0.1

Barbados 0.1 –0.6 –0.2

Kiribati –3.6 2.9 –0.6

Guam –0.9 –0.5 –0.7

Marshall Islands 16.8 –10.0 –0.8

New Caledonia –1.6 –0.4 –1.0

Bahamas 0.8 –3.0 –1.1

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2000–2005 2005–2010 2000–2010

Montserrat –0.6 –7.2 –3.8

French Polynesia –3.5 –5.2 –3.9

Based on: UNWTO (2008); UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook.

The results show quite significant differences between individual SIDS and also in the performance achieved in the two different five year periods. In considering individual results it is important to appreciate that some countries, such as Niue and Tuvalu, have seen growth from a very low base.

In order to understand the picture more clearly, table 1.6 provides comparative data for groups of countries. In the top part of the table, the results for SIDS as a group are shown, followed by comparative figures for the whole world and separately for advanced and emerging economies. In the remainder of the table, the performance of different groups of SIDS can be compared, initially based on geographic region and then according to their level of development.

Table 1.6 Growth in arrivals of overnight tourists, by group (average annual growth rates for 5 and 10 year periods, %)

2000–2005 2005–2010 2000–2010

Total SIDSa 3.1 2.9 3.2

World 3.6 3.6 3.9

Advanced economies 1.7 2.0 1.9

Emerging economies 6.8 5.6 7.2

Regional comparison

AIMSb SIDS 2.9 6.4 5.1

Caribbean SIDS 3.4 1.2 2.4

Pacific SIDS 1.7 0.8 1.3

Development level comparison

High/High SIDS 2.0 2.4 2.4

Upper/High SIDS 4.2 2.8 3.8

Upper/Medium SIDS 5.4 4.7 5.7

Low/Low SIDS 19.4 –0.4 9.3

Notes: a) Where data available. b) Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South China Seas.

Based on: UNWTO (2008); UNWTO (2011); UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook.

These figures indicate that between 2000 and 2010 the group of SIDS as a whole experienced an annual average growth in arrivals of 3.2%. They did slightly better in the five years before 2005 than in the more recent five year period. These results fall slightly behind the world average for tourism growth. However, SIDS performed considerably better than the group of advanced economies, but less well than the emerging economies group which saw exceptional growth during this period.

The data shows some interesting regional differences. Taking the full ten years, the AIMS SIDS (mainly African and Indian Ocean) performed more strongly than those in the other regions. The Caribbean saw a significant falling off in growth rate in the last five years compared with the previous period. Overall, the Pacific has seen quite limited growth, although there have been considerable differences between individual SIDS in the region.

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Looking at the differences between the SIDS according to level of development, over the ten year period the rate of growth in tourism arrivals has been progressively higher in reverse proportion to the level of economic development between the four groups. It has been least amongst the highly developed group and greatest within the least developed group. This matches broadly the situation seen in the world figures. It is an encouraging result in terms to the potential for tourism to grow where it may be most needed economically. The comparative five year results suggest a degree of volatility (perhaps reflecting vulnerability) in the performance of the least developed countries (although only a few in this group have provided relevant figures, and they tend to be small).

A further story emerges when considering the annual performance of SIDS for each year since 2005. The picture is shown in a set of tables of international tourism arrivals presented in annex 2, which clearly illustrates the significant negative effect of the world economic recession on tourism arrivals to most SIDS. This is seen most strongly by the performance of Caribbean SIDS in 2008 and 2009, when many SIDS saw significant decline in arrivals. However, it is interesting to note the relatively good performance of the countries operating in the higher volume, lower price markets (Dominican Republic and Cuba). The picture does also show, however, the extremely strong recovery achieved in 2010, with almost all SIDS recording growth and half of them achieving their best performance since 2000 and possibly ever.

In many ways the performance of tourism in SIDS has matched world trends, but there are some differences. Table 1.7 shows the relative performance of the SIDS group compared with global tourism performance.

Table 1.7 Inbound tourism arrivals (overnight), annual results 2000, 2005–2010

2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Total SIDS (million) 22.97 26.49 27.68 28.28 28.38 27.47 30.19

World (million) 675.00 798.00 853.00 904.00 917.00 882.00 940.00

SIDS Market sharea (%) 3.40 3.32 3.25 3.13 3.09 3.11 3.21

Note: a) For 37 SIDS providing data.

Based on: UNWTO (2008); UNWTO (2011); UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook.

The figures show the strong and consistent growth in world tourism arrivals up to 2007, with a slackening in 2008 and decline in 2009 followed by a strong recovery in 2010. SIDS as a group have followed a broadly similar pattern. However, between 2000 and 2007 they were losing market share. In 2009 they declined slightly less severely that the world as a whole and in 2010 their recovery has been marginally even stronger. However, they have not recovered the level of market share that they had in 2000.

1.4 Tourism Spending and its Contribution to the Economy

This section provides evidence of the relative importance of tourism to the economy of SIDS. The evidence concentrates on inbound tourism expenditure, which is the amount paid by foreign visitors to a country for the acquisition of consumption goods and services, as well as valuables for own use or to give away, for and during a tourism trip. This is then compared with other data on trading and the size of the economy as a whole.

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Value of inbound arrivals – tourism expenditure

The annual value to SIDS of inbound tourism expenditure is in excess of US$ 38 billion. Table 1.8 shows how this is distributed amongst the 46 SIDS for which figures are available.

Between 2006 and 2010, eleven SIDS benefited from an average annual inbound tourism expenditure in excess of US$ 1 billion, with Singapore, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico topping the list. A further 20 SIDS have inbound tourism expenditure in excess of US$ 100 million, including the two recently graduated LDCs (Cape Verde and Maldives) and three other LDCs (Haiti, Vanuatu and Samoa).

Table 1.8 Inbound tourism expenditure (annual average 2006–2010, US$ million)

Singapore+ 10,180.6 Vanuatua 125.5

Dominican Republic+ 4,081.0 Samoaa 109.7

Puerto Rico 3,477.8 Bonaire+ 107.3

Cuba 2,401.8 Saint Kitts and Nevis+ 106.4

Jamaica 2,124.6 Anguilla+ 105.8

Bahamas 2,085.8 Cook Islands 103.0

Bahrain 1,920.6 Grenada+ 101.4

Mauritius 1,552.6 St Vincent and the Grenadines+ 98.8

United States Virgin Islands 1,491.8 Palau 90.0

Aruba 1,214.5 Suriname 80.8

Barbados 1,179.8 Dominica+ 79.8

French Polynesia 744.8 Guyana+ 52.2

Fiji 714.0 Solomon Islandsa 45.8

Maldives+b 620.0 Comorosa 32.5

Trinidad and Tobago 565.0 Guinea-Bissau+a 20.4

British Virgin Islands 407.5 Timor-Leste+a 19.0

Cape Verdeb 368.2 Tonga 17.2

Seychelles 365.4 Sao Tome and Principe+a 7.4

Curaçao 342.4 Montserrat+ 6.7

Antigua and Barbuda+ 321.0 Marshall Islands 4.2

Saint Lucia+ 306.4 Papua New Guinea 3.7

Belize+ 269.4 Kiribatia 3.0

Haiti+a 214.2 Niue 1.6

New Caledonia+ 137.8

Total inbound expenditure 38,409.0

Notes: + Figure given is for UNWTO Basic data code 1.34 (Travel) as no return for data code 1.33 (Total). Data not available for American Samoa, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands and Tuvalu. a) Least Developed Country (LDC). b) Recently graduated LDC.

Source: UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook.

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A small number of SIDS have provided data on average spend per day by inbound tourists. The results are shown in table 1.9, averaged between 2006 and 2010. All but one show a higher spend per day than the equivalent average global figure of US$ 103.6. However, the small database here precludes drawing conclusions from this.

Table 1.9 Average expenditure per day (US$)

Solomon Islands 170.7

St. Lucia 149.0

Belize 117.8

Jamaica 114.9

Dominican Republic 106.2

Aruba 101.8

Source: UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook, Indicator 1.44.

Contribution of tourism to the economy of SIDS

International tourism is a major contributor to the economy of many SIDS. While comprehensive data on the level of this contribution is not available across the group as a whole, some evidence of the relative importance of tourism to the economy of SIDS can be obtained from three sets of macroeconomic indicators reported by UNWTO. These show inbound tourism expenditure in relation to total exports of ‘goods and services’ and ‘services’ and in relation to GDP. The results are presented in table 1.10 for 35 SIDS for which data are available, averaged over 2006 to 2010.

Table 1.10 Contribution of tourism to exports and GDP, annual average 2006–2010 (%)

Inbound tourism expenditure over exports of goods

and services

Inbound tourism expenditure over

exports of services


GDP

Anguilla 77.3 86.0 42.6

Maldives 69.3 92.6 36.0

Bahamas 64.8 85.2 28.7

Samoa 62.7 77.4

Vanuatu 62.2 75.7

Cape Verde 61.4 73.7 23.3

Saint Lucia 60.3 85.0 31.9

Barbados 57.9 75.0 29.1

Grenada 57.2 71.7 16.3

Antigua and Barbuda 56.3 62.1 28.9

Dominica 52.3 70.8 22.2

Saint Kitts and Nevis 49.5 68.8 21.5

St Vincent and the Grenadines 48.8 64.6 15.1

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Inbound tourism expenditure over exports of goods

and services


exports of services


GDP

Fiji 45.7 85.1

Jamaica 44.4 78.9 16.8

Montserrat 42.4 50.7 14.7

Sao Tome and Principe 41.4 78.6

Tonga 40.2 54.2 5.3

Seychelles 38.9 76.6

Aruba 37.2 81.8 47.8

French Polynesia 36.7 42.7

Dominican Republic 35.9 83.9 9.4

Mauritius 34.4 69.2 18.3

Belize 33.4 73.1 20.5

Haiti 27.4 75.4 2.9

Solomon Islands 18.8 68.0

Guinea-Bissau 15.4 84.6 3.0

Bahrain 11.0 52.5 9.8

New Caledonia 7.5 26.5

Guyana 5.6 27.4 4.6

Suriname 4.7 31.7 3.2

Trinidad and Tobago 4.0 65.5 2.6

Singapore 2.4 10.7 5.2

Papua New Guinea 0.1 1.0

Puerto Rico … … 5.7

Source: UNCTAD (2011).

The results confirm the highly significant share of total exports that is attributable to tourism in a large number of SIDS from all regions of the world, providing an essential source of foreign exchange earnings. Tourism’s share of exports of services is particularly high; there are 15 SIDS where tourism represents 75% or more of the value of exports in services and a further 13 where it represents more than half the value of exports in services.

It is important to observe the position of the Maldives, Samoa, Vanuatu and Cape Verde amongst the six countries with the highest share of exports of goods and services attributable to tourism. These countries also saw strong growth in tourist arrivals between 2005 and 2010, as was shown in table 1.5. As has been pointed out earlier, Maldives and Cape Verde are the most recently graduated LDCs, largely as a result of the contribution of tourism to their economic development. Samoa is embarked on a path to graduation in 2014 and Vanuatu is currently being considered as a candidate for this transition. Again, the influence of tourism is highly important in the development status of these two countries. Two further SIDS meet the criteria for graduation, Tuvalu and Kiribati, but here equivalent data on the contribution of tourism is not available.

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The indicator that relates inbound tourism expenditure to GDP reflects the weight of expenditure by inbound visitors as a part of the total value of economic activity in the country concerned. From the perspective of international trade, this indicator captures the economic importance of foreign revenue inflow associated with expenditure by such visitors. The data in table 1.10 shows the strong role played by tourism in the economy of many SIDS, with the ratio of inbound tourism expenditure to GDP being over 20% in over 40% of SIDS for which data is available.

These data, on share of exports and contribution to GDP, only provide a general indication of the impact of tourism on local economies. The UNWTO has been encouraging countries to engage in more robust measurement of tourism as an economic activity, notably through the use of Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs). TSAs use data from the demand side (the acquisition of goods and services while on a tourism trip) and from the supply side (the value of goods and services produced by industries in response to visitor expenditure) of the economy. More information on TSAs and other data handling activity is available from UNWTO (UNWTO, 2010). By 2010 a small number of SIDS were developing TSAs, namely Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Singapore.

Maintaining up to date evidence of the relative contribution of tourism to the international trading position of SIDS and to the size and performance of the economy is very important in guiding future policies and actions on the sustainable development of tourism in the countries concerned. Actions to address the competitiveness and vulnerability of SIDS and to gain more economic benefit, for example through reducing leakages and strengthening local supply chains, are covered in the next chapter.

Tourism as a presence amongst the population

Further evidence on the relative significance of tourism in SIDS can be seen from the relationship between visitor numbers and population size. This is known as carrying capacity and is published as an annual indicator by UNWTO.

Taking the group as a whole, the annual tourism arrivals outnumber the total population size by a ratio of 2.3 to 1. The spread of results between individual SIDS is shown in table 1.11, grouped according to the size of the ratio. Figures for individual countries are given in annex 1.

Table 1.11 Annual tourism arrivals per head of population

4.0–10.0 Aruba (7.4); Guam; Bahrain; United States Virgin Islands; Northern Mariana Islands; Bahamas; Palau (4.3)

1.1–3.0 Antigua and Barbuda (2.9); Curaçao; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Maldives; Barbados; Seychelles; Saint Lucia; Singapore; Grenada; Dominica (1.1)

0.4–1.0 Puerto Rico (0.9); Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Belize; French Polynesia; Mauritius; Samoa; Fiji; Jamaica; Cape Verde; Tonga; New Caledonia; American Samoa; Vanuatu; Dominican Republic (0.4)

0.0–0.3 Trinidad and Tobago (0.3); Suriname; Cuba, Micronesia, Federated States of; Guyana; Tuvalu; Marshall Islands; Sao Tome and Principe; Kiribati; Comoros; Solomon Islands; Haiti; Timor-Leste; Papua New Guinea; Guinea-Bissau (0.0)

Source: UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook, Complementary indicator 6.2.

These figures can be seen both as a challenge and an opportunity. Where the figures are high this can be indicative of a relative pressure on the population and competition for resources, which may be exacerbated by seasonal fluctuations in arrivals. Looked at more positively, they can also be seen as a measure of the relative opportunity for local people to engage in tourism and provide services to visitors.

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Chapter 2

Tourism and Sustainable Development Challenges in SIDS

The significance of tourism to the economy of many SIDS and the opportunity for them to achieve further growth in the sector is clear from the evidence presented in chapter 1. A fundamental challenge is how to secure development through tourism that is sustainable and takes account of the special characteristics and needs of SIDS. The concern that poorly managed tourism could be damaging to their environments, communities and other economic sectors was expressed back at the time of the Barbados Plan of Action. The need for its effective planning and management has been underlined in all subsequent declarations. This is not just about minimising any negative impacts. An essential aim must be to shape the development of tourism in SIDS so that they receive all the positive benefits for the economy, society and environment that the sector is so well placed to deliver.

This chapter looks first at concepts and criteria for sustainable tourism and its contribution to sustainable development and a green economy. It then considers these in the context of SIDS and identifies particular challenges, issues and opportunities that they need to address in pursuing sustainable tourism. Finally, it looks at how SIDS can be best placed to respond, through having the right policy frameworks, delivery structures and management tools in place.

2.1 Sustainable Tourism and The Green Economy

Tourism is in a unique position compared with many other economic sectors in that it has a two-way relationship with the environment and local communities. Not only does it have a responsibility towards their conservation and wellbeing, it is also dependent on destinations being attractive, safe and welcoming. As an economic sector whose product is the visitor experience, it is well placed to link consumer spending directly to the local communities and environments in which it occurs.

Sustainable development through tourism requires an approach to the sector which is itself sustainable. Expressed simply, sustainable tourism can be defined as ‘tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of the visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities’ (UNWTO and UNEP, 2005).

It is important to appreciate that while a range of specific impacts and benefits of tourism can be found at a local level, making tourism more sustainable is equally a global challenge. Moreover, sustainable tourism is not a special form of tourism; all forms of tourism should strive to be more sustainable.

An agenda for sustainable tourism

In 2005 UNWTO and UNEP prepared a guide for policy makers on making tourism more sustainable (UNWTO and UNEP, 2005). This expanded on what is required of destinations in pursuing sustainable tourism, through setting out 12 aims, which are presented in box 2.1.

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Box 2.1 12 Aims for Sustainable Tourism

1) Economic viability: To ensure the viability and competitiveness of tourism destinations and enterprises, so that they are able to continue to prosper and deliver benefits in the long term.

2) Local prosperity: To maximize the contribution of tourism to the prosperity of the host destination, including the proportion of visitor spending that is retained locally.

3) Employment quality: To strengthen the number and quality of local jobs created and supported by tourism, including the level of pay, conditions of service and availability to all without discrimination by gender, race, disability or in other ways.

4) Social equity: To seek a widespread distribution of economic and social benefits from tourism throughout the recipient community, including improving opportunities, income and services available to the poor.

5) Visitor fulfilment: To provide a safe, satisfying and fulfilling experience for visitors, available to all without discrimination by gender, race, disability or in other ways.

6) Local control: To engage and empower local communities in planning and decision making about the management and future development of tourism in their area, in consultation with other stakeholders.

7) Community wellbeing: To maintain and strengthen the quality of life in local communities, including social structures and access to resources, amenities and life support systems, avoiding any form of social degradation or exploitation.

8) Cultural richness: To respect and enhance the historic heritage, authentic culture, traditions and distinctiveness of host communities.

9) Physical integrity: To maintain and enhance the quality of landscapes, both urban and rural, and avoid the physical and visual degradation of the environment.

10) Biological diversity: To support the conservation of natural areas, habitats and wildlife, and minimize damage to them.

11) Resource efficiency: To minimize the use of scarce and non-renewable resources in the development and operation of tourism facilities and services.

12) Environmental purity: To minimize the pollution of air, water and land and the generation of waste by tourism enterprises and visitors.

UNEP and UNWTO (2005).

These aims relate equally to economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism, which are closely interrelated. They reflect underlying principles of environmental responsibility, social inclusion and local engagement and are fully in line with the UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, which has been endorsed by the UN General Assembly (UNWTO, 1999).

The 12 aims provide an agenda for sustainable tourism in SIDS as in any other destination. Tourism policies should be designed to be in line with this set of aims. The specific aims have particular consequences for SIDS and these are brought out later in this chapter.

More recently, the worldwide agenda for sustainable tourism has been further articulated by the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria, which are described in box 2.2. ht

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19Tourism and Sustainable Development Challenges in SIDS

Box 2.2 Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC)

The GSTC, which were launched in 2008, were developed in collaboration with the UNWTO and various other public and private sector bodies and institutions. While they were developed for tourism businesses and form the basis for accrediting enterprise certification schemes, they are also being adapted to cover destinations.

The criteria cover:

Management processes, including having a long term sustainability management system in place and providing related training and information;

social impacts, generating benefits to the local community and avoiding exploitation;

cultural impacts, protecting heritage sites and traditions and encouraging appropriate use and reflection of them;

environmental impacts, conserving resources through purchasing policies and measuring and minimising consumption, reducing pollution and respecting biodiversity and landscapes.

Some sustainability certification schemes for businesses operating within SIDS are already related to the criteria. Their influence is growing through the market place and a number of sizeable tour operators, multinational service providers and global distribution systems and on-line travel agents have committed to them.

Tourism: Towards a Green Economy

A further basis for guiding the sustainable development of tourism in SIDS is provided by concepts of a Green Economy. The key theme of the Rio+20 conference in 2012 is ‘a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication’. A Green Economy can be defined as an economy that results in improved human well-being and reduced inequalities over the long term, while not exposing future generations to significant environmental risks and ecological scarcities. Tourism has been identified as one of ten economic sectors best able to lead the shift to a green economy.

The global Green Economy Report (UNEP, 2011a) makes a case for, and provides guidance on, investing in specific environmentally significant sectors as a medium and long term economic strategy. UNWTO collaborated with UNEP on the chapter on tourism. This identifies the merits of investing in tourism as an appropriate sector, owing to its potential for delivering sustainable growth, while also investing in actions to reduce its environmental impact, showing how this can lead to economic benefits while strengthening its social and environmental context.

Tourism is recognised as a driver of economic growth in the world economy and also as a sector that can be shaped to deliver high levels of employment and alleviation of poverty. However, in terms of environmental impact it presents significant challenges owing to rapid growth in greenhouse gas emissions attributable to tourism, largely accounted for by transport and to a less extent by accommodation. It is also prone to excessive water consumption and waste generation.

The Green Economy Report demonstrates how significant cost savings and economic returns can be made through management of energy, water and waste, already demonstrated by a number of hotels. It also points to growing market demand for more sustainable forms of tourism. A modelling exercise shows how a green investment scenario could radically reduce the environmental impact while gaining even more economic benefit (see box 2.3).

The conclusions in the report point to a strong need to mobilise the private sector, and especially SMEs, to invest in environmental management, assisted by financial support and incentives to overcome their lack of capital which is seen as the greatest barrier to change. They also identify a strong need for

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government investment in environmental technology and, particularly, in cultural and natural assets. Finally, the preparation of destination planning and development strategies, involving all stakeholders, was prescribed as the first step towards the greening of tourism.

Box 2.3 Modelling a green investment scenario for tourism

A modelling exercise for the Green Economy Report compares the impacts of a Business As Usual (BAU) scenario with a Green Investment (GI) scenario, the latter involving a programme of investment in energy saving, water and waste management, staff training and biodiversity conservation amounting to 0.2% of global GDP up to 2050.

The GI scenario assumes a strong growth in overall tourism demand during this period. However, it is based on a lower rate of growth in international tourist arrivals, compensated for by longer average stays in the destination. It also assumes that tourism journeys would be shorter than in the BAU scenario and there would be a significant modal shift from car and air travel to bus and rail.

Compared with BAU, the GI scenario would deliver by 2050:

44% less energy use;

52% less CO2 emissions;

18% less water consumption;

7% more value in terms of tourism GDP (driven by relatively more overnights).

Drivers for change towards a greener tourism sector are seen as:

consumer demand changes;

business actions to reduce operational costs and increase competitiveness;

technology improvements;

coherent policy and regulations;

greater social and environmental responsibility and emphasis on natural resource conservation.

Tourism chapter in Green Economy Report, UNEP (2011a).

The Green Economy Report has significant implications for SIDS, both in terms of the implications for local public and private investment in measures to strengthen environmental management, and in the potential implications for future markets and travel patterns. SIDS already perform quite well in terms of attracting longer stay tourists on main holiday trips, as favoured by a green model, but could be disadvantaged should there be a shift to shorter journeys, fewer trips and alternative transport modes.

2.2 Sustainable Tourism Issues for SIDS

The ability of SIDS to respond to the sustainable tourism agenda and the specific issues that they face in doing so are dictated by their particular circumstances.

Four inherent characteristics of SIDS, which have implications for the economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism, are:

Small size: Affects many things, including: pressure and competition for limited resources (land, human resources, natural resources, local produce); economic diversity; ability to adapt; cultural sensitivity.

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Remoteness: Affects access to markets; costs of trading; access to services; cultural sensitivity.

Maritime and island situation: Affects the quality and sensitivity of the environment and biodiversity; mode of access; exposure to climate change and natural forces.

Tropical location: Affects the nature of the resource base and exposure to climate risks.

Despite these basic common characteristics, SIDS as a group exhibit a wide range of differences which also affect their individual ability to respond to sustainable tourism opportunities and challenges. These include their current level of economic development and levels of tourism investment and activity.

The sections below look in more detail at the various elements of the sustainable tourism agenda and their implications for SIDS, bearing in mind the above characteristics. It is loosely based on the 12 aims for sustainable tourism presented earlier, grouped into five key topics.

2.2.1 Economic Competitiveness

This is about the viability of businesses and the overall ability of the destination to achieve and sustain a successful tourism economy. It is affected by both supply and demand side factors, including the ability of the country to secure investment and to attract visitors and fulfil their needs.

Overall performance and policy response

An indication of the competitiveness of SIDS in the tourism sector can be seen from the performance of SIDS as a whole and of each country as considered in chapter 1.

The level of international arrivals in most SIDS was affected by the economic crisis of 2008–2009 with some SIDS seeing a much greater downturn than others during this period.1 The extent or recovery in volume of arrivals in 2010 has been impressive in many SIDS. However, in general, taking SIDS as a whole, there has been a small loss of market share since 2000.2

The variation in performance over the past five years has been partly affected by the general state of the global economy and how this has played out in the major source markets for each of the SIDS. This has varied to some extent around the world. For example, the level of tourist arrivals amongst the Pacific group of SIDS was less affected by the global economic crisis, at least initially, owing to the relatively strong performance of the Australian economy during this period. The Caribbean and Indian Ocean SIDS, by contrast, saw a large fall in arrivals from the United States of America and Europe, which had a significant impact on their tourism earnings, and, owing to the relative importance of the sector, on their overall economic performance.

The response in some SIDS to the decline in tourism income was to take measures to increase their competitiveness. Policy responses in parts of the Caribbean, for example, have included a reduction in taxes and interest rates, initiatives to boost SMEs, and marketing programmes. Strategies have been pursued to diversify products and markets and to seek more valued-added from the existing levels of tourism. A number of tourism enterprises reduced their prices significantly and some SIDS, for example in the Pacific, devalued their currencies partly to become more competitive destinations for the tourism sector (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2009).

A study in the Maldives (UNWTO and ILO, 2010) found that actions to strengthen promotion and introduce short term discounted offers had proved successful in strengthening competitiveness. Further measures, including product and market diversification, easing tax burdens, expanding training outreach and extending loans to small business, should also help to reduce vulnerability. This study, and the recommendations arising from it, is covered in more detail in section 2.2.

1 Annual data on arrivals since 2005 are provided for each of the SIDS in annex 2.

2 Total arrivals and market share data were provided in table 1.7.

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While it has not been possible to undertake an analysis of policy responses in SIDS to the economic crisis, it appears that some of the restructuring measures undertaken in some countries may provide a basis for a more sustainable sector in the longer term. However, care must be taken to be alert to the net effect of pricing and exchange rate policy on the overall economy.

Factors affecting tourism competitiveness

A wide range of factors are responsible for the competitiveness of destinations. The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, published by the World Economic Forum (World Economic Forum, 2011), is based on 75 variables grouped into 10 pillars covering: policy rules and regulations; environmental sustainability; safety and security; health and hygiene; prioritization of travel and tourism; air transport infrastructure; ground transport infrastructure; tourism infrastructure; ICT infrastructure; price competitiveness; human resources; affinity for travel and tourism; natural resources and cultural resources.

Only 11 of the 52 SIDS are covered in the Index, namely Bahrain, Barbados, Cape Verde, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Timor-Leste and Trinidad and Tobago. However, these alone illustrate the very wide spread between SIDS in their degree of tourism competitiveness, ranging from Singapore (ranked 10th in the world) and Barbados (28th) to Guyana (98th) and Timor-Leste (134th) out of 139 countries. While the small number of SIDS covered does not make it worthwhile to present the full results here, an impression can be gained of the relative competitiveness of SIDS by looking at those which were ranked in the top 25 countries for each of the different variables. A few interesting points can be observed, namely:

Relative tourism competitiveness between the SIDS appears to be broadly correlated with level of development.

The competitiveness variables where the SIDS did comparatively best were ‘the relative priority given to the tourism sector by government’ and ‘the openness of the country to tourism’, including issues such as visa regimes.

Some SIDS fared well on indices covering the provision of certain services per head of population – for example Barbados, which has a well-developed infrastructure for a small population. This could be seen as an advantage of being small and may be shared by a number of SIDS.

A number of important aspects of competitiveness are covered later in this report, notably accessibility (chapter 3) and marketing (chapter 5).

A key competitiveness issue for tourism is the overall ability to conduct business. The World Bank ranks 183 economies by ‘ease of doing business’, with 34 of the SIDS appearing in the rankings (World Bank, 2011). This covers matters such as starting businesses, obtaining credit and making contracts. Results for 2011 saw only 4 SIDS appearing in the top 50 countries – Singapore (which was best in the world), Mauritius (23rd), Bahrain (38th) and Puerto Rico (43rd). Many of the smaller Caribbean and Pacific SIDS are middle ranking. Some SIDS where international tourism is important are doing less well – e.g. Seychelles (103rd), Dominican Republic (108th) and Cape Verde (119th). Lowest rankings were achieved by Haiti (174th) and Guinea-Bissau (176th). On a positive note, regionally some SIDS perform better in terms of ease of doing business than other countries in their region. Mauritius leads the ranking amongst all African countries and outperforms many advanced economies. The Maldives tops the rankings amongst South Asian states.

The political stability of a country and its level of safety and security can be a critical issue for tourism, affecting the decisions of both tourists and investors. As a group of countries, SIDS have been relatively stable and secure. A study of international travel advice to LDCs in 2011 (United Nations Development Programme, 2011) showed that those which are SIDS are much less likely to be subject to travel warnings. However, there are exceptions at any one time. Fiji, for example saw a strong downturn in tourism during a recent period of political instability (although this did have a knock-on beneficial effect

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on neighbouring SIDS such as Samoa). In general, tourism has demonstrated a strong ability to return quickly to growth when security issues have been resolved.

Foreign Direct Investment and local engagement

The nature of the business environment in a country, together with international trends in tourism demand, influences its ability to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This in turn can be very important to its ability to secure the necessary quantity and quality of tourist accommodation, facilities and services to be internationally competitive. On the other hand, some countries have been concerned about over reliance on FDI as this raises issues of local control and sustainability and may adversely affect opportunities for local investors.

The level of FDI in tourism globally has been found to be more limited than in many other sectors (UNCTAD, 2007) and it also varies around the world. The Caribbean is amongst the regions which dominate as recipients of FDI, while the Pacific receives relatively little. In the Maldives up to 80% of FDI has been directed to the tourism sector. Some poorer SIDS are very dependent on FDI for major investment in new product. In Comoros, for example, a hotel redevelopment programme that was seen as central to the country’s tourism was held back by the international investors for a range of global and local reasons.

The liberalisation of investment policies is important in attracting FDI. Various models have been adopted to pursue this while at the same time securing local engagement, such as:

offering trans-national corporations contracts to manage a hotel or resort which is locally owned, enabling the delivery of essential benefits from the TNC’s brand, management skills and training. Many international brand hotels located in SIDS do not involve full foreign equity investment in the property;

inserting conditions to strengthen links between FDI and local SMEs;

adopting policies and criteria to control the proportion of FDI in certain circumstances. Some countries, for example, have restricted foreign investment in smaller enterprises to under 50% of equity.

Some SIDS have been active both in attracting FDI and in seeking to strengthen local investment and engagement. In Seychelles, for example, there are policies to increase the proportion of locally based investment in some types of tourism product.

Financial incentives can be important in stimulating investment, but this needs to be equitable. In Cape Verde, for example, it was reported that the taxation regime was generous for approved foreign investors (5 years holiday from corporation tax and 2 years exemption from importation duty) (ODI, 2008). However, it was noted that these benefits applied to members of the diaspora but not to domestic investors which had the effect of discriminating against indigenous enterprise.

2.2.2 Local Prosperity and Poverty Alleviation

This aspect of sustainable tourism is concerned with maximising the retention of tourism income in the local economy, the creation of quality employment and the equitable distribution of economic benefits within society, providing opportunities for poor communities.

The contribution of tourism to local prosperity and how this reaches different parts of the economy and society is best understood by considering the structure and performance of the tourism value chain. This is made up of a complex set of components which constitute the visitor experience (travel to and within the destination, sleeping, eating, shopping, visits and activities, and return home) and all the transactions associated with them, including the supply linkages behind each one. In the last decade,

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tourism value chain analysis has been carried out in a number of countries and local destinations in order to assess income flows in the tourism sector and the percentage that flows to poorer groups of the society with a view to identifying interventions to help enhance tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction. An example for Cape Verde is described in box 2.4.

Box 2.4 Value chain analysis in Cape Verde

A value chain approach in tourism can help to explain why the poor receive a bigger share of tourism in some destinations than in others, and how, by ‘following the dollar’, it is possible to focus on key points along the chain where interventions could expand income opportunities for the poor, within a commercial service sector.

By looking at the wages and profits earned by poor households across all the inter-related strands of a value chain, it is possible to understand how changes in value chain performance would affect them. A simple value chain analysis was undertaken in Cape Verde in 2008, as one part of a larger study examining many aspects of contemporary tourism in order to inform recommendations on a programme of interventions to improve the developmental impact of tourism in Cape Verde.

Value chain analysis follows a step-by-step, iterative approach. Phase 1, Diagnosis, starts with ‘mapping the big picture’: enterprises and other actors in the tourism sector, links between them, demand and supply data etc. The next step is to identify where the poor do and not participate. Fieldwork interviews are then conducted in each node of the chain, with tourists and with service providers, including both current and potential poor participants. The final step in this 1st diagnosis phase is to estimate expenditure flows through the chain and how much accrues to the poor, looking at their returns and any factors that would enable or inhibit earnings.

The study in Cape Verde identified four elements of the value chain for further investigation:

1. Direct jobs in the tourist sector – This involved estimating the number of jobs in the tourism workforce, including hotel workers; the proportion in non-management grades and, of those, the likely proportion from poor backgrounds; the average non-management wage (€ 29.5 million).

2. Indirect links with the construction sector – This involved estimating the numbers of FTE construction workers actively building tourism assets in Cape Verde, and their average daily wage rates; almost all constructions workers appear to be from poor backgrounds (€ 17.5 million).

3. Indirect links with agricultural supplies – This involved estimating the value of local purchases of food and beverages, based on spend by hotels on food and beverages; the proportion of this that is supplied locally, and the nature and source of these goods; and linking this to the contribution of agriculture and fisheries to GDP and output per farmer (€ 1.4 million).

4. Taxation – This mechanism for transferring resources from tourist to poor works appears to be supported in Cape Verde through progressive policies relating to poverty reduction; involves estimating visa and income tax paid by tourism workers (€ 7.8 million).

Based on this exercise, it was estimated that about 18% of total annual tourist expenditure of € 270 million in Cape Verde flows directly to people from poor backgrounds, through these four main pathways.

While this figure is important in its own right, the power of value chain analysis lies in the way that it can be used to inform the scoping and prioritising of opportunities to increase the flow of tourism income to the poor, by selecting areas where it is possible to introduce change, and analysing blockages, options and partners in order to generate possible interventions. The report for Cape Verde made a series of recommendations, which include:

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recognising that tourism in Cape Verde does not currently take place where poor people live;

ensuring the availability of indigenous workers with the correct skills to participate fully in the tourism sector as it moves forward;

working with the construction sector to identify and train Cape Verdean workers to occupy higher skilled positions with attractive wage levels;

identifying specific agricultural inputs required by the tourist industry which are particularly appropriate for cultivation in Cape Verde;

reviewing the fiscal incentives awarded to the tourist industry to create a more level playing field between foreign and domestic companies.

Source: ODI (2008).

Poverty alleviation through tourism has been a central area of policy and support by the UNWTO. One of its main activities is the ST-EP (Sustainable Tourism – Elimination of Poverty) initiative. Within ST-EP, UNWTO has regularly used value chain analysis to study income flows in the tourism sector and identify opportunities for poor groups in society to benefit from tourism. The initiative has defined seven mechanisms for delivering economic benefit to the poor (UNWTO, 2004b), which have been used in the consideration of projects supported by ST-EP:

1. employment of the poor in tourism enterprises;

2. supply of goods and services to tourism enterprises by the poor or by enterprises employing the poor;

3. direct sales of goods and services to visitors by the poor (informal economy);

4. establishment and running of small, micro or community-based tourism enterprises or joint ventures by the poor (formal economy);

5. redistribution of proceeds from tax or charge on tourists or tourism enterprises;

6. voluntary giving and support by tourists or tourism enterprises;

7. investment in infrastructure stimulated by tourism also benefiting the poor in the locality, directly or through support to other sectors.

Guidance on the application of these mechanisms has been further developed in a manual for destinations on tourism and poverty alleviation (UNWTO and SNV, 2010). Each of these mechanisms is relevant in SIDS, especially those SIDS that are LDCs. Three in particular are considered further below.

Tourism employment in SIDS

The level of tourism employment in SIDS varies considerably across the group, depending primarily on the size of the tourism economy. In the Caribbean alone, for example, it ranges from 4,200 jobs in Anguilla to over 550,000 in the Dominican Republic (Oxford Economics, 2010).

Sustainable tourism principles underline the importance of providing fair jobs that meet international labour standards with respect to pay and conditions. Little evidence is available for SIDS as such on these issues. Much will depend on the policy of the employing company as well as the destination country. Some evidence suggests that international companies may be more likely to offer better conditions of service than local employers (UNCTAD, 2007) but this will vary.

A feature of some SIDS is the relatively high level of non-native employees in the tourism sector. For example, foreign workers account for significant proportions of tourism jobs in the Maldives, Mauritius

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and Seychelles (UNDP, 2011). This may be partly a feature of the small size of the local population, but also can reflect traditional patterns of employment. In Seychelles, there is an initiative to seek to strengthen local interest and engagement in tourism employment.

The relative lack of education and training facilities for tourism that are accessible locally within SIDS has been a limiting factor. This has been addressed by more local provision both of higher level tourism and managerial courses and of skills training. The relatively new University of Seychelles provides an example. In the Maldives the practical tourism training programmes of the College of Higher Education have been oversubscribed and it has been recommended to allow more activities at atoll level and to benefit more women (UNDP, 2011).

A further structural issue affecting the potential for tourism employment opportunities to be taken up by people from relatively poor communities concerns the location of tourism development and the ease of access. In Cape Verde, for example, an important issue was found to be that the highest incidence of poverty occurs on islands that do not contain the main hotel and resort areas. This is a situation that may be reflected in a number of other SIDS.

The vulnerability of tourism employment in SIDS is an area of concern. A study in 2010 by UNWTO and ILO, which looked at the impact of the economic crisis on the employment of the poor in the tourism sector, included the Maldives as one of the countries chosen for study. The results, together with some important recommendations with wider applicability, are presented in box 2.5.

Box 2.5 The economic crisis and employment of the poor

In 2010 UNWTO and ILO undertook a joint study, supported by The Rapid Impact and Vulnerability Analysis Fund (RIVAF), into the effects of the global economic crisis on the employment of poor and vulnerable groups in the tourism sector. The three study areas were Costa Rica, Tanzania and the Maldives.

In the Maldives, the study found that the decline in demand and spending had forced operators in the accommodation industry to adopt cost reduction strategies that significantly impacted on the labour market. Research showed that 1,477 foreign and 1,200 domestic employees (44% and 10% of the foreign and domestic workforce in hotels, respectively) lost their jobs. In addition, reduced tourism spending resulted in a significant decrease in takings from the service charge, which is an important part of the income for low skilled workers.

The final recommendations from the study covered three main areas:

1) Strengthen crisis monitoring, through better generation and monitoring of tourism and employment data and indicators.

2) Introduce measures to improve the long term resilience of the tourism sector and accelerate recovery:

– increased marketing activity, combined with efforts to diversify market segments, including developing the domestic tourism market;

– infrastructural improvements;

– easing visa regulations;

– reducing bottlenecks for air access;

– ensuring active collaboration between the public and private sector and local communities.

3) Take actions to mitigate the impact of crises on poor and vulnerable groups who rely on the tourism sector:

– granting tourism companies additional liquidity, linking credit conditions to employee retention schemes;

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– giving priority to tourism SMEs to access economic recovery schemes offered by governments;

– placing special emphasis on training, in particular for women and low-skilled workers;

– promoting equal distribution of state tourism revenue, e.g. from national parks;

– improving working conditions of unskilled and low-skilled employees;

– introducing or improving social insurance schemes.

Source: UNWTO and ILO (2010).

Economic leakages and local supply chains

Economic leakage in the tourism sector refers to a situation where part of the tourism earnings leak out of the national economy through the purchase of imported goods and services or as a result of the repatriation of profits by overseas developers and operators. Tourism leakages in some SIDS economies can be as high as 56% (UN-OHRLLS, 2011b). The situation needs to be addressed by encouraging local investment and use of locally supplied goods and services.

Much work has been done in developing countries in studying the development of local supply chains in tourism. As a general conclusion, it is clear that to gain more benefit there needs to be an active programme of intervention to strengthen the value chain linkages for the poor (Spenceley, 2010).

A particular opportunity for poor communities to benefit from the tourism sector is through the link with agriculture in producing food for use in resorts, hotels and restaurants. Compared with some countries, however, this can be a particular challenge for SIDS. Many have quite weak agricultural sectors owing partly to their size, terrain and climate. In many SIDS agricultural production has declined. In Asia Pacific between 2000 and 2007, six of the ten countries showing the greatest decline in food production were SIDS and, whereas the majority of countries saw an increase in production, the majority of SIDS saw a decline (United Nations and Asian Development Bank, 2012). The widening gap between the fish needed for food security and the fish available from coastal fisheries in many countries in the Pacific region, exacerbated by population growth, is also a concern (DESA, 2010).

Although data on supply chains is very partial and sporadic, the proportion of foodstuffs used by hotels and resorts that is sourced locally appears to vary widely between the SIDS and also between individual properties. In Mauritius a survey of hotels found that they purchased more than 90% of food items locally (UNCTAD, 2008). By contrast in Cape Verde it was found that while food and beverages accounted for 32% of the operating costs of hotels, little of this was sourced locally. The country imports around 80% of its food supplies and this is reflected in the practice of the local wholesalers used by the hotels (ODI, 2008).

A workshop held by ITC (International Trade Center) in collaboration with UNWTO and the UN Steering Committee on Tourism for Development has looked specifically at integrating agriculture and horticulture into the tourism supply chain (ITC, 2011) and involved participants from SIDS. Its main conclusions were that:

it is possible to establish viable value chains between small-scale farmers and the hospitality sector, but no one model fits all and it can be difficult and take a long time to accomplish;

all stakeholders must be involved from the beginning and understand the needs of the market;

quality and consistency are key parameters for the hospitality industry;

the demand by customers for different kinds of food varies between hotels;

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intermediaries are needed to mitigate the risks – fluctuation in supply, quality assurance, transport and storage problems – and pool produce from several small producers. These could be cooperatives or commercial operations, but their practices need to be monitored;

a public-private partnership can be needed to facilitate the supply chains and help to overcome challenges, such as concerning infrastructure, training, credit and supportive legislation;

by engaging successfully with the hospitality sector, producers can offer quality assurance that is helpful in supplying other sectors.

The need to engage in programmes to strengthen the supply chain linkages for tourism has been recognised in a number of SIDS. The Diagnostic Trade Integration Study for Vanuatu, for example, points to the establishment of an intermediary organization to on-sell products to the tourism sector, while for Comoros a public private partnership to target projects along the tourism value chain has been recommended, which would provide training for future entrepreneurs (UNDP, 2011). Work on strengthening linkages between the established tourism industry and local farmers has been a subject of study, debate and action in the Caribbean for a number of years. Some aspects of this are described in box 2.6.

Box 2.6 Developing links between agriculture and tourism in the Caribbean

Over the past decade, there has been much activity to study, support and develop the links between agriculture and tourism across the Caribbean and at a number of levels, from small communities to all-inclusive resorts and whole island nations.

An ‘Eat Jamaican’ campaign was launched in 2003 by several Jamaican associations including the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), to promote locally-produced goods to residents, visitors and exporters. SuperClubs, one of the leading all-inclusive tourism companies globally, made commitments to support the produce of local farmers. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with JAS, under which SuperClubs agreed to trade with the JAS through a central marketing company, to work with JAS to provide incentives for local farmers, and to assist with designing technical assistance programmes.

The United Kingdom-based Travel Foundation (TF) has worked in the Caribbean since 2004. Tobago, which traditionally had a thriving agricultural economy, was no longer self-sufficient in food and much of the produce consumed by the tourism industry was being imported. TF programmes were established to help local people earn a better living from farming and to foster links between the agriculture and tourism industries. The Adopt-a-Farmer Project supported 25 farmers in supplying hotels with locally grown produce. In St Lucia, where hotels were importing as much as 87% of fresh produce, TF partnered with Oxfam and Virgin Holidays to develop stronger supply linkages between farmers and hotels, helping farmers to understand the needs of the hotel industry in order to improve planning of the produce that they grow.

An Agrotourism Linkages project on Barbados, supported by a number of agencies including the Organisation of American States, Commonwealth Secretariat, and Caribbean Development Bank, carried out a programme of activities which brought together the agricultural and tourism sectors. Investment proposals were supported for two new agro-tourism sites in rural Barbados, studies carried out on trade and culinary tourism, and a Suppliers Catalogue was produced for the tourism sector. The Culinary Alliance of Barbados hosted a 10-day Taste of Barbados Culinary Festival and the Plantation Breakfast, now a feature event at the annual 3-day AgroFest.

At a regional level ‘Agriculture – Harvesting Wealth through Tourism’ was the theme of the 7th Caribbean Week of Agriculture in 2007. Supported by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and CARICOM, over 250 participants, including Ministers of Agriculture, farmers and representatives from the hospitality industry, met together for a series of workshops and seminars. The highlight of

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the week as an agri-business exhibition and trade show, designed to bring together the agriculture and tourism sectors by showcasing the best of the Caribbean’s primary and value-added agriculture products. IICA have continued their involvement, co-ordinating a workshop in 2011 which brought together representatives from 16 Caribbean nations to develop a regional action plan for strengthening agro-tourism linkages.

Source: UNWTO and SNV (2010); The Travel Foundation (2010); IICA (2008); IICA (2011).

It is important to appreciate that action to strengthen local purchasing within the tourism sector can relate to direct sales to tourists as well as through the supply chain and can apply to a variety of goods and services, not just food. A good example is provided by Pure Fiji, a producer of natural body products which started in a family kitchen using local coconuts. The growth of tourism in Fiji, and increased consumer demand, has provided a ready market and demand for cosmetics. Pure Fiji now supplies most of the major hotels and upmarket spas across Fiji, and Air Pacific uses Pure Fiji fragrance sprays and towels on its aircraft (UNWTO and UN Women, 2010).

SMEs and community based tourism in SIDS

One mechanism for strengthening community benefit from tourism is the establishment of small local enterprises in the tourism sector, including those that are community based and focussed.

The incidence of small independent and home based accommodation provision may be quite limited in many SIDS and often far lower than is found in many developed economies. However there are examples of relevant products and initiatives. In Seychelles, the Small Establishment Enhancement Programme is a marketing initiative that has been developed to promote the country’s smaller establishments under the brand name ‘Secret Seychelles’. In Samoa, small family businesses, many run by local women, offer accommodation through traditional beach fales (huts).

In the last twenty years the advent of community-based tourism projects, often with external support, has been a feature of tourism development in many countries. Many of the projects have involved local visits, events, interpretation, guiding, activities, catering and sometimes accommodation. SIDS have seen a significant amount of such activity. A study on community based tourism in the Caribbean (Caribbean Tourism Organization, 2007) identified many projects, including the coordinated programmes in heritage tourism in St Lucia and ecotourism in Dominica as well as a considerable number of individual initiatives. The conclusions mirrored those from other international work on community-based tourism, pointing to the following key requirements for its success:

an accessible location with respect to main tourism flows;

a good quality experience that meets safety standards, backed by registration;

effective marketing and strong links to established tourism companies;

support through relevant and accessible capacity building;

access to appropriate funding;

recognised land tenure and other legal rights to use resources;

supportive policies that involve the local community;

equitable distribution of benefits within the community.

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2.2.3 Social and Cultural Issues

The social and cultural dimensions of sustainable tourism are closely linked to those of economic development and local prosperity. However, there are a number of specific issues in the area of community response to tourism and in the sensitive approach to local culture and heritage that are particularly relevant to SIDS.

Global policy on tourism is increasingly sensitive to the interaction between cultures that it brings. In 2011 the theme of World Tourism Day was ‘Linking Cultures’. This recognised the opportunity that tourism brings to advance tolerance, respect and mutual understanding, while also underlining the need for it to be conducted in ways that respect as well as enrich local cultures.

Community attitudes to tourism

In many SIDS, local communities have been exposed to tourism for many years and are often closely involved with the industry. This leads to a considerable amount of awareness of some of the impacts, both positive and negative, that it may bring.

A study into social attitudes to tourism in Barbados, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago (PA Consulting Group, 2007) found most residents surveyed believing that tourism played a dominant role in their countries. The majority believed that it not only benefited their communities economically but were also positive about its social impact, in terms of its impact on culture and education as well as in supporting facilities such as roads. In all three countries there was strong support for further tourism development. Negative issues were raised in relation to prices, access to land and beaches and possible future crime. Another study in Mauritius (UNCTAD, 2008) on impacts of tourism on community livelihoods also listed many positive benefits, but again raised similar concerns about access to beaches and fishing areas, price inflation and security while also voicing worries about a Westernized culture taking over.

Gender issues

An important aspect of the social sustainability of tourism is the opportunity that it can provide for women, especially in developing countries. A recent Global Report on Women in Tourism (UNWTO and UN Women, 2010) set five goals:

1. creating equal opportunities for women working in tourism;

2. inspiring women’s tourism entrepreneurship;

3. advancing women through tourism education and training;

4. encouraging women to lead in tourism;

5. supporting women in community and home-based tourism enterprise.

The aspects that show the best results to date for women compared to other sectors of the economy are: equal pay; women running their own business; women being public sector leaders; and women being self-employed in their homes. While information is not available for all SIDS, results are shown for the Caribbean as a region. The region was found to be doing well at providing equal pay for women in tourism; having women tertiary teachers; getting women in tourist board CEO positions; and providing opportunities for women to contribute to tourism work in their home.

Supporting and celebrating the cultural heritage of SIDS

The opportunities for sustainable tourism provided by historic and cultural heritage sites, and vice versa, are become more and more apparent. The recently developed UNESCO World Heritage Sustainable

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Tourism Programme, with the active participation of UNWTO as a member of the Steering Committee, seeks to link up national and local authorities, site practitioners, tourism sector, and local communities to integrate a sustainable tourism perspective into the mechanisms of the World Heritage Convention.

This programme should provide opportunities for sustainable tourism in areas with inscribed World Heritage Sites. Of all the SIDS, 18 have inscribed 29 sites between them on the WHS list, including 19 cultural sites and 10 natural sites. Three further WHSs which are located in SIDS have in fact been listed under a different state (France, Netherlands, United States of America). A further 12 SIDS have prepared Tentative Lists from which future nominations can be drawn.

As a follow up to the Mauritius meeting in 2005, UNESCO established a SIDS Programme which coordinates and develops World Heritage activities for the group. Support services are provided for the preparation of new nominations to the World Heritage List and assistance is also available after inscription for the conservation and management of sites with a view to their sustainable development.

Until recently, the Pacific region has been one of the least represented regions in the World Heritage List. While this is still the case, as a result of concerted efforts, substantial progress has been made in the region. Three sites were inscribed in 2008, in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, and two more in 2010 in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati. Tentative Lists have been developed in almost all the states in the sub-region.

Capacity building and partnership development work amongst sites has been carried out amongst SIDS in different regions. Through the Pacific World Heritage Action Plan 2010–2015, UNESCO is coordinating regional agencies, experts and communities and several sub-regional, national and local capacity-building workshops have been implemented. In the Caribbean, a capacity building project benefits 16 states and 20 WHSs and includes a module focusing on tourism.

A particular issue for SIDS is the protection of underwater cultural heritage, in the form of early shipwrecks, sunken navy vessels, submerged ruins and maritime infrastructure, evidence of traditional fishing practices and stories and myths with connections to the earliest settlement of the islands. Recent work in Oceania (UNESCO, 2010a) has pointed to some damage to this heritage from dive tourism but also to the opportunity to encourage visits in certain locations and conditions, including trained personnel and strong support from the local community. Tourism generated funds are seen as potentially important in meeting conservation costs.

It is arguable that the greatest cultural richness of SIDS as a group can be found in their extensive intangible cultural heritage. A UNWTO study on intangible cultural heritage (UNWTO, 2012) describes how tourism relates to different categories, including: traditional craftsmanship; gastronomy; social practices, rituals and festive events; music and performing arts; oral traditions; and knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe. The remote location and island environment of SIDS has contributed to the diversity and richness that they possess in these matters. This has formed the basis of various creative tourism projects bringing income to local communities as described in the previous section. However, more could be done to capitalize on these strengthens and gain income for their conservation through tourism, provided this is handled sensitively. Box 2.7 presents a number of examples which show what can be achieved building on the relative strengths of some SIDS.

Box 2.7 Linking cultural heritage with sustainable tourism aims

In Vanuatu, an oral heritage interpretation tour has been developed at the site of the Chief Roi’s Domain (now a WHS). This was based on extensive consultation with the communities and encourages young people to continue their traditions. The tour relies on the local guides’ ability to bring stories and the cultural landscape to life. Capacity building workshops were held and involved village elders relating legends to train the guides – aspects of their heritage that they had not considered of interest to outsiders. It is now a fully community owned and operated tourism project.

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In Samoa, gastronomic heritage has been brought out in a project to create a distinct island specific cuisine, based on local food culture and formatted to meet hotel menu needs. This follows a food brand and strategy that is Pacific based and delivers a more authentic visitor experience while also supporting local farmers.

On a larger scale, across the Caribbean UNESCO have been running a Youth Poverty Alleviation through Tourism and Heritage (PATH) project from 2002–2010, which included components of both tangible and intangible heritage. More than 420 young people aged 15–25 from 14 Caribbean countries have received a wide range of training in management, heritage tourism, conservation and site management, festival development, transmission of traditional culture, etc. Some projects have combined the rehabilitation of traditional architecture with outlets for arts and crafts, as in the Kalinago heritage village in Dominica. Others have involved festivals of living culture, such as the Misty Bliss Festival in Jamaica, where communities of the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park showcase their local culture by selling local products, such as food and crafts, and by providing entertainment with local music and dances.

Source: UNWTO (2012); UNESCO (2010b).

2.2.4 Coastal Environments and Biodiversity

In all parts of the world, tourism is highly dependent on the quality of the local environment as the main resource that attracts visitors. Sustainable tourism requires this relationship to be fostered in ways that are mutually beneficial – protecting and enhancing the resource for tourism and ensuring that the sector does no damage and where possible contributes to its conservation.

Landscape integrity and biodiversity are key aspects of this relationship. Recent years have seen a developing understanding of the links between biodiversity and tourism and the policy and management responses required. In 2004, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) published Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development (Secretariat of the CBD, 2004) which have been widely endorsed. More recently, the wide ranging opportunities presented by the relationship have been further articulated, such as through work by UNWTO on achieving common sustainability goals for tourism and biodiversity (UNWTO, 2010).

The special biodiversity of SIDS

The quality of the coastal environment and biodiversity (both terrestrial and marine) are fundamental strengths of SIDS. As a group of countries, SIDS make a contribution to global biodiversity that far outweighs their collective land areas. Much of this stems from their inherent characteristics as isolated islands resulting in a unique evolutionary history and the emergence of highly specialised species. The number and proportion of endemic species in SIDS is exceptional. For example in Mauritius some 50% of all higher plants, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians are endemic and Seychelles has the highest level of amphibian endemism in the world.

The small population size of many island species, owing partly to the limited land area available to them, can make them highly vulnerable to extinction. Almost 50% of the 724 animal extinctions recorded during the past 400 years have been island species (CBD, 2010). The exposure of SIDS to significant natural and man-made pressures, including climate change, development and other damage to habitats, adds to the conservation challenge. Owing to this combination of high importance but significant threat, all SIDS are located within one of Conservation International’s biodiversity hotspots.

A number of SIDS have very important and attractive habitats within their interior, including hill country, forests, rivers and wetlands. A very high proportion (63%) of the land area of SIDS is covered by forest (United Nations General Assembly, 2010a). However, it is their marine and coastal environments

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that present the most challenging issues for conservation, management and sustainable development. Between them, SIDS account for 56 Wetlands of International Importance on the RAMSAR List. Damage and threats to coastal environments come from urbanisation and development of all kinds, pressure of use for recreation and tourism, unsustainable fishing, cutting of mangroves and other habitat destruction, and pollution from effluent and solid waste.

Coral reefs are a feature of almost all SIDS and are among the most biodiverse systems on the planet. However, globally twenty seven countries and territories are highly vulnerable to coral reef loss, and nineteen of them are located in SIDS.

Tourism and biodiversity – securing mutual benefits

These precious coastal environments and biodiversity present a huge opportunity for tourism but equally place a serious responsibility on the sector.

For most SIDS, the quality of the coastal experience essentially provides the reason for their tourism industry, historically and up to the present day. Yet the dimensions of this are various and changing. Over time there has been huge growth in dive tourism. Nature based excursions, notably the observation of marine mammals and birds, have become increasingly popular. The need for responsible management has grown alongside the visitor volumes and income.

The activity and the opportunities do not exist only on the coast. Many inland sites are attractive for visitors and have been increasing in popularity. In Seychelles, for example, the Vallée de Mai World Heritage Site, a totally inland forest experience, receives over 300,000 visitors per year, and the resources raised are used for the conservation of two of the Seychelles WHS: Valle de Mai WHS as well as Aladabra, a remote atoll in the Indian Ocean.

The implications of this special relationship are multi-faceted. First, it is clear that tourism has a great deal to lose from any threats to biodiversity in SIDS. For example, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI, 2004) coral reef degradation caused by human activity and climate change could lead to significant economic losses in the Caribbean by 2015, including US$ 100–300 million from tourism.

Secondly, tourism itself can cause significant damage to landscapes and biodiversity. In coastal areas too much development for tourism in the wrong place has caused physical degradation and loss of important habitat, such as mangroves, coastal wetlands and dune systems. Pollution from hotels and resorts has seriously affected coastal ecosystems. Bad practice in diving and boating has damaged coral reefs and marine ecosystems.

Thirdly, tourism can directly benefit conservation. There are many ways in which this can happen, from providing income to protected areas and reserves through admission fees and operators concessions, to sponsorship and gifting from enterprises and tourists.

Fourthly, tourism can present a more environmentally sustainable source of income for local economies, both at a national level and locally, than many alternatives. In the Pacific, for example, the mining industry, together with logging and unsustainable farming practices, has caused considerable destruction to habitat. Tourism is being actively promoted as an alternative, both for the island economies and for individual communities.

In 2011, a UN Special Event on the Global Significance of SIDS Biodiversity and the Importance of Community Based Partnerships (UN-OHRLLS, 2012b) made clear that community support was vital to future biodiversity conservation strategies. Island peoples depend on natural resource assets associated with a rich biodiversity heritage for their livelihoods and development aspirations. These include ecotourism, a key opportunity to be taken up more widely in SIDS.

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Conservation and management responses

The special needs of coastal environments and biodiversity and the dimensions of the relationship with tourism outlined above point to a range of strategies and approaches that should be considered and pursued by SIDS. Many are taking relevant action and provide an example to others.

In general there is a very strong requirement that all SIDS pursue policies of integrated coastal zone management, which steer the planning and development of tourism as well as all other uses of coastal areas, taking full account of environmental capacities and needs. This is considered later in this chapter.

It is vital to strengthen legislation and management to protect the most precious landscapes and habitats. The establishment of effective protected areas can be beneficial to tourism as well as helped by it. The proportion of land and marine resources that are designated and protected varies considerably between individual SIDS. In Seychelles it is amongst the highest in the world, with 43% of the land area protected as well as large parts of the surrounding coastal waters. In parts of the Pacific it is considerably lower. Overall, just 1.8% of the territorial waters of SIDS are designated as marine protected areas (United Nations General Assembly, 2010a). A number of international initiatives have set targets to significantly increase the coverage of protected areas. The Micronesia Challenge, for example, is a commitment by the Federal States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Guam and the Northern Marianas to conserve at least 30% of the near shore marine resources and 20% of the terrestrial resources across Micronesia by 2020. This far exceeds the goals set by international conventions and treaties.

In addition to extending the areas under protection, they should also have clear management plans and resources to carry them out. These plans should include actions to integrate sustainable tourism and benefit from it. In the Caribbean, the recent extension of marine protected areas has been noted but the lack of management plans has been seen as a cause of concern (ECLAC, 2012).

At a local level, within and outside protected areas, there is a need for management solutions and the promotion of good practice. Two examples from SIDS in the Caribbean are presented in box 2.8.

Box 2.8 Multiple uses of biodiversity

Tourism is just one of the activities that provide economic value from the use of coral reefs. The challenge is to ensure that the ecosystem services provided by reefs are sustainable, which requires a balance between the different uses. The Soufriére Marine Management Area (SMMA) on the west coast of St Lucia is managed by a local NGO. In order to enable sustainable use of the area for different purposes it has been divided into five zones: Marine Reserves, Fishing Priority Areas, Multiple Use Areas, Yacht Mooring Areas and Recreational Areas.

Access to Marine Reserves is by permit only. The primary purpose of these areas of high ecological value is to allow fish stocks to regenerate in order to ensure healthy fish populations in the future. They have been set aside for the protection of marine flora and fauna, scientific research, and the enjoyment of divers and snorkelers. In Fishing Priority Areas, commercial fishing has precedence over all other activities. Recreational Areas have been identified as important sites for public recreation where local access must be maintained for enjoyment of simple beach activities. In Multiple Use Areas, fishing, diving, snorkelling, and other legitimate uses are allowed, subject to SMMA and other national rules and regulations. Yacht Mooring Areas have been provided for visiting yachts as anchoring is not allowed in the SMMA.

In a second example, from Bonaire, a carefully balanced set of user fees generate income for conservation management of the Bonaire National Marine Park (BNMP), which was created in 1979, encircles the island and includes 2700 hectares of globally threatened coral reef, seagrass and mangrove ecosystems. Bonaire’s marine environments are home to 111 globally endangered species including six which are on the IUCN Red List. In 2010, The Netherlands added BNMP to the tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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BNMP is managed by a non-governmental, not for profit foundation commissioned by the island government, with the following goals:

1. maintain and/or restore the ecosystems, biological diversity, and ecological processes;

2. manage the marine park as a regionally and globally significant and successful multi-use marine protected area;

3. allow use of the marine park by promoting non-destructive activities and working with stakeholders to establish guidelines and regulations to minimize impacts on the environment;

4. protect and/or restore the cultural and historical resources identified as significant.

Users of the Marine Park pay a Nature Fee of US$ 25 per year for scuba diving and US$ 10 per year for any other activity, including swimming, snorkelling, windsurfing, boating, kayaking etc. The fee can be paid at any dive shop or hotel reception desk. In 2010, a total of US$ 966,335 was raised from payment of the Nature Fee by 31,033 scuba divers and 19.051 other users, which went towards the management costs of the Marine Park, as well as coral reef protection and conservation measures. This may be a factor in the fact that Bonaire’s reefs are considered the healthiest in the Caribbean according to data from the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment protocol.

Source: UNWTO (2010b); United National General Assembly (2011); STINAPA (2011).

The engagement of local communities in the conservation of the environments in which they live and work has been an important feature of various initiatives in SIDS, often supported by international funding programmes. These programmes may include a tourism component, whereby individuals and community groups are encouraged and supported in the provision of facilities and services for visitors as a source of income and sustainable livelihood.

In the Comoros, for example, where the fragile ecosystem is under threat from overpopulation and poverty, the Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial has supported a participatory sustainable development programme. The fund is financing a project to develop green tourism on the island of Moheli, which seeks to improve and diversify tourist services, promote eco-sites and provide support to associations that take initiatives to protect the environment. In Papua New Guinea, the GEF has been funding a major programme in Milne Bay, involving the establishment of community-managed protected areas, building local government capacities and delivering environmental education programmes in 22 targeted communities. Livelihood programmes include income from dive tourism.

An important principle in pursuing projects to enhance biodiversity through tourism is to seek to engage private sector operators as a way of securing a link to markets, generating resources and ensuring sustainability. An example from Seychelles is provided in box 2.9.

Box 2.9 Linking tourism operators and NGOs in practical conservation

In Seychelles, a GEF funded project called Mainstreaming Biodiversity Management into Production Sector Activities established a separate programme for tourism enterprises which have been incentivised to work in partnership with others on biodiversity conservation programmes on their sites and surrounding areas. The participants are mainly hotels, but can include others, such as dive operators supporting the conservation of reefs which they frequent. Small grants (up to US$ 40,000) are provided, based on the following requirements:

A partnership is created between the hotel and a local conservation NGO who can provide necessary expertise. Where possible, the local community should also be part of the partnership.

A joint conservation management plan is prepared to a specified site, with a set of practical activities identified.

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Clear objectives are identified which must be specific, measurable and monitored.

Activities must involve conservation in an ecologically sensitive area. They may include, for example: education/awareness of tourists; engagement of tourists in participatory conservation activities; codes of conduct for visitors; development of facilities for conservation; conservation of natural resources such as energy and water.

At least 100% match funding must be provided by the enterprise, in cash or in kind.

Implementation must not exceed 18 months.

Although the grant funding for the project is quite limited, by setting it up in this way it is able to lever additional financial resources and professional expertise and focus on practical results.

2.2.5 Resource Management

The efficient management of resources is a central requirement of sustainable tourism. It is clearly linked to environmental aims but also has positive implications for economic viability and community wellbeing. The topic relates to resource inputs, including water and energy, as well as the management of waste.

Resource management presents a considerable challenge for SIDS, irrespective of the influence of tourism. The location and small size of these states and of individual islands limits their resource base and the options available to them and affects the costs of some solutions. It underlines the need for vigilance and dedication to sound environmental management. The scattered nature of some SIDS, especially those that are archipelagos, means that technologies need to be adaptable to very isolated sites.

The tourism sector is dependent on the availability of basic resources and on the cleanliness of the environment in the destinations in which it operates. It can place very considerable additional pressures on resources, with implications for the environment, local communities and the rest of the economy. Chapter 1 drew attention to the imbalance between tourism arrivals and resident population experienced by many SIDS, several of which are included in the list of the world’s top 25 tourism destinations relative to population (DESA, 2010). However, by funding and justifying investment in sourcing and treatment systems tourism can also deliver collateral benefits in the areas where development occurs. In general, it can be a motivator and stimulant for good management.

Many solutions to improved resource management lie in the hands of individual tourism developers and operators. Various initiatives to promote and assist sound environmental management in hotels and resorts have been pursued in recent years. For example, the Association des Hôteliers et Restaurateurs – Ile Maurice (AHRIM) is driving the development of a handbook for its members on good environmental practices, in a program supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat (UNWTO, 2012b). However, there is also a need for governments to engage in the provision of relevant infrastructure.

LDCs in particular have been criticised for paying insufficient attention to the preservation for future generations of the immense natural resources which are their most valuable assets. DTISs include only a few references to efforts aimed at limiting the consumption of natural resources by tourism facilities, and innovations in green technologies and architecture do not feature in DTIS discussions (UNDP, 2011).

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Freshwater management and use

Availability of fresh water is a major issue for SIDS and for tourism. There are many reasons why a large number of SIDS are in situations of considerable water stress. These include:

general scarcity of water sources, with few surface freshwater aquifers and a reliance on groundwater;

salt-water intrusion of groundwater supplies, exacerbated by the impact of climate change;

recent drought conditions in some areas;

past over-exploitation leading to depletion of resources;

poor infrastructure, including storage and delivery systems, and water management on some islands;

rapidly increasing demand through population growth and activities such as tourism leading to exhaustion of supplies;

contamination of freshwater supplies through poor waste water management, exacerbated by poor practice in some parts of the tourism industry.

These problems are quite widespread across all regions. Four SIDS that have been particularly highlighted for their chronically limited freshwater resources, low annual rainfall and shallow water tables are Barbados, Cape Verde, Kiribati and Tuvalu (DESA, 2010). However, even within regions the situation can vary between SIDS and between individual islands. The World Water Development Report identified that, in 2006, 46% of the population in the Pacific Region had access to improved drinking water, compared with a world average of 87%, but there were significant differences between states, partly as a result of varied rainfall and climatic conditions as well as in the different management practices employed (UNESCO, 2009).

Key findings of the most recent World Water Development Report (UNESCO, 2012) include the observation that many Latin American/Caribbean countries depend on the export of water-intensive goods and services, including tourism, with this ‘virtual’ export of water having important implications for competing water demands in the region. A recent study looked in detail at the impact of tourism on freshwater resources in the Caribbean, amongst other areas (Tapper et al., 2011). This found that each tourist used on average between one and a half and two and a half times the amount of water per day as an average resident. However, in times of drought, when residents limit their use, the ratio can be much higher. On certain islands there is also more disparity – notably Jamaica where use by a tourist is over four times the average for that of a resident.

The study found concern in the Caribbean that water shortage may soon have an adverse effect on the tourism sector. One aspect of this is a worry that cruise ships may stop coming to any island where there is not sufficient freshwater to restock their supplies.

Some of the demand generated by tourism is for extensive water consuming activities such as swimming pools and irrigation of grounds and golf courses. Increasingly, resorts are working to limit the impact of these activities, for example through use of treated grey water and seawater.

In addition to measures taken by individual properties, action is being taken nationally by many SIDS. A number have water management plans which address both supply and use. It is important that these pay full attention to the impacts of tourism, both in addressing current consumption but also in planning for the future. In Cape Verde, for example, the National Adaption Programme of Action seeks to ensure that the national water supply is in line with growing demands and that water is not a constraint to development, tourism and poverty reduction (Global Environment Facility, 2009). On the other hand, the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean has noted the lack of coordinated, forward planning across that region to prevent water scarcity (Tapper et al., 2011).

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Wastewater and solid waste management

Poor treatment of waste can be highly damaging to local environments, with consequences for biodiversity, amenity and human health. It can also affect the appeal of a destination for tourism. Problems arise both from the practices of local residents and from commercial activities, including tourism, together with insufficient infrastructure and waste management systems. In waters around SIDS, pollution from shipping causes an added problem and threat. A further specific threat to SIDS from poorly treated waste is the inadvertent introduction of invasive species from waste organic matter threatening the endemism of islands.

Considerable technological advances have been made in the range and availability of different processes for treating liquid effluent. Increasingly, hotels and resorts are able to install their own plant, using new technologies or advanced knowhow in the application of biological treatment processes. This can be particularly helpful in remote locations, as may be found in SIDS, but does require knowledge sharing and capacity building as well as the ability to meet the costs of new installations. Moreover, local conditions may not always be suitable for some solutions.

A number of SIDS have been investing in improved infrastructure for wastewater management. In Mauritius, for example, a central solution for the Grand Bay area, where hotels and resorts were polluting the water of the lagoon, has focussed on the use of treated effluent for irrigation of the sugar plantations. In Fiji, new technologies for methane capture and combustion are being applied to a treatment plant, funded through the ADB as a project under the Clean Development Mechanism.

Solid waste management presents a particular challenge for SIDS. Their small size restricts the availability of space for landfill sites. Transporting waste from islands can be costly. But the success of tourism is heavily dependent on a clean environment. One of the threats to the development of cruise tourism in Kiribati has been identified as increased litter and pollution due to inadequate disposal methods (South Pacific Travel, 2007).

Tourism activities generate significant quantities of solid waste, from construction, packaging, unused food stuffs and other sources. The need for robust management practices in reducing waste, through controlled purchasing and choice of products, is particular important on islands. ‘Switch off, Save Big’ is an inter-island project developed by the Travel Foundation in the Caribbean. The original aim of the project was to help hoteliers reduce their water and energy consumption, but since 2011 the project has been expanded to include waste minimisation.

Investment is needed to encourage businesses to use environmental technologies, and to raise awareness of their importance and value. To ensure consistent application of sustainable tourism principles requires an integrated and comprehensive approach.

Energy sourcing and management

Energy management is an important issue for sustainable tourism, addressing challenges of finite supply of fossil fuels, rapidly increasing costs and the need to reduce emissions. The sector is a significant user of energy, notably in the tropics by accommodation establishments through air conditioning and other appliances.

SIDS tend to be highly dependent on fossil fuels for the production of energy and for transport. Oil accounts for an average of 12% of the imports of SIDS (United Nations General Assembly, 2010b). In the Pacific island states, for example, the high dependency on oil is a particular concern. Programmes to reduce this dependency have focussed on the introduction of more renewable sources, including wind, solar, wave and biofuel. Certain SIDS have developed the use of bagasse sugarcane waste as an energy source where this is available. Particular opportunities are seen for the tourism sector in the local use of solar panels as a direct source for water heating.

In the tourism sector, energy reduction can be tackled quite effectively through improving technology and management regimes at the level of individual enterprises. An example of a concerted initiative

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is the Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficiency Action Programme (CHENACT) programme in the Caribbean which is described in box 2.10. Through working systematically with a large group of hotels in Barbados, the scheme has shown how very significant energy savings could be made. This is now being rolled out in other parts of the region.

Box 2.10 Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficiency Action Programme

The Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficiency Action Programme (CHENACT) is designed to help the Caribbean hotel sector to move towards energy efficiency by driving individual hotels to implement energy efficient practices and to generate their own renewable energy. The focus of the programme has been on small and medium sized hotels (<400 rooms), and a pilot project was carried out in Barbados between 2008 and 2010, with the aim of demonstrating the potential for a project across the whole region. The programme has been managed by the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, with support from a number of funding partners, including Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Detailed energy audits in 30 hotels in Barbados and 23 hotels in the wider Caribbean have helped to understand energy consumption patterns among Caribbean hotels, in order to identify new opportunities for energy efficiencies and alternative sources of renewable and cleaner energy supply.

Taken together, it has been shown that the 84 members of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) account for approximately 9% of electricity consumption on Barbados. Electricity consumption per guest-night varies slightly from medium to large hotels, depending on guest amenities and occupancy levels. Initial audit reports suggest that there are significant opportunities for energy efficient savings in the hotel sector. Experience shows that, irrespective of its size and age, a hotel can achieve a low energy efficiency index through use of efficiency equipment and good staff practice.

The project has demonstrated that average potential electricity savings are near to 40% of total hotel consumption, representing 32,600 MWh per year across the total hotel sector in Barbados. Potential has also been identified for micro generation at the individual hotel level, with the possibility that the installation of solar panels and/or wind turbine units could achieve production of 2.5% and 6% respectively of total hotel electricity consumption. A number of existing policy instruments have been identified which could enable interventions to support a Barbados Hotel Clean Energy Policy.

Scaling up to the regional level could involve 2670 hotels in 25 Caribbean countries/territories. It can be shown that a suite of energy efficiency measures can reduce CO2 emissions by 1.46 million tons annually. The greatest gains are to be made by careful targeting of interventions. For example, 25% of hotels account for ~75% of rooms and consequently electricity use, while six countries (Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Netherlands Antilles) account for ~73% of total electricity use in the hotel sector in the Caribbean.

The evidence has convinced the original funding partners to continue their support, with the launch in 2011 of a follow up programme, CHENACT2, with a timeframe of 3–5 years. The Governments of Barbados, The Bahamas and Jamaica are also on board. CHENACT2 will encourage implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy practices in the Caribbean hotel sector, together with a focus on the potential for trade of carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol.

Source: Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (2010); Caribbean Tourism Organization (2011).

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2.3 Delivering Sustainable Tourism in SIDS

The previous section described the various components of sustainable tourism and the issues they raise for SIDS in the light of their specific circumstances and vulnerabilities. Some examples of the response to these issues were also described. However, in order to deliver sustainable tourism in a comprehensive way it is necessary for destinations to have the right structures, policies and instruments in place. This section considers what is required of SIDS in this respect. It reflects work by UNWTO on structures, tourism policy and delivery processes (UNTWO and UNEP, 2005) and on destination management (UNWTO, 2007).

2.3.1 Maintaining Effective Governance Structures and Communication

The complex and multifaceted nature of the tourism sector and its wide ranging impacts means that many organisations and interests have a stake in its planning, development and management. Having structures in place that enable their effective engagement is an essential requirement of sustainable tourism. The purpose of such structures should be:

to raise and maintain the profile of tourism as a key contributor to sustainable development;

to ensure that policies and actions that impact on tourism take account of its needs;

to provide a platform for all stakeholders to influence the development and management of tourism and to facilitate joint working between them.

National level structures for sustainable tourism

Good practice in sustainable tourism governance requires national level structures that include:

an inter-ministerial liaison process on tourism, bringing together those responsible for tourism, transport, development, environment, culture, security, finance and others as appropriate. This may be achieved by a formal committee or looser arrangement;

one or more tourism trade bodies that bring together private sector tourism enterprises and facilitate support and networking. This may be achieved through a single tourism association or a federation of sector groups such as hotel and tour operator associations;

a structure that brings together the public and private sectors, such as a regularly-meeting forum, with additional involvement of other stakeholder interests such as NGOs, heritage and conservation bodies, research and training bodies and other civil society interests.

Considerable experience now exists in multi-stakeholder cooperation in tourism governance and management. The UNWTO has produce guidance on how to make this work, based on case studies (UNWTO, 2010c).

Owing to the relative importance of tourism in SIDS, most will have a ministry or department of tourism, although these may be sometimes part of a wider ministry. Commonly, tourism may be linked with natural resources or with trade and development, which may then have a bearing on the orientation of policy. Theoretically, the small size of the national government administrations should facilitate inter-ministerial liaison, but this is likely to vary between countries.

Often tourism marketing is delegated to a national tourist authority or board. It is important that this is fully tied into the planning and implementation of tourism policy.

Private sector tourism associations appear to be common amongst SIDS. Private sector tourism interests are also likely to be represented on the tourist boards and may be in a leadership position.

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The extent to which public-private and multi-stakeholder structures exist is unclear and opportunities for strengthening such arrangements should be considered.

The size and activity of tourist ministries, tourist boards, private associations and other bodies is likely to vary very considerably between different SIDS. Some are very well established with a strong body of experienced staff. In some of the smaller SIDS, the level of human resources and the knowledge base may be quite limited, especially where the country has only a small commercial tourism base. This may limit their ability to take action on sustainable tourism development and management. Capacity building and institutional strengthening may be required.

Local destination management structures

A common feature in many developed and some developing countries worldwide has been the advent of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) operating at a sub-national level in the main tourism areas. These tend to involve local private sector enterprises working together and often in partnership with local government. Some also involve NGOs and civil society, either directly or through liaison mechanisms. They engage in marketing, visitor information, local amenities and events, quality improvement and support for businesses and product development. Many champion the development of sustainable tourism and have proven to be very effective at this level.

Some SIDS may be too small to warrant the establishment of DMOs, seeing the whole state as one destination with the equivalent functions all being carried out at a national level. In others, DMOs may already exist or there may be an opportunity to encourage their development, for example in separate islands that may be large enough to support them.

Irrespective of DMO development, mechanisms for engaging with local communities, including traditional indigenous structures, should be established, to ensure that they have a say in the scale and nature of future tourism development and to help them to engage in and benefit from the sector.

International structures and relationships

International organizations have a twofold function in sustainable tourism development: providing support for individual countries and sectors; and facilitating networking, consultation, cooperation, sharing of good practice and joint initiatives between them.

The small size of SIDS puts a strong emphasis on the role of international structures. Regional level cooperation is very important for many SIDS. Regional associations of states, such as the Association of Caribbean States and the Pacific Islands Forum have developed policies, programmes and initiatives to support sustainable development, including tourism. More specifically for the sector, regional level tourism bodies, such as the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the South Pacific Tourism Organisation engage in marketing and development activity, including various initiatives to support sustainable tourism.

Within the Caribbean, for example, the CTO has run regular conferences on sustainable tourism and housed an EU-funded sustainable tourism development programme. At a trade level, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association established the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST) which provides advice and expertise to enterprises. A number of NGOs support sustainable tourism, such as the CARIBSAVE Partnership, which addresses the impacts and challenges surrounding climate change, tourism, the environment, economic development and community livelihoods.

More widely, UN bodies and international agencies work together to support the interests of SIDS through various structures. The Inter Agency Consultative Group on SIDS is the coordination mechanism for the focal points for SIDS of all relevant UN agencies, Regional Commissions and regional development organisations. This potentially provides a vehicle for strengthening the focus on sustainable tourism.

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2.3.2 Establishing the Right Policies, Strategies and Plans

The multi-faceted nature of sustainable tourism and its implications for other economic sectors, the environment and societal wellbeing, mean that its development needs to be guided by clear policies and strategies. The need for this as a primary step in pursuing sustainable tourism was underlined in the UNEP/UNWTO tourism section of the Green Economy Report (UNEP, 2011a), described at the beginning of this chapter, and in the 1994 Barbados Programme of Action for SIDS and subsequent related declarations.

National policy coordination

A key requirement of the national policy framework is for sustainable tourism to be recognised not only in dedicated policies for the sector but also in high level policies covering sustainable development. This is particularly important in ensuring that the opportunities it presents are truly recognised and prioritised by government and by international agencies supporting development programmes in the countries concerned.

Most SIDS have sustainable development plans and programmes. Some of these are in the form of poverty reduction strategies, notably for the SIDS that are also LDCs. It is common for these to recognise tourism as an important economic pillar owing to its potential for growth and poverty alleviation (e.g. Sao Tome, Comoros, Haiti, Kiribati and others).

In addition to links to development policies, it is important that sustainable tourism issues are reflected in other policy areas, notably those covering transport, environment and planning. Of particular importance is the way that tourism is reflected in environmental policies and strategies, taking note of the increasing need that these should integrate with sustainable development strategies in initiatives to embrace the green economy. Some SIDS have taken strong steps towards such integration. For example, in Seychelles the influential Environment Management Plan 2000–2010 (Republic of Seychelles, 2000) has been integrated and reflected in a new overarching Sustainable Development Strategy with actions for the greening of all sectors, including tourism. In Barbados, a Green Economy Scoping Study (UNEP, 2012), points to the significant need and opportunity for greening tourism, for example in the areas of energy use and links to heritage and nature conservation.

Sustainable tourism policies, strategies and action plans

All countries should have clearly articulated tourism policies and strategies that embrace the principles of sustainable tourism.

Including a commitment to sustainability within overall tourism policies and strategies is very important. Having a separate policy and strategy for ‘sustainable tourism’, as something different from mainstream tourism, should be avoided.

Tourism strategies should be backed by action plans that set out specific activities over a given period and are revised annually. These should be agreed between the stakeholder bodies and indicate responsibilities for implementation.

Tourism strategies and action plans should be comprehensive. Typically they would cover: the governance and coordination of the sector, destination and product development, quality improvement, infrastructure and management, visitor information and other services, branding and promotion, and research and monitoring.

Through the formulation of policies, the articulation of strategies and the identification of actions, destinations are able to influence the shape of tourism in the future. They should be based on careful consideration and discussion amongst all the main stakeholders about the main challenges and priorities for the country. Particular attention should be paid to basic aims for tourism – economic, social and

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environmental – and the sustainability challenges covered in this document. An integrated approach should be taken to issues of competitiveness, spreading benefit, conserving resources and responding to climate change, amongst other challenges.

Most SIDS do indeed have tourism policies and strategies. Some are older than others. In 2010 it was reported that national tourism policies, strategies, plans or targets had recently been developed by, inter alia, Barbados, Kiribati, Mauritius, Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles and Tuvalu (United Nations General Assembly, 2010b).

Most, and possibly all, tourism policies for SIDS are seeking growth in tourism as a component of economic development. However, they also commonly include aims and vision statements that recognise the importance of sustainability and addressing the impacts of tourism. The Mauritius Tourism Sector Strategy Plan 2009–2015 is typical, being cast as “recommending ways and means of achieving environmentally sound, socially acceptable and economically viable tourism development”.

The presence of a policy statement, however, does not guarantee implementation. It is instructive to note a conclusion from a recent assessment of tourism within poverty reduction strategies in LDCs, including six SIDS, which pointed to a mismatch between policy priorities on the one hand and institutional development to back them up (UNDP, 2011). In reporting on progress on implementing the Programme of Action for SIDS, one country identified the ‘non-existence of institutional measures’ that need to be put in place to support the implementation of its ambitious national tourism plan.

These concerns underline the significant importance of strengthening the ability of some SIDS to deliver on their policies, through sufficient budget allocation, institutional strengthening and capacity building. Above all, they point to the need to ensure effective partnership approaches between the private sector, public bodies and third sector organisations in the delivery of a common programme.

Local area planning

Within the context of a national tourism strategy, attention needs to be paid to the spatial distribution of tourism development and activity and how it is effected and managed on the ground.

There are a number of dimensions to this. Firstly, national spatial development questions can be addressed through a tourism master plan. Traditionally, such plans would indicate areas for future tourism development of specified types, based on a range of considerations including local resources, accessibility, market potential etc. Increasingly, the need for local community engagement in the process has been underlined. For many SIDS, with their limited land area, environmental sensitivities and community development needs, strategic spatial planning of future tourism can be very relevant. Key questions may include:

the overall capacity of different parts of the country for more tourism development, requiring a systematic assessment of environmental and social capacity;

the future balance of coastal as against inland development. A number of SIDS, such as Mauritius, have recognised the scarcity of coastal development sites appropriate for future development;

the policy towards individual islands in an archipelago, defining scale and type of tourism to match their resources and needs and encouraging differentiation to attract different markets and increase length of stay. The Maldives, for example, has had an evolving policy towards the opening up of different atolls to tourism. In Seychelles, the island of La Digue has been identified as a place for slower pace tourism experiences.

Secondly, it is very important that spatial planning of tourism takes account of the wide range of needs of other economic sectors, community wellbeing and biodiversity. An integrated approach to spatial planning, development and management is needed. This applies particularly to coastal zones and is manifest in the concept of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). Some countries have prepared overall ICZM plans for their coastlines and have collaborative planning and management structures

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between the different interests. This approach is particularly relevant to SIDS and should provide a context for tourism planning as identified above. The work of UNWTO and other agencies on the COAST3 project in Africa has thrown light on many governance and management issues for coastal planning in developing countries.

Thirdly, at a local level, Destination Management Plans, drawn up by local stakeholders working together, can be very valuable in determining and influencing future tourism development and in identifying specific management actions to improve the performance and impact of tourism in their areas. They can include all aspects of planning, development, management and marketing and should tie into national policies and strategies. Such plans can be particularly relevant for areas which have a clear individual identity and where it is natural for tourism stakeholders to work together. They may be relevant to major coastal resort areas, wider defined destinations and, in particular, to individual islands. In the Cook Islands, for example, a local destination plan was completed in 2012 for Atiu Island, as part of the country’s overall destination development strategy, in close consultation with island tourism operators and the broader community.

Fourthly, national strategies and spatial planning for tourism, together with any local destination management plans, should inform future land use plans. These plans provide the framework for development control decisions, which are critical in the maintenance of attractive environments and for the future of sustainable tourism.

2.3.3 Using a Range of Management Tools

Based on a clear strategy and action plan for the delivery of sustainable tourism, a range of management tools can be used to back up the actions and help to shape the way tourism develops on the ground. In its guide on making tourism more sustainable (UNWTO and UNEP, 2005) the UNWTO has grouped these tools under five headings, which are used in this section. Applications of some of the tools have already been illustrated in relation to sustainability issues covered earlier in this chapter. Essentially these tools are of universal relevance and so relate equally to SIDS. Their use should be tailored to the situation in each individual country.

Measurement instruments

The identification of indicators of tourism performance and impact, combined with monitoring processes to show progress and changes over time, is an essential requirement of good planning and management. At a time of volatility, measuring performance against indicators can be especially important. Indicators and monitoring serve as an early warning system and can be used to signal when changes in policy and practice may be needed. By enabling quantified targets to be set, the use of indicators can be helpful in making strategies and actions more specific and focussed.

Indicators and monitoring can cover a range of topics, such as the volume and value of tourism, amount of resources used, state of the environment, levels of community participation and outputs and outcomes from actions taken. Indicators should be relevant to the topic, feasible to measure, clear in their meaning, credible to the user and comparable over time.

A major problem has been the lack of data, especially in developing countries. Limitations and inconsistency in data from a number of SIDS has been apparent from preparing this study. Inherently, it should be easier to collect data in tightly defined and small territories. There may be a need for more capacity building in this area.

The regional groupings of SIDS would suggest that there is merit in seeking more consistency between them in data collection, thereby enabling effective benchmarking and comparison. Exercises in agreeing common sustainable tourism indicators have been pursued in the Caribbean. It is important

3 Collaborative Actions for Sustainable Tourism – a GEF funded project covering nine countries in Africa, including Seychelles (ongoing as of 2012).

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that any initiative should not be too ambitious, starting with a small number of basic indicators and improvements to data collection and monitoring that can be fulfilled.

Identifying limits to development and change is a further measurement instrument. The idea of a finite, quantifiable carrying capacity for tourism in an area has been rather discredited, but nevertheless some articulation of limits of acceptable change leading to an understanding of how much development may be appropriate in any one area is important. This should consider environmental, social, psychological (e.g. impact on tourist perceptions) and economic capacities. Capacity considerations are especially important for SIDS owing to their small size and the sensitivity of their resources.

Command and control instruments

These are legally enforceable tools to control development and aspects of operation. They may be defined through specific tourism legislation but are more likely to relate to wider legislation in the country relating to health, safety, the environment, employment, trade and other matters. Clarity and harmonisation of legislation is important in all countries.

The use of enforceable regulations, including those that may be introduced through local bye-laws, can be helpful in controlling certain impacts of tourism. Licensing systems, for example of accommodation or transport operators, have proved very important in backing up standards of quality and basic environmental management. However, often there is a balance to be struck between regulatory control, that has to be enforced, and voluntary measures involving self-regulation.

A fundamental requirement of sustainable tourism in vulnerable areas is the application of effective development control instruments, based on a functional land use planning system. Components should include efficient procedures that are rigorously applied but are also clear to potential investors so they know what is expected of them. Planning guidance can be very helpful in specifying the kind of development that is suitable to different types of location. In the Maldives, specifications for resort development covering building density, height, treatment of vegetation and location with respect to the beach, that have been strictly enforced, were seen as critical to the destination’s quality and popularity. Mauritius has introduced a system of tourism zones and strict control and regular monitoring exercises to ensure that tourism related projects conform to applicable Planning Policy Guidance. Requirements for building design and location, including a specified minimum setback from the high water mark, will be increasingly important in the face of climate change impacts, as covered in chapter 4.

An important instrument in the development control process is the requirement for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for tourism development projects. Their effectiveness depends in part on their comprehensiveness, impartiality, influence and enforcement. All SIDS should ensure that EIA requirements are clear, widespread and adhered to. The extent of local engagement and consultation on EIAs is important – this is an issue that has been considered by NGOs in Seychelles.

Economic instruments

Economic instruments include the use of prices, taxes, charges, incentives and financial assistance to bring about a desired result. They are indirect instruments and can have impacts additional to those intended.

There tend to be two main purposes behind the use of economic instruments to influence the tourism sector:

1. changing the behaviour of tourists and businesses, encouraging investment or spending, limiting the use of resources or penalizing negative impacts such as pollution;

2. raising income from tourists and businesses that can be used to mitigate impacts and fund actions that benefit communities and the environment.

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It is beyond the scope of this document to address the overall effect of economic policy on the performance of SIDS and the tourism sector. However, some points can be made about the specific application of taxes, charges and incentives.

The use of financial incentives, including tax incentives or credit lines, may be quite prevalent as a way of encouraging investment. Particular consideration should be given to the opportunity to link this to certain requirements of the developer, concerning employment, environmental management etc. This approach was raised in the study (UNWTO and ILO, 2010) described in box 2.5 earlier in the chapter.

Financial assistance to provide small businesses with the necessary capital to undertake investments in green technology and other improvement, recognised in the Green Economy Report (UNEP, 2011a) as a major barrier, should also be considered.

Raising income from tourists through admission charges to specific sites, including national parks and other protected areas, is a common practice and an important source of revenue. Use of the proceeds should be well directed and communicated. Some SIDS, in addition, place a compulsory charge on all tourists to support social or environmental causes. The conservation tax in Belize, which is part of the exit charge, has raised many millions of dollars for the Protected Areas Conservation Trust. In Pallau, a similar Green Fee was introduced in 2009, raising US$ 15 per departing visitor. While income raised in this way can be very beneficial to the projects it supports, concerns have been raised about the effect of such charges on destination competitiveness. This points to the need for a balanced approached, coupled with a strong PR campaign to present these initiatives positively as delivering a better experience for tourists rather than as a negative charge.

Some countries also raise revenue from tourism investors to support local causes. In Mauritius the allocation of land to hotel and resort development had caused negative feelings in the local communities who stood to lose access to amenity and resources. A significant charge (ca. US$ 1 million) is now placed on certain developments, which feeds a Tourism Fund that is used to support local infrastructure, amenities and social projects. Again, issues of competitiveness point to the need to monitor carefully the impact of such instruments.

Voluntary instruments

In recent years the central position of private businesses as the drivers of sustainable tourism has increasingly been understood. There has been a change in outlook and attitude by many companies towards embracing policies and actions that support the environment and social objectives. In part, this has been motivated by commercial interest, appreciating the cost savings, marketing and other operational benefits than can result. Many companies engage in voluntary reporting of the actions, linked to their corporate social responsibility commitments. This trend can be assisted through voluntary instruments that set standards and recognise and promote good practice.

Many voluntary certification schemes exist that assess sustainability policies, management and practices in tourism businesses, notably hotels and resorts. This process is being further assisted and recognised through accreditation of schemes against the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria, supported by UNWTO and mentioned at the start of this chapter. Many SIDS have tourism businesses that have been certified, and a number of the larger international schemes have been particularly active in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Opportunities exist to further expand this process, possibly though more local schemes that can now gain credibility by relating the GSTC. A new national scheme, with government and trade backing, was launched in Seychelles in 2010, with a standard based on the GSTC. The main challenge for such schemes and for the task of strengthening sustainability practices in general, is to influence more medium and small sized independent businesses. The influence of tour operators, who are increasingly embracing sustainability principles, can be significant in securing changes amongst their contracted service providers.

Simple voluntary codes and guidelines have proved effective in promoting good practice in other aspects of tourism. They are particularly appropriate for use amongst activity operators and can also be

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used to influence the behaviour of tourists. Codes of conduct for boating practices, diving operations and wildlife- watching, for example, are very relevant to SIDS and can be used to drive up quality.

Supporting instruments

A further range of instruments include the various actions that governments and partner bodies, including NGOs, can take to support the tourism sector both in its growth and its sustainability. These largely involve taking direct action. Examples relating to sustainability issues within SIDS have been illustrated earlier in this chapter and elsewhere in this document. Three main areas of intervention can be identified.

Investment in infrastructure, including transport and utilities (water, energy, waste handling, telecommunications) has a highly significant influence on tourism and its impacts. The issues are largely covered in section 2.2 and chapter 4.

Capacity building, including education, training and provision of professional advice, is a positive intervention that can be used directly to address sustainability issues. Potential beneficiaries include tourism enterprises (notably SMEs), local communities and government institutions and other bodies engaged in the sector. The role of NGOs, including universities and technical colleges, is particularly important here. Encouraging networking between enterprises can be very helpful in stimulating the learning environment.

Finally, support for marketing and visitor information is a major area of intervention in tourism, which can affect not only tourist arrivals but also many other aspects of visitor response and industry performance in SIDS. This is the particular subject of chapter 5.

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Chapter 3

All the SIDS, with the exception of four low lying coastal states, are islands and are distributed around the globe in locations of varying degrees of remoteness. Therefore reaching them by any means of transport can be a challenge.

Transport and communications are of central importance to SIDS in order to maintain contact and linkages with the rest of the world. Given the limited scale of an island community and its economic outputs, there is often an absence of economies of scale that would provide a rationale for frequent and reliable transportation services, especially when the distances involved with physical remoteness are taken into account. This holds true for both micro-states and off-shore islands.

Securing adequate transportation access from main generating markets is essential in order to maintain and support the development of tourism in SIDS. There is a need to balance the application of environmentally-responsible policies with international recognition of the exceptional dependence of these island states on a reliable and affordable network of transport services.

This chapter looks at two main aspects of transport that affect the performance of SIDS – air access and cruise tourism.

3.1 Air Transport

Air transport provides the fastest and most flexible means of access to SIDS and is the most frequently used mode of transport. The formulation and implementation of an air transport policy that is responsive to the needs of the tourism industry is of critical importance for small island states. It is essential to provide, maintain and complement air links with the major tourist generating markets in order to ensure continuous accessibility and to sustain the island tourism industry. In addition, a domestic air service and ground-handling services are required to support the development of destinations and communities which may be some distance from the main international terminal, including remote islands of an archipelago in some instances.

Tourism development in islands requires harmonization between policies for developing air transport and those for tourism. Consideration should be given to national economic interests, and to the special demands of the tourism industry. This will include the need to maintain adequate freight capacity, especially where dependence on imports is high. Air carriers also need to take into account production costs, which are generally higher in islands, as well as the requirements with respect to flight regularity and frequency of the local island populations.

The interests of air transport and those of tourism may not coincide. Limited access by air may be constraining opportunities for the development of tourism in some islands, while other destinations may be faced with high volumes of arrivals, perhaps driven by low cost airlines, where a long-established tourism industry requires careful management to avoid problems with carrying capacity, numbers and yield.

The development of air transport in small islands may have a considerable impact on their environment too. The creation and development of air links involves the construction of airports, often in sites which are considered most suitable to meet the requirements of air transport especially with respect to safety. For this reason runways are often built close to the coast and this may affect the equilibrium of coastal ecosystems, including mangrove forests or pristine beaches.

Islands and the Challenge of Accessibility

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It can be difficult to determine a strategy for air transport for islands and there is a risk that the objectives of sustainable tourism development will not be met. Too few tourism arrivals will fail to achieve development objectives, while too many may bring development of mass tourism which in turn may disrupt the fragile environmental and social equilibrium existing on islands. The choice between regular and charter air transport, as well as deregulation of air transport, are major challenges for the future of tourism in islands.

Global air travel, having slumped in the previous two years, experienced a strong rebound in 2010 (Airports Council International, 2010). Global passenger traffic rose by 6.6%. SIDS are well located with respect to the regions experiencing the highest rate of growth, which were the Middle East (+12%), Asia-Pacific (+11.3%), Africa (+9.5%) and Latin America-Caribbean (+13.2%).

Dimensions of air transport for SIDS

By far the majority of international arrivals of overnight visitors into SIDS are by air. Setting to one side cruise ships, which deliver high volumes of same day visitors, just a small number of SIDS record any international arrivals by water. These ten or so destinations are mostly islands with a regular ferry connection to another island, often itself a SIDS. Dominica is unusual in recording almost one third of its overnight visitors as arriving by water, possibly the result of a regular ferry connection to St Lucia, Guadaloupe and Martinique; probably for the same reason, St Lucia itself records 6% of arrivals by water. 14% of arrivals to Tuvalu are by water. Elsewhere the share of arrivals by water is very small and most frequently zero. Bahrain, Singapore and Belize are unusual amongst SIDS in offering access across a land border, reducing the share of air transport as a means of arrival.

The network of routes, frequency and capacity of air services is therefore of critical importance to virtually all SIDS. As with other factors, there is a high level of variation between the SIDS with the highest and lowest levels of activity.

Table 3.1 shows the number of annual passenger movements1 for international airports in SIDS which return figures to the Airports Council International (ACI). The table also includes two measures from the World Economic Forum Travel and Competitiveness Report 2011, which give an indication of air transport activities for a limited number of SIDS. Unfortunately, the Pacific region is poorly represented amongst these countries.

Once again, the range of performance amongst SIDS is striking. The busiest international airport in any of the SIDS, as measured by the Airports Council International, is Changi International Airport in Singapore which, with an annual throughput of 42,038,777 passengers, is also the 18th busiest airport in the world. This is far from typical of other SIDS however. Four times as many passengers are handled in Singapore as six airports taken together in the Dominican Republic. Apart from Bahrain and Puerto Rico, all other airports have less than 5m passenger movements annually.

1 Total passengers enplaned and deplaned; passengers in transit counted once.

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51Islands and the Challenge of Accessibility

Table 3.1 Indicators of air passenger transport activity

Country International airport code(s)

TPAX Available seat kilometers, international (millions)

Number of operating airlines, 2010

Rank Score Rank Score

Singapore SIN 42,038,777 11 1,908.6 27 55.5

Dominican Republic LRM, PUJ, AZS POP, STI, SDQ

9,492,979 44 297.1 40 43

Bahrain BAH 8,898,197 52 240.3 64 28.5

Puerto Rico SJU 8,454,380 n.a. 89 16

Jamaica KIN, MBJ 4,743,590 68 139.7 68 26

Trinidad and Tobago PPOS, TAB 3,256,181 88 60.3 108 11.5

Maldives MLE, GAN 3,207,428

Bahamas NAS 3,159,570

Mauritius MRU 2,611,392 63 165.4 101 13

Guam GUM 2,570,240

Barbados BGI 1,995,167 83 72.7 104 12.5

Fiji NAN, SUV 1,653,585

French Polynesia PPT 1,180,835

Cape Verde BVC, SID 891,346 106 27.8 124 7

Seychelles SEZ 652,686

St Lucia UVF 618,238

Guyana GEO 446,089 129 7.5 137 3

Timor-Leste 125 9.8 122 7.5

Grenada GND 344,166

Samoa APW 312,273

Cook Islands RAR 303,047

Tonga TBU 229,656

Comoros HAH 174,656

Total TPAX, 25 participating SIDS airports 97,234,478

Total TPAX, global participating airports 5,038,225,841

Participating SIDS share of total TPAX 1.93%

Source: ACI World Ranking data for airports, 2010; World Economic Forum, 2011, Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.

Two further measures indicate the available seat kilometers associated with the international network, and the number of airlines providing a service to each country. International seat kilometers again follow broadly the same pattern. Just one of the SIDS, Singapore, is in the top quartile globally, possibly reflecting a combination of number, frequency and length of the routes that it is served by. Both Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago appear in the third quartile on this measure.

The number of airlines operating is not directly correlated with available international seat kilometers, but does follow a similar pattern in general, with higher numbers of airlines contributing to the longer

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networks. This pattern may reflect the extent of liberalization of air services in the country concerned, or it may relate to the potential for return from these tourism economies. As is shown in table 3.1, volumes of international air passenger traffic associated with SIDS are comparatively low. Passenger movements returned from SIDS represent just 1.93% of all global returns.

Liberalisation of air transport

UNWTO supports and fosters the liberalization of travel and tourism regulation in a responsible way because experience demonstrates that this contributes to economic and social development.

Since World War II, international air services between countries have operated under the terms of bilateral air service agreements (ASAs) negotiated between the two countries. Typically, these ASAs have specified which airlines could operate between the two countries, the routes carriers could operate (e.g., which airports they could fly to), whether carriers could offer beyond services (fifth freedom rights), limits on the frequency and capacity (seats) that the carriers could operate, and often placed controls over airline pricing. As a result, the development of international air services has been as much a function of government policy as it has been a function of commercial considerations. In addition to bilateral ASAs, most countries have also placed foreign ownership and control restrictions on the airlines.

The last two decades have seen a trend towards the liberalisation of the international air market as governments recognised the benefits of allowing market forces to determine the development of air services. The United States of America for example has pursued “open skies” bilaterals with other countries, which also allow cooperative marketing arrangements such as code-sharing. The EU introduced three packages of reforms that almost fully deregulated the EU air market, although it should be noted that the EU has unique political and legal characteristics which have allowed it to develop and implement powerful free trade policies which may not be easily replicated elsewhere. The pace of liberalisation has been further slowed in recent years by the global economic recession, although a few countries, notably in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and South America, have seen air transport as an ingredient in economic recovery programmes.

Bilateral air services agreements remain the primary vehicles for liberalising international air transport services for most states, including many SIDS. The existence of a bilateral ASA does not however mean that it is fully utilized.

Arrangements also exist at the regional level for the liberalization of intra-regional air transport services, which include agreements for specified countries within the Caribbean Community and Association of Caribbean States, Pacific Islands and the Yamoussoukro agreement which applies to certain SIDS within the AIMS region. Singapore, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands have also signed the Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalisation of International Air Transportation (MALIAT).

While there has been a small number of additional “open skies” bilateral air service agreements in the last three years, there has also been some retrenchment (ICAO, 2010). SIDS have been particularly vulnerable to the economic recession and, as demand has fluctuated, some have been subject to the sudden withdrawal of air services on less lucrative routes, including some which serve important markets. Such lack of control over access to market has been a cause of concern.

In tourism terms, the key global air traffic routes for SIDS are those which connect them to their main markets, or to countries with strong future market potential. UNWTO has argued the case for some time for an ‘Essential Service and Tourism Development Route (ESTDR)’ scheme whereby financial support or regulatory assistance could be granted to airlines on international routes that may be considered essential tourism development routes, especially to Least Developed Countries but also to SIDS. Selection of eligible routes should be based on socio-economic objectives and economic justification. UNWTO has continued to assert the need for differentiation in work on mitigation of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from air passenger transport, to alleviate negative impacts on tourism destination markets in developing and particularly least developed and island countries.

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A study of essential services examined the frequency of connections between pairs of countries for each LDC in 2004 and again in 2006 (ICAO Secretariat, 2007). Amongst SIDS which are also LDCs, Maldives was the best connected with 18 State-pair routes, including 4 with annual flight frequencies of 700 or more, and many connections into Europe and the Middle East. Tuvalu was the least well connected, with just one State-pair route. The study also analysed the share of international routes that linked the LDC with the world’s top international tourism spenders. Timor-Leste was well connected here, as its only routes provided connections with Australia and Indonesia. Other SIDS/LDCs with strong connections to high spending countries were Vanuatu (51%), Maldives (43%), Haiti (39%) and Cape Verde (42%). African SIDS/LDCs had a variety of intra-regional connections but, apart from Cape Verde, were less well connected to their nearest prospect markets in Europe.

A number of SIDS have benefited from their location with respect to emerging international hubs in the Middle East, with the introduction of new services from Gulf carriers. Although seemingly volatile, such new services have been able to fill gaps left by withdrawal of routes to traditional markets. This has certainly been the case, for example, in Seychelles.

It can be argued that liberalization not only offers opportunities for new operators and new routes, but also provides destinations with access to new markets with the benefit of associated marketing support and exposure provided by the carrier at no cost to the destination. It is argued that Vanuatu’s tourism industry, for example, became more competitive after reform of the aviation industry (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2009). One study of the EU single aviation market found that it had greatly increased competition on many routes, had resulted in many more new routes operating, and had led to a 34% decline in discount fares in real terms.2

Too little competition can also keep airfares artificially high as, for example on the limited number of commercial flights which connect Sao Tome and Principe with Europe. A recent assessment has suggested that structural constraints still need to be addressed in Sao Tome and Principe, including offering lower airfares and providing alternative flying routes to the archipelago (African Development Bank, 2011).

Changes in the ownership and type of carrier

The vast majority of the world’s airlines are privately owned, including previous government-owned airlines which have been privatized. Elsewhere, governments have reduced ownership or established partnerships involving joint holdings. For example, Virgin Samoa, a joint venture between the Government of Samoa (49%), Virgin Australia (49%) and a private Samoan shareholder (2%), is the sole operator on routes to Brisbane and Sydney, and competes directly with Air New Zealand on flights to Auckland.

As of March 2009, only about 28% of the world’s airlines (ICAO Secretariat, 2009) had government shareholdings. Recently, however, there has been a counter trend of renewal of government ownership as a national interest response to the potential demise of a privatized airline, as was the case for Air Mauritius, Air Jamaica, West Indies Airways and LIAT, the Caribbean airline.

Despite the high level of privatization, a number of nationally owned airlines remain. Amongst SIDS, examples include Air Seychelles, Air Niugini (Papua New Guinea) and Bahamasair. Some SIDS see a nationally owned airline as strengthening a commitment to provide capacity to ‘lifeline’ markets, from which an external operator might withdraw in tough economic times. Providing this degree of stability comes at a price, although some nationally owned carriers do return a profit on their international services. ‘Flag’ carriers often also provide domestic air services, including routes which are essential to maintain communication between outlying islands and communities and main centres.

2 “European Experience of Air Transport Liberalisation”, Joint Presentation by the European Union and the European Civil Aviation Conference to the 5th Worldwide Air Transport Conference (ICAO), 24–29 March 2003.

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Even where SIDS have their own airline, they may still rely on major international airlines for the majority of international tourist arrivals. For example, in August 2011, Air Seychelles offered 47% of available seat capacity (CAPA, 2011); since then, new routes have been opened up by Etihad.

Charter flights can be an alternative to ensure an adequate and frequent supply of aeroplanes at a competitive price. The operation of charter services is highly dependent on the volume of passengers carried to a destination, being viable only when a critical mass of tourists is reached. Thus they are likely to operate to destinations with high tourist demand. Traditional charter destinations include the Caribbean, Maldives and Seychelles (UNCTAD, 2007), although new charter routes open to serve changing market conditions.

In recent years, successful low cost carriers (LCCs) have been challenging the full service network model of traditional major airlines as well as of the holiday package business of charter airlines. Common features include focus on short-haul routes, high frequencies, simple low fare structures, high-density single class with no seat assignment. Analysis of air routes in the Caribbean (OAG Market Intelligence, 2012), shows that the low cost carrier segment in the Caribbean has experienced an annual growth rate of 25% since 2002, through carriers such as JetBlue and Spirit expanding operations and capacity to the region. This is shown in table 3.2. While growth in the overall market for air passenger transport was slow, just 4.0% over the whole period, and is still dominated by mainline carriers, LCCs have seen their market share grow from 1.4% to 13.7%.

Table 3.2 Change in capacity of Caribbean Market, 2002–2011

Capacity 2002 Capacity 2011 Change % Change

Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) 409,847 4,113,023 3,703,176 904%

Mainline Carriers 28,451,670 25,892,436 2,559,234 –9%

Source: OAG Market Intelligence (2012).

The growing importance of regional hubs

Direct incoming flights from major international source markets may not be warranted by the amount of air passenger traffic generated by a number of SIDS. For some SIDS, available land and the nature of the terrain may also make it difficult to handle larger aircraft. This situation has been addressed through the increasing importance of regional hubs – airports which handle major incoming long haul flights and transfer passengers on to intra-regional flights to their final destination. The hubs that serve SIDS may be in the region or on the edge of it, and may or may not be located on a SIDS. In the Caribbean, Miami, Puerto Rico and Barbados act as regional hubs, while Fiji and Guam provide this function in the Pacific.

The Gulf States and Singapore have grown in importance as hubs for a wide area. Singapore, itself a SIDS, acts as a strategic crossroads between Asia and the rest of the world. The development of new airline routes has secured the position of Singapore as a preferred regional air and travel hub with strong global connectivity. Changi International Airport in Singapore has also been at the forefront of catering for low-cost carriers by developing a dedicated no-frills terminal, catering for airlines such as Tiger Airways and Jetstar which operate around 1000 flights a week linking Singapore to more than 20 destinations in Asia and the south west Pacific.

Despite the growth of hubs, some SIDS believe that the lack of a direct air service can deter travelers by introducing the need to change planes. In Belize for example there is concern that it is complicated for Europeans to visit as currently they must travel via the United States of America, Mexico or Guatemala.

Although cruise ships are considered separately in section 3.2, the importance of the fly-cruise market has in effect created a number of hubs with airports providing an essential point of transfer for passengers arriving on international long haul flights to join their cruise ship.

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Intra-regional and domestic air services

Intra-regional air passenger transport is a key requirement for linking together individual SIDS for many purposes and also for linking SIDS to nearby major destinations. Such linkages do not necessarily require the facilities and infrastructure of a regional hub; and it is possible to fly smaller aircraft direct from one SIDS to another. Many such routes are well-established, while others have been more recently introduced. Competition here can also drive down price.

Domestic air services are also of great importance for those SIDS which include many islands, or for larger territories where communities and destinations are physically separated by long distances or impenetrable terrain. The number of smaller airports can be taken as an indicator of the extremely high dependence on domestic connectivity by air. As well as having at least one international airport, some SIDS have large numbers of smaller airports linked by scheduled services, including Vanatu (29), Solomon Islands (22), Bahamas (19), Cuba (18) and Fiji (14). This is quite apart from other airports handling non-scheduled flights. In addition to 40 airports handling scheduled flights, Papua New Guinea has 347 other airports serving its remote communities.

Many inbound international visitors require a domestic transfer to reach their final destination, especially if their hotel or resort is located on a different island to the international airport. In some cases, this journey can be undertaken by sea. At the top end of the market, and where numbers involved are very small, transfers are provided by the hotel or resort by private jet or helicopter. However, scheduled domestic air services are commonly involved. The logistics of providing transfers for a significant proportion of arrivals from a large international aircraft through use of much smaller planes can put pressure on ground and baggage handling and involve lengthy waits for some passengers.

Connectivity, both intra-regionally and domestically, opens up possibilities for multi-centre and touring holidays which are being actively encouraged in some areas. For example Star Alliance has introduced a Micronesia Airpass which enables customers to explore additional islands in the Pacific Ocean on a single ticket using the United Airlines network across Micronesia.

Investment in infrastructure

The quality of air transport infrastructure is a major factor in attracting international carriers and in providing an excellent air passenger transport experience. This may include the number, size and quality of airports; public facing services such as security arrangements and check-in, baggage handling and transfers on arrival; and ‘behind the scenes’ services such as ground handling, logistics and air traffic control.

Table 3.3 presents a measure of air passenger transport infrastructure from the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, based on responses to a survey amongst CEOs of tourism businesses in the countries concerned.

Table 3.3 Quality of air transport infrastructure (rank out of 139 countries worldwide)

Singapore 2 Dominican Republic 51

Barbados 13 Mauritius 56

Puerto Rico 19 Cape Verde 82

Bahrain 20 Guyana 105

Trinidad and Tobago 40 Timor-Leste 134

Jamaica 47

Source: World Economic Forum (2011), Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.

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The appearance of Singapore, Barbados, Puerto Rico and Bahrain in the top quartile for this measure suggests a high level of satisfaction amongst tourism businesses with their air transport infrastructure while, at the other extreme, Guyana and Timor-Leste record a very low level of satisfaction with the suitability of the air transport infrastructure to support tourism businesses. As part of a ten year infrastructure plan, Mauritius is investing in the modernization and expansion of Ramgoolam International Airport.

While investment in infrastructure is most usually viewed as the responsibility of government, there are occasional examples of FDI in airport development that involve tourism interests. In the Dominican Republic, private investors involved in the development of the resort area of Punta Cana were prepared to engage in supporting infrastructure requirements. In order to by-pass a five hour journey to the new resort from the international airport at Santo Domingo, Club Méditerannée took a 50% equity share in the development of the new Punta Cana International airport. The airport proved to be a springboard for further investment in the area, and in 2010 handled the highest number of air passenger movements of the seven international airports in the Dominican Republic, accounting for 42% of movements recorded by ACI.

Taxation and charges

Government taxation policy, both at the point of origin and at the destination, can influence the costs associated with inbound passenger movements and competition with other destinations. The World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report includes an index of the relative cost of access to international air transport services, based on ticket taxes and airport charges. The rank for each of the SIDS included in the index is shown in table 3.4.

Table 3.4 Relative cost of access to international air transport services

Puerto Rico 7 Barbados 51

Bahrain 8 Trinidad and Tobago 65

Singapore 9 Mauritius 72

Guyana 27 Jamaica 99

Cape Verde 36 Dominican Republic 132

Note: Rank by increasing order of cost of ticket taxes and airport charges.

Source: World Economic Forum (2011), Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.

Three SIDS (Puerto Rico, Bahrain and Singapore) are ranked within the top ten countries in the world for their competitiveness on this measure. They are also thee of the four busiest airports amongst all SIDS. Conversely, the Dominican Republic, which also handles very high volumes of inbound arrivals through its international airports, is amongst the ten least competitive countries in the world on ticket taxes and airport charges. The appearance of Mauritius in the lower half of the rankings suggests that comparatively high rates of taxes and charges are applied by a government which has also come under pressure from its hospitality industry to allow more international carriers to operate to the island in order to boost occupancy rates at hotels and resorts (CAPA, 2011).

The increasing need for measures to reduce GHG emissions from air transport, which may include taxes and charges, is covered in chapter 4 and will of course need to be factored in to any consideration of the influence of costs on future demand for air passenger transport.

There has been much debate about the effect of the introduction of Air Passenger Duty (APD) by the Government of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has amongst the highest ticket taxes and airport charges in the world, ranked 134/139 on the index above. The Caribbean Tourism Organization in particular has pressed its case consistently over the past three years that APD has reduced tourism arrivals into the Caribbean from the United Kingdom, and that the design of a four tier banding system

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is discriminatory against the Caribbean (CTO, 2011). They have also expressed concern about any attempt to place premium economy seats, popular with visitors to the Caribbean, into the same higher rate bracket as business and first class seats.

Aligning the development of markets and capacity

More so than in most other countries, there is a strong need in island destinations for airline capacity to be closely aligned with accommodation capacity, and for any growth in one to track growth in the other over time. Governments face challenging choices about the relative importance of the tourism and aviation industries to their economies, the extent to which they can influence growth in capacity in either of the two sectors, and which should drive the other. Strategies for managing airline seat capacity are likely to include some combination of investing in infrastructure, adjusting taxation and charges, extending or reducing ownership of any national airline and being open to making routes available to foreign carriers. Markets for air passenger transport are broadly determined by a combination of cost, often aligned with distance, and destination appeal.

In 2007, as part of its drive to double GDP by 2017, Seychelles set annual targets for visitor arrivals, linked to requirements for accommodation (rooms) and airline seat capacity on international routes. In 2017, this translates to a requirement for 6077 hotel rooms and 1224831 airline seats, broken down by region of origin. Strategy 2017 for the tourism sector sets out measures that will need to be taken in order to meet these targets.

In addition to matching volumes of seat capacity and accommodation stock, there is also a need to achieve a match in quality. Any move in the accommodation sector towards the luxury end of the market is likely to be matched by increasing demand for premium (first/business class) aircraft seats, especially on long haul flights, with consequences for forward orders for new aircraft. Any tension between downward pressure on air travel costs and increased provision of top class accommodation will need to be resolved.

3.2 Cruise Tourism

While air transport is the predominant means of arrival amongst overnight tourists to SIDS, cruise tourism also delivers a large number of visitors to SIDS. The rest of this chapter examines the current and expected dimensions of cruise tourism and explores the nature of its relationship to SIDS as destinations.

The importance of cruise tourism to SIDS

Cruise passenger arrivals are reported to UNWTO on an annual basis by individual countries. For the majority of SIDS, as discussed in chapter 1, cruise passengers are the main if not the only source of same day visitors. Table 3.5 compares cruise passengers with overall total inbound tourist arrivals for those SIDS returning relevant figures.

Cruise passengers represent over one half of all international arrivals in 15 SIDS3. In three SIDS, Dominica, Kiribati and St Kitts and Nevis, over three quarters of international arrivals are cruise passengers. The majority of SIDS where cruise tourism is especially important are to be found in the Caribbean, although there are exceptions in the Pacific4. The United States Virgin Islands and the Bahamas stand out as having very high absolute numbers of cruise passengers, with total arrivals and proportion of cruise passengers both at a high level.

3 Netherlands Antilles represented twice, as Bonaire and Curaçao.

4 Kiribati figures based on 2006, 2007 only.

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Table 3.5 Cruise passengers as share of total arrivals (average 2006–2010)

Total arrivals (x 1000)

Cruise passengers (x 1000)

Cruise passengers (share of total

arrivals, %)

Dominica 494.5 434.2 87.8

Kiribati 21.6 17.0 78.9

Saint Kitts and Nevis 484.0 364.8 75.4

Belize 921.0 669.4 72.7

United States Virgin Islands 2,482.0 1,803.8 72.7

Antigua and Barbuda 873.4 624.2 71.5

Grenada 409.0 291.8 71.3

Bahamas 4,725.2 3,195.4 67.6

St Vincent and the Grenadines 277.2 186.8 67.4

Bonaire 207.0 137.3 66.3

Saint Lucia 893.2 591.8 66.3

New Caledonia 247.0 146.0 59.1

British Virgin Islands 891.0 524.4 58.9

Vanuatu 196.2 108.6 55.4

Barbados 1,161.8 610.4 52.5

Curaçao 721.8 364.4 50.5

Aruba 1,335.5 559.0 41.9

Jamaica 2,868.0 1,088.2 37.9

Tonga 71.0 25.0 35.2

Puerto Rico 4,990.4 1,319.6 26.4

Trinidad and Tobago 521.0 83.0 15.9

Dominican Republic 4,411.0 402.6 9.1

Seychelles 172.8 14.0 8.1

Fiji 616.5 41.8 6.8

Papua New Guinea 120.0 6.0 5.0

Montserrat 8.4 0.2 2.8

Anguilla 138.0 3.3 2.4

Northern Mariana Islands 394.0 7.3 1.8

Mauritius 917.0 11.6 1.3

Maldives 684.8 3.0 0.4

Cuba 2,336.6 9.6 0.4

Source: UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook.http

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Growth in the global market for cruise tourism

In 2010, UNWTO published a report on ocean and maritime cruise tourism (UNWTO, 2010d), which gave figures for the world demand for cruises for a number of years to 2005. These figures have been updated in table 3.6 with the addition of a slightly revised set of figures for 2005 and new figures for 2010.

Table 3.6 World demand for cruises, 2000–2010 (millions)

Region 2000 2005a 2005b 2010 Annual average growth (%)

PAX PAX PAX PAX 2000–2005 2005–2010

North America 6.88 9.67 9.96 11.11 8.1 2.3

Europe 1.95 3.22 3.15 5.54 13.0 15.2

Rest of the world 0.78 1.23 1.21 2.25 11.5 17.2

Total 9.61 14.12 14.32 18.80 9.4 6.3

Notes: a) UNWTO, 2010d. b) European Cruise Council, 2012.

Source: G.P. Wild International Ltd from PSA, CLIA, IRN and other sources.

Overall demand for cruises has almost doubled from 9.61 million passengers in 2000 to 18.8 million passengers in 2010. Growth has slowed in the latter half of the decade, from an annual average of 9.4% between 2000 and 2005, to an annual average of 6.3% between 2005 and 2010. Nevertheless, despite the impact of the economic recession in the later years, this is still a highly respectable growth figure. In fact, this slowdown only occurred in the main global cruise market, North America. Elsewhere, in Europe and the rest of the world, growth rates for 2005–2010 were higher than for 2000–2005.

Table 3.7 looks at the change over time in market share of each major regional group.

Table 3.7 Market share of the World’s demand for cruises, 2000–2010 (millions)

Region 2000 2005a 2005b 2010

PAX Market share

PAX Market share

PAX Market share

PAX Market share

North America 6.88 71.6 9.67 68.5 9.96 69.6 11.11 59.1

Europe 1.95 20.3 3.22 22.8 3.15 22.0 5.54 29.5

Rest of the world 0.78 8.1 1.23 8.7 1.21 8.4 2.25 12.0

Total 9.61 100.0 14.12 100.0 14.32 100.0 18.80 100.0

Notes: a) UNWTO, 2010d. b) European Cruise Council, 2012.

Source: G.P. Wild International Ltd from PSA, CLIA, IRN and other sources.

It can be clearly seen that North America has lost ground in global markets, especially over the past five years, falling from 71.6% of global demand in 2000 to 59.1% in 2010. Over the same time period, Europe has gained in share from 20.3% in 2000 to 29.5% in 2010, while the rest of the world has seen a rise from 8.1% to 12.0%.

However, it is important to look behind the passenger numbers at the income derived. In most markets, demand in 2010 was stimulated by highly competitive pricing as cruise companies introduced extra capacity – 12 ships and 32,000 berths in succession to nine ships and 28,000 berths in 2009 – at a time when economies were still recovering from the downturn of late 2008. As a result, revenues achieved

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per passenger and per passenger night, although stabilizing after double-digit drops in 2009, still fell by just over 1% for Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) member brands (ECC, 2012) A further eight new ships, representing 20,000 berths, were due to be introduced in 2011.

Continued further growth in cruise tourism is predicted, but the European cruise source market is expected to continue to outstrip that of North America, following the pattern shown in table 3.8.

Table 3.8 North American and European source markets, 2001–2010, (growth on year, %)

Year North America Europe

2001 1.0 7.0

2002 13.0 7.0

2003 7.0 26.0

2004 11.0 6.0

2005 9.0 10.0

2006 4.0 9.0

2007 3.0 16.0

2008 –2.0 10.0

2009 0.5 12.0

2010 6.0 10.0

Source: European Cruise Council (2012).

Meanwhile, annual growth in cruise activity by Australians has also been in double digits, rising from 186,666 passengers in 2005 to 466, 692 in 2010 (Deloitte Access Economics, 2012).

Half of the passengers sourced and of the revenues earned globally by the two largest cruise companies – Carnival Corporation and RCCL – are now from outside North America (ECC, 2012). The majority of these come from Europe, although South America, Australia and Asia are also significant contributors. Cruise ships can be deployed wherever demand appears strongest, and North American companies have moved a number of their vessels into European waters. Carnival Cruise Lines is planning its first year-round deployment of a ship outside North America, with Carnival Spirit going to Australia from October 2012.

Differential patterns of growth in cruise tourism for SIDS

Table 3.9 presents data on the change over time in numbers of cruise passengers arriving in individual SIDS.

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Table 3.9 Rate of growth of cruise passenger arrivals for SIDS by region, 2000, 2005 and 2010

Cruise passengers Average annual growth

2000 2005 2010 1990–2000 2000–2005 2005–2010

Caribbean

Bonaire 44 40 213+ 24.3 –1.9 108.1++

Saint Kitts and Nevis 171 214 515 17.5 4.6 28.1

Trinidad and Tobago 104 67 120+ 9.2 –8.4 19.8++

Dominica 240 301 518 42.4 4.6 14.4

Saint Lucia 444 394 670 15.8 –2.4 14.0

Haiti 305 368 538+ 14.6 3.8 11.5++

Curaçao 308 276 383 6.5 –2.2 7.8

Dominican Republic 183 290 353 13.9 9.6 4.3

Grenada 180 275 334 –0.2 8.8 4.3

Antigua and Barbuda 427 467 557 5.1 1.8 3.9

Barbados 533 563 665 3.9 1.1 3.6

Bahamas 2,513 3,335 3,810 3.1 5.8 2.8

Aruba 490 553 607+ 14.2 2.4 2.4++

British Virgin Islands 197 449 501 7.6 17.9 2.3

St Vincent and Grenadines

162 154 153 6.9 –1.0 –0.1

United States Virgin Islands

1,768 1,912 1,859 4.7 1.6 –0.6

Belize 58 800 765 27.8 69.0 –0.9

Puerto Rico 1,221 1,387 1,194 3.5 2.6 –2.8

Jamaica 908 1,136 910 9.0 4.6 –4.0

Cuba 10 17 2 3.6 11.2 –17.6

AIMS

Seychelles 10 6 16 2.3 –9.7 33.3

Mauritius 11 9 14 –4.9 –3.9 11.1

Maldives 7 4 1 –10.6 –15.0

Pacific

New Caledonia 49 81 204 3.1 10.6 30.4

Vanuatu 48 64 140 1.3 5.9 23.8

American Samoa 4 6 .. 0.0 8.8

Fiji 10 .. 60 –9.8

Tonga 8 .. 24

Notes: + 2009 figure; ++ 2005–2009.

Source: UNWTO (2010d); UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook.

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Grouped by region, the table reinforces the difference in scale of operation between the Caribbean and the other two SIDS regions. It is important to remember that these figures are not cumulative – a cruise passenger may visit several ports of call in different SIDS during one cruise journey. This is especially true of the Caribbean, where islands are close together and even a short cruise can include several ports of call.

There is no really clear pattern to the growth that has taken place. For the small number of Pacific SIDS returning figures, growth has been consistently positive throughout the period and has been accelerating in recent years. There has been a strong recovery in Seychelles and Mauritius in the knock to cruise passenger numbers between 2000 and 2005, but elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, Maldives appears to be struggling to retain the interest of cruise companies. In the Caribbean, it has not proved possible to sustain the very strong growth that was seen between 1990 and 2000; there have been fluctuations in some SIDS, and there were small losses in cruise passengers for a number of SIDS between 2005 and 2010. Elsewhere, however, the story has been very positive. Growth in cruise tourism has been particularly strong in recent years in Bonaire, St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, St Lucia and Haiti.

The future for cruise tourism

All predictions are for continued future expansion of cruise tourism, and the industry’s confidence is manifest in growth in the fleet and, in particular, in forward orders for new ships. While some of this growth comes from a buoyant market for river cruises, it is the increasingly large ocean-going vessels that are scheduled to drive the growth in beds. CLIA report the introduction by their members of five new cruise ships in 2011, with an average of 2668 beds, and seven in 2012, with an average size of 2456 beds. Forward orders suggest a continued rise in bed numbers through to at least 2015 (CLIA, 2012).

Cruises are highly well-suited to recent trends in demand to offer a rich yet brief experience consistent with the concept of ‘value for time’ (UNWTO, 2010d). A market profile study carried out on behalf of CLIA in 2011 suggested awareness of the cruise vacation experience to be high and growing. 36 million Americans expressed an intention to cruise in the next three years, up from 33 million in 2008 and 31 million in 2006 (TNS for CLIA, 2011). This included 50% of non-cruise vacationers (>25 years, US$ >40,000 income) who expressed an interest in taking their first cruise within the next three years. For those expressing interest in taking a cruise, the length of desired cruise averages 7.5 days. First time cruisers were most interested in shorter (3–5 day) cruises.

The trend in cruise ships is towards shorter trips on larger vessels, which operate as marine resorts in their own right. Flexible deployment and a relatively short lead in time mean that cruise companies can benefit from seasonal variations and comparative advantage of destinations with respect to markets. Historically, Caribbean capacity has increased in autumn and winter months in the Northern Hemisphere, shrinking in the northern spring and summer when other destinations increase in appeal, although there is some variation between subzones of the Caribbean in the extent to which they can retain year round appeal. However, there are other sub-regions which are exhibiting growth, including but not exclusive to the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, which are also sunny during the northern Hemisphere’s winter and can therefore offer a suitable substitute for the Caribbean at those times of year. Completion of the new Panama Canal by 2015 will increase flexibility of deployment as it will increase capacity and allow the passage of the largest ships.

Deployment figures from CLIA for 2011 place the Caribbean as the top geographic market, with 36.2 million bed days and 33.7% of market share, followed by the Mediterranean, with 21.99 m bed days and 20.44% market share. Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific combined achieved just 2.7% of market share. Top destinations for 2012 show an increased focus on Europe and on river cruises, continuing to threaten the dominance of the Caribbean, and the South Pacific is predicted to strengthen its position. An increasingly diverse set of itineraries feature new ports of call, providing ever greater competition amongst destinations anxious to secure cruise business. This is particularly important in order to retain the interest of the increasing number of repeat cruise passengers.

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Distance from home market is reducing, as is the demand for fly-cruise, with more ships deployed in Europe, to serve the growing European market.

There has been an increasing emphasis on retention of passenger time, attention and spend, adding value to the final product by means of continuous innovation and improvement. The package price has increasingly become a vehicle for securing a captive leisure clientele throughout the voyage in order to generate income from on-board sales. Whereas the extreme luxury end of the market has moved to all-inclusive pricing, there has been a tendency for the ‘contemporary’ market segment to discount overall prices while increasing the number and value of goods and services which are charged for during a cruise. The interest of cruise lines is thus increased in keeping their passengers on board.

The total experience of cruising is reflected in increased attention to on-board dining and entertainment. Cruise ships operating in the Caribbean have been described as destinations in themselves’ with ports-of-call ‘merely added attractions’ (UNWTO, 2010d: 33). An extreme outcome of this situation has been the acquisition by a number of cruise companies of their own private islands, where shore-side activities such as sailing and diving can be offered.

UNWTO’s report on cruise tourism pointed to increasing concentration and specialization as a feature of cruise companies. In 2010, 88% of the world’s supply of cruise ship bed-places was controlled by three large groups. Specialisation at that time centred on two key segments: cruises for families with children and thematic cruises. A number of operators are also emerging as specialists in adventure cruising, basing their operations on smaller ships designed for exploration, such as Paul Gauguin Cruises who operate in the Pacific.

Factors affecting the future of cruise tourism for SIDS

The sheer size and success of the cruise line companies gives them enormous advantages when it comes to making decisions about itineraries and ports-of-call. They have access to market information and consumer preferences, and a high degree of control over their business model. By contrast, destinations, and SIDS in particular, that wish to win or retain cruise business are limited in the influence that they can exert on decision making.

Itineraries are developed by cruise companies and in the interest of cruise companies. Itineraries must have sufficient appeal to attract the attention of past and new customers, so the choice of destinations/ports-of-call is not unimportant. But companies are also constrained by certain factors of geography – distance from source market and home port, cruising distance between ports-of-call (sea days are difficult to sell), route optimization to minimise distance travelled, location of fuel bunkers, seasonal variation in weather and sea conditions etc.

The stakes are high for destinations, especially small destinations where cruise tourism is one of few options and a significant component of their tourism. Just one cruise ship can unload upwards of 1–2,000 visitors. Careful consideration must be given to the increasing size of ships in relation to the capacity of the port of call. For small island destinations, the concentration in time and space of such a significant volume of visitors represents a significant visitor management challenge. With limited time to spend onshore, this is the window of opportunity for the destination to generate income and add value. Excursions must be well planned and organized, and those involved in delivering them prepared to deal with an irregular flow of work and income. In Vanuatu, market stalls set up in Port Vila for arriving cruise ships provide an important source of local income, and recently a traffic management plan has been agreed. Distribution of visitors in a number of directions away from the port can reduce pressure and congestion and increase the quality of experience, while spreading economic benefit. Destinations are increasingly aware of the cruise companies’ concern to ensure that the on-shore experience for their passengers matches the quality of experience that they aim to offer on board, especially at the luxury end of the market.

The significant investment which has taken place in infrastructure in the Caribbean and elsewhere was documented in UNWTO’s report on Cruise Tourism (UNWTO, 2010d). It has included a new

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pier for two mega-ships in Barbados in 2003, completion of a new terminal in The Bahamas Freeport Harbour in 2002, investment by Curaçao in its cruise ship port at Willemstad, a new cruise terminal and duty-free shopping area in Grenada, and expansion of pier facilities for Antigua. The ability to handle the largest vessels, and multiple arrivals, is seen as key to retention of cruise traffic. Amidst ongoing discussion about development of a second pier for St Kitts and Nevis, the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, which carries 6,300 passengers and a crew of 2,400, was scheduled to make its inaugural call at Port Zante, on 30 December 2011.

The South Pacific Cruise Shipping Development Strategy (South Pacific Travel, 2007) examined what destinations could do to increase the possibility of being included as a port-of-call in an itinerary. The region’s most attractive feature, that being a remote tropical island paradise, is also a deterrent for cruise lines because of distances, time and costs. Access to large markets and the distance between South Pacific ports-of-call are identified as major challenges when taking on other emerging regional cruise destinations such as Southeast and East Asia. Certain SIDS, for example Vanuatu, are well-located to benefit from 7–12 day cruises operating out of Brisbane/Sydney. Others further to the east are similarly placed with respect to Hawaii. Even so, these are long cruises compared with the 6–8 day cruises which account for 52% of all cruises (South Pacific Travel, 2007). SIDS in the central South Pacific area, including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Tuvalu and Kiribati, are comparatively disadvantaged by their greater distance from main markets. However, the strategy identified potential interest in the area as a sub-regional hub. Certain SIDS are also identified as strategically located on longer itineraries, including trans-Pacific journeys or round-the-world cruises, although few are identified as “‘must have’, like Tahiti” (South Pacific Travel, 2007:30). Berthing facilities were found to be important, and need to safely accommodate the ship; in general, however, it was not felt that cruise terminals are required for transit calls. More important are shore-side infrastructure such as tour operators, ground handlers and basic facilities such as toilets and medical services. Limited freshwater supplies to top up visiting cruise ships was identified in chapter 2 as a possible threat to future cruise business on some Caribbean islands, and may also apply in the Pacific.

Any increase in focus on the environment and carbon emissions, together with rising fuel costs, is likely to work against long-haul markets including fly-cruise, and to put increasing emphasis on regional home markets. The United Kingdom’s Air Passenger Duty is attributed as having had an impact on Caribbean fly cruises, because of the higher flight cost (European Cruise Council, 2012). Deployment of the largest cruise ships to emerging areas of high demand may release some of the ‘smaller’ ships to regional home markets in the Pacific or the Indian Ocean.

Embracing sustainability

In order to reduce both CO2 emissions and to drive down operational costs, the cruise sector has invested heavily in sustainable technologies and practices and is proud of its record of achievement, aspects of which are documented in an anniversary publication from CLIA (CLIA, 2010). These have included:

Engine design and alternative fuels. Working with engine manufacturers on new and innovative engine designs to meet the requirements set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to reduce emissions and Tier II emission standards introduced by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2011.

Ecological Hull Coatings. Working with paint manufacturers to deploy innovative and environmentally safe coatings that increase the smoothness of ship hulls. By reducing the amount of energy needed to travel through water, it is estimated that 5% of fuel usage for propulsion will be saved.

Propulsion and Hull Design. Working with engine and propeller manufacturers to develop a new approach to hull shapes and propulsion systems, has resulted in significant energy savings.

Rigorous recycling programs. Reducing the amount of waste produced by passengers aboard ships and at ports of call as well as the waste generated through the course of operating the ships.

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Energy saving LED light bulbs. Halogen and incandescent light bulbs have either been replaced on many lines or are being replaced with LED and fluorescent lights.

High-efficiency Appliances. Many cruise lines are installing high-efficiency appliances onboard their ships in order to minimize their impact on the environment.

Window Tinting. Applying window tinting designed for the marine environment, which keep the ships cooler and reduces the load on air conditioning.

Solar panels. Some CLIA members are installing solar panels as a source of supplementary energy for ships.

Wastewater Management. Developing, testing and applying technologies for advanced wastewater purification systems (AWPS). Blackwater and graywater discharge from cruise ships is regulated to a higher standard than any other vessel and most land-based facilities.

The cruise line industry has partnered with Conservation International (CI) to create the Ocean Conservation and Tourism Alliance, working together to minimize the environmental footprint of the cruise industry and protect biodiversity. In particular, CI has advised the industry on wastewater management, including advanced treatment systems and avoidance of discharge in coral reef areas including highly sensitive marine habitats in the Caribbean basin.

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Chapter 4

The inextricable links between global climate change and sustainable development have been increasingly recognized over the past decade, and it is now considered one of the most prominent development challenges of the XXIst Century. In 2009, the UN Secretary General referred to climate change as “the pre-eminent geopolitical and economic issue of the XXIst Century. It rewrites the global equation for development, peace, and prosperity”. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded with “very high confidence” that climate change would impede the ability of a number of nations to achieve sustainable development by mid-century, particularly under greater warming scenarios (Yohe et al., 2007). Although all nations and economic sectors will have to contend with the implications of climate change, the consequences are anticipated to be particularly acute for SIDS and far-reaching for the tourism sector, which many SIDS heavily depend on economically (see chapter 1).

This chapter starts by looking at the current recognition of this critical issue for SIDS and for their performance as tourism destinations. Next it presents an overview of the scientific conclusions of the IPCC with respect to future global climate change and the regional implications for SIDS. The diverse impacts of climate change on SIDS tourism are then summarized and the adaptation imperative discussed. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of how well prepared the tourism sector is for the risks and opportunities posed by climate change.

4.1 Climate Change, SIDS and Tourism – Recognizing the Challenge

Although SIDS have contributed relatively little to the problem of climate change through their historic greenhouse gas emissions (estimated to be less than 1% of global total – Baumert et al., 2005), they are anticipated to be among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) (2009) indicates that climate change is already affecting economic growth, health indicators, water availability, food production and the fragile ecosystems in SIDS. For example, the World Bank estimated that in 2007 the Caribbean suffered US$ 10 billion in economic losses from weather related events representing over 13% of gross domestic product (GDP).

The IPCC and other experts have identified a range of characteristics which make SIDS particularly vulnerable to the range of climate change impacts, including: relative isolation and distance to large markets, small land masses, generally limited natural resources (including freshwater), high population densities and high growth rates, concentrations of population and infrastructure in coastal areas that are highly exposed to extreme events and sea level rise (SLR), limited economic base and dependency on natural resources and/or tourism and limited financial, technical and institutional capacity for adaptation. Climate change will increasingly affect the lifestyles, livelihoods, health, and social wellbeing of SIDS populations throughout the XXIst Century and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (Article 4.8 and 4.9) recognizes that SIDS merit particular consideration for understanding the risks of climate change and adaptation assistance.

The significance of the climate change threat has been conveyed through several declarations from SIDS political leadership. In 2009, the members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) issued a declaration on climate change outlining the serious threats to their sustainable development goals and very existence in some cases and profound disappointment at the lack of ambition and progress within the international climate change negotiations to protect SIDS and other particularly vulnerable countries, peoples and ecosystems. AOSIS called on the international community to adopt mitigation policies that would see the long-term stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations below

Impacts and Challenges of Climate Change in SIDS

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350 ppm CO2-equivalent levels and global average surface temperature increases limited to below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Further action to provide SIDS with additional, timely, predictable, and transparent sources of grant-based financing to meet the adaptation needs was also emphasized.

Regional statements have reinforced this united SIDS stance. In the Caribbean, the Liliendaal Declaration on Climate Change (CARICOM Heads of Government 2009) emphasized that dangerous climate change is already occurring in all SIDS and that global average surface temperature increases should be limited to well below 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels to preserve future sustainable development. The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat hold a parallel position and in their Pacific Islands Call to Action on Climate Change (2009) emphasize that climate change is already affecting economic growth, livelihoods, public health, ecosystems and future climate change that threatens food and water security, forces migrations of people and jeopardizes the existence of sovereign states is unacceptable.

With its close relationships to climate and the natural environment, climate change is anticipated to have extensive impacts on sustainability and competitiveness of tourism destinations. Furthermore, global climate change and climate policy will alter regional weather patterns, the natural environment, personal safety, and travel costs and accessibility; each of which are primary factors in travel decisions and geographic and seasonal patterns of tourism demand. Importantly, the significance of climate change to tourism is not solely in some distant and remote future. Climate change is already affecting investment and operating decisions in the tourism sector and it will become an ever more pivotal issue affecting the future of tourism development in the decades ahead.

Over the last decade, the UNWTO, in collaboration with other UN family organizations (UNEP, WMO), tourism scholars, and tourism industry associations have made significant improvements in the information base to assist the sector to navigate the complex dimensions of climate change. The UN organized First International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in Djerba, Tunisia in 2003 was a watershed in terms of recognized the two-way relationship between tourism and climate change and developing awareness among government administrations, the tourism industry and other tourism stakeholders that climate change was a new and salient business and policy reality with complex implications for tourism.

The follow up Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in Davos, Switzerland in 2007 commissioned a seminal state of knowledge scientific report (UNWTO, UNEP and WMO, 2008), which provided a quantitative estimate of the contribution of global tourism to climate change (roughly 5% of CO2 emissions in 2005) and the sector’s emissions trajectory to 2035, set out options for decoupling future growth in the tourism sector from greenhouse gas emissions, identified regional ‘hotspots’ where the tourism sector was particularly vulnerable, and discussed the state of adaptation within the sector. The Davos Declaration on Climate Change and Tourism and the subsequent Tourism Minister’s Summit on Tourism and Climate Change (London, England) concluded that climate change must be considered the greatest challenge to the sustainability of tourism in the XXIst Century (UNWTO, UNEP and WMO, 2008: 38).

While appreciating its vulnerability to climate change, the tourism sector also recognises it contributions to the GHG emissions that cause anthropogenic climate change and has expressed an unequivocal commitment to being part of the solution. In May 2009, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with UNWTO, ICAO, UNEP and travel and tourism business leaders, published Towards a Low Carbon Travel and Tourism Sector (WEF 2009), which outlines how the tourism system should endeavour to decarbonize similar to the rates in other economic sectors. In its report Leading the Challenge on Climate Change, the World Travel and Tourism Council (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2009) reached a similar conclusion, announcing ‘aspirational’ targets to cut tourism sector CO2 emissions 50% by 2035 (from 2005 levels) while also calling on the tourism industry and community partners to jointly adapt to climate change.

The SIDS of the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Oceans have been repeatedly identified as the tourism regions most vulnerable to the integrated effects of climate change and climate policy (Gössling and Hall, 2006, Becken and Hay, 2007, UNWTO, UNEP and WMO, 2008, Deutsche Bank Research, 2008, Scott et al., 2012a), and the implications of climate change for future tourism development in these nations has been identified as a research and policy priority.

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69Impacts and Challenges of Climate Change in SIDS

4.2 Climate Change Projections and Implications for SIDS

Observed climate and ecosystem changes

In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented compelling evidence from every continent of the world indicating that the global climate system has changed compared with the pre-industrial era. This conclusion has been reinforced by more recent reports on the state of the global climate system (e.g., UNEP, 2009; NOAA, 2010, IPCC, 2012). The IPCC AR4 declared that ‘warming of the climate system is unequivocal’, with global mean temperatures warming by approximately 0.76°C between 1850–1899 and 2001–2005, and the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-XXth Century ‘very likely’ the result of human activities that are increasing GHG concentrations in the atmosphere (Solomon et al., 2007). The warming trend over the past 50 years is nearly twice that for the past 100 years, and 15 of the 16 warmest years in the record of global surface temperature since 1850 have occurred between 1995 and 2010.

Observational trends in regions where most SIDS are located parallel these warming trends. Throughout much of the South Pacific, average annual and seasonal island air temperatures have increased between 0.6°C and 1.0°C since 1910 (Folland et al., 2003), while in the Caribbean a slightly lower warming trend of 0.5°C has been observed between 1900 and 1995 (Watson et al., 1997).

Climate change represents much more than just increased temperatures and the IPCC has concluded that there has been a discernible human influence on several other aspects of climate and coincident environmental changes, including, precipitation patterns (distribution and intensity), wind patterns, the intensity of some extreme storm events (such as extra-tropical storm tracks in both hemispheres), ocean surface temperatures, ocean chemistry, sea level, ecosystem structure and species ranges and abundance (Solomon et al., 2007; IPCC, 2012).

Change in precipitation patterns has also been recorded several regions in recent decades. Increased precipitation has been observed in eastern parts of North and South America, northern Europe and northern and central Asia, while drying has been observed in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa and parts of southern Asia. The frequency of heavy precipitation events has ‘likely’ increased over most land areas, which is consistent with warming and observed increases in atmospheric water vapour. More intense and longer droughts have been observed over wider areas since the 1970s, particularly in the tropics and subtropics where most SIDS are located (Solomon et al., 2007).

Varied changes in extreme events have also been recorded. Anthropogenic forcing is ‘likely’ to have contributed to changes in wind patterns, affecting extra-tropical storm tracks in both hemispheres (Solomon et al., 2007). Because of limited observing capabilities in the past, the IPCC (2012) has low confidence in any observed long-term increases in tropical cyclone activity (i.e., intensity, frequency, duration),

The world’s oceans are also experiencing a number of important changes. Since the 1960s the oceans have absorbed more than 80% of the heat added to the global climate system, and that ocean temperatures have increased to depths of at least 3000 million (Solomon et al. 2007). Increased temperatures of upper layers of the oceans have caused thermal expansion for the upper layers of the ocean, contributing to sea-level rise. Widespread melt of glaciers and polar ice sheets have also contributed to sea-level rise. The average rate of global mean sea-level rise was approximately 1.8 mm/year over the period 1961–1993, increasing to 3.4 mm/year between 1995 and 2010 (Rahmstorf, 2010; Church and White, 2011). The IPCC (2012) also recently concluded that the very likely contribution of mean sea level rise to increased extreme coastal high water levels, coupled with the likely increase in tropical cyclone maximum wind speed, is a particularly salient issue for SIDS.

Marine ecosystems so important to SIDS are being affected by a combination of changes in ocean temperatures and ocean chemistry. Higher surface water temperatures in some regions have also contributed to some of the highest recorded coral bleaching events, resulting in loss of coral cover in some SIDS locations and changed coral community structure in others (Donner et al., 2007). Increased

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concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere have also led to CO2 absorption in the oceans, altering (‘acidifying’) the chemistry of the top layers. Ongoing ocean acidification may harm a wide range of marine organisms and the food webs that depend on them, eventually degrading entire marine ecosystems (McMullen and Jabbour, 2009).

Future Climate Change and Ecosystem Responses

Accumulating evidence clearly documents that the impacts of anthropogenic climate change are not consigned to some distant future, but are the reality that scientists, environmental managers and indigenous populations in SIDS and elsewhere are observing. Critically, the IPCC Fourth Assessment emphasized that human-induced climate change has only just begun and that the pace of climate change is “very likely” to accelerate with continued GHG emissions at or above current rates. It is estimated that global mean surface temperatures could increase 1.8 to 4.0°C by the end of the XXIst Century (Solomon et al., 2007).

The international community formally endorsed the policy objective of holding the increase in global average temperature below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the level considered by many scientists and the Parties to the UNFCCC to represent dangerous interference with the climate system, at the 16th COP in Cancun, Mexico in 2010. However, recent observations have shown that the current rate of GHG emissions are exceeding the worst case scenarios in the IPCC SRES emission scenarios that have been used for modelling future climate change (Raupach et al., 2007). If current emission trends continue, or even if the most recent emission reduction commitments made by countries were successfully achieved, several studies indicate that temperatures would exceed +2°C average global warming by 2100 (Meinshausen et al. 2009; Parry et al., 2009; Anderson and Bows, 2011).

The most recent UN climate conference in Durban, South Africa adopted a mandate for parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to negotiate a new legal agreement by 2015 that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, widen participation in mandatory emission reductions and deepen global emission reduction targets. The new mitigation framework would take effect from 2020 but it remains to be seen whether this future agreement could achieve the +2° policy objective.

The IPCC AR4 provided specific small island climate change scenarios for the Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Oceans, noting that all are ‘very likely’ to experience further warming during this century, with the magnitude of warming expected to be somewhat smaller than the global annual mean warming in all seasons (Solomon et al., 2007). Projected climate change in these regions is summarized in table 4.1. Importantly, because Global Climate Models (GCMs) do not have sufficiently fine resolution to incorporate small islands, these projections are given over ocean surfaces rather than over land and downscaling projections to individual islands remain an important task for climate modellers.

Table 4.1 Projected annual climate change in SIDS regions by 2100

Region Temperature response (°C) Precipitation response (%)

Minimum Maximum Minimum Maximum

Indian Ocean 1.4 3.7 –2 +20

Pacific Ocean 1.4 3.1 –4 +11

Caribbean 1.4 3.2 –39 +11

Source: Solomon et al. (2007), section 11.9.

The IPCC AR4 also projected that the annual and seasonal amount of precipitation would change in most regions of the world (Solomon et al., 2007). In addition to changes in average precipitation amounts, the distribution of precipitation is anticipated to be concentrated into more intense events with longer periods of low precipitation in between (i.e., heavy episodic rainfall events with high runoff amounts

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are interspersed with longer relatively dry periods). Consequently, it was also considered ‘likely’ that there will be an increase in areas affected by drought.

The projected changes in annual precipitation in SIDS regions are summarized in table 4.1. The range of potential precipitation change was largest in the Caribbean (–39 to +11% with a mean of –12%). Summer rainfall in the Caribbean is likely to decrease in the vicinity of the Greater Antilles but changes elsewhere and in winter are less certain. In the Indian Ocean, SIDS have been projected to experience a mean annual precipitation change of +4% (range –2 to +20%). Annual rainfall is likely to increase in the northern Indian Ocean with increases likely in the vicinity of the Seychelles in DJF, and in the vicinity of the Maldives in JJA while decreases are likely in the vicinity of Mauritius in JJA. Annual precipitation projections were similar for Pacific Ocean SIDS, with mean change of +3% (range –4 to +11%). Annual rainfall is likely to increase in the equatorial Pacific, while most models project decreases just east of French Polynesia in DJF. Because ocean-atmosphere interactions play a major role in determining the precipitation of the islands and are not adequately accounted for in GCMs, large uncertainties in precipitation simulations and problems with the simulation of year-to-year variation were noted by the IPCC.

In the SIDS regions of the Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Oceans, average sea surface temperatures are also projected to increase by the IPCC (Solomon et al., 2007). This is important for future storm activity. While the IPCC projected that globally it was ‘likely’ that in the decades ahead tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) will become more intense, with higher peak wind speeds and more heavy precipitation, the global frequency of tropical cyclones is likely to remain essentially unchanged (IPCC, 2012). Regional patterns were more uncertain. Tropical storm tracks in some regions, such as the Caribbean, are projected to expand slightly toward higher latitudes (both north and south).

As indicated, the observed rate of global SLR has increased in the later decades of the XXth Century. Even if atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations were stabilized in the near future, sea levels would continue to rise for many decades in response to the warming that has already occurred (Solomon et al., 2007). With the pace of climate change deemed ‘very likely’ to accelerate throughout the 21st Century, SLR must be considered a unidirectional threat to coastal areas worldwide and even the physical existence of some low-lying SIDS (Nicholls et al., 2007; Nicholls et al., 2011).

The IPCC AR4 projected a global SLR of 0.18 to 0.59m from 1990 to 2100, but assumed a near-zero net contribution of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets because of uncertainty in future ice mass changes in these regions (Solomon et al., 2007). SLR projections have been vigorously discussed since (Hansen, 2007; Oppenheimer et al., 2007; Pfeffer et al., 2008), with accumulating evidence suggesting that both Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass at an accelerating rate over the past two decades (Rignot et al., 2010). Table 4.2 provides a summary of recent projections of global SLR over the 21st Century and compares newer studies to the IPCC AR4 projections and the continuation of current trends. A number of recent studies project the rate of global SLR will continued to accelerate in the decades ahead and that SLR could exceed 1m by the end of the century (Horton et al., 2008; Vermeer and Rahmstorf, 2009; Grinstead et al., 2009; Jevrejeva et al., 2008). Importantly, due to gravitational and geologic factors, the rate of SLR is not expected to be uniform globally and that it would exceed the global average in the Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Oceans where most SIDS are located (Tamisiea and Mitrovica, 2011).

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Table 4.2 Global sea level rise scenarios for the end of the XXIst Century (cm)

Low range Central estimate High range

Continuation of current trend (3.4mm/y) – 30.6 –

IPCC AR4 (2007) 18 – 59

Rahmstorf (2007) 50 90 140

Horton et al. (2008) 100

Vermeer and Rahmstorf (2009) 75 124 180

Grinstead et al. (2009) 40 125 215

Jevrejeva et al. (2008) 60 120 175

4.3 Climate Change Implications for SIDS Tourism

As outlined, future changes in temperatures, precipitation, extreme events and other important features of climate will manifest themselves differently across SIDS. This section focuses on several important commonalities in anticipated climate change and the important implications for ecosystem services and environmental assets so crucial for tourism.

The interface between climate change and tourism is multi-faceted and highly complex. In order to understand how climate change could affect the future prospects of SIDS tourism, it is important to recognize that all of the major components of the tourism system (tourists, source markets, transport systems, destinations) will be affected by four distinct impact pathways:

1. direct climatic changes (e.g., length and quality of tourism seasons, operating costs, increased infrastructure damage, and business interruptions);

2. indirect climate-induced environmental changes (e.g., water availability, biodiversity loss, altered landscape aesthetic, increased natural hazards, coastal erosion and inundation, increasing incidence of vector-borne diseases);

3. indirect climate-induced social-economic changes (e.g., social unrest, political instability, decreased economic growth and discretionary wealth, altered environmental attitudes); and

4. climate change mitigation policy (e.g., increase in transport costs, routing-hubs altered by modal shifts, decreased accessibility to some destinations).

The implications of each of these four impact pathways are discussed below.

4.3.1 Direct Climatic Changes

Changes in seasonal climatic conditions

The redistribution of global climatic resources for tourism, through changes in mean monthly temperatures, will be one of the most direct impacts of climate change on geographical and seasonal patterns of tourism demand. Although changes in climate are not expected to adversely impact global tourism demand, a gradual shift in international tourism demand to higher-latitude countries is projected (Hamilton et al., 2005a, 2005b; Berrittella et al., 2006, Bigano et al., 2007).

Tourists from temperate nations that currently dominate international travel (e.g. northern Europe, Japan, northern United States of America and Canada) are projected to spend more holidays in their home country or nearby regions, adapting their travel patterns to take advantage of new climatic opportunities closer to home. Demand for international travel to subtropical and tropical regions where most SIDS

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are located is projected to decline, with fewer arrivals from temperate nations and increased outbound travel from these nations (Hamilton et al., 2005a, 2005b; Berrittella et al., 2006, Bigano et al., 2007). However, concerns that sub-tropical and tropical destinations would become ‘too hot’ for tourists in peak tourism seasons have been challenged by recent studies that have undertaken detailed market surveys with tourists and accounted for coastal micro-climate conditions (Rutty and Scott, 2010; Scott et al., 2012a), suggesting that this is not considered a substantial threat to coastal tourism demand in SIDS.

Changes in extreme weather and insurance

Tourism destinations around the world are affected by different types of weather extremes every year (see Scott and Lemieux, 2009 for a review), and changes in extreme events are expected to be among the most immediate and significant consequences of climate change for tourism.

Little has been done to assess how projected changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme events could affect tourism destinations, tourism operators or tourists’ safety in SIDS. One estimate for Barbados found that the potential economic losses due to projected increase in the number of category 3–5 hurricanes (assuming historical probabilities of striking Barbados and existing numbers hotels/rooms and revenues per visit) increased between US$ 483 million and US$ 1969 million in the latter decades of the XXIst Century (Moore et al., 2010). A report from the World Bank Latin America and the Caribbean Region Sustainable Development Department (Toba, 2009) concluded that changes in annual hurricanes intensity and frequency in the Caribbean would result in additional US$ 446 million (in 2007 dollars) annual tourist expenditure losses from business interruption in 2080 within Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries. The limited available information is from the Caribbean region and may not be representative of SIDS in other regions. Given the frequency with which tropical cyclones have a major impact on tourism in SIDS, the lack of information on their impacts is surprising, and would be highly useful for better estimating the costs of damages associated with projected climate change.

The insurance implications of changing extremes are also salient for SIDS tourism. Facing the prospect of increased number and size of damage claims as a consequence of increased frequency and magnitude of extreme events under climate change in many regions, the insurance industry has expressed concern about the implications of climate change for the provision of insurance coverage for over 20 years (Mills, 2005; Ward and Ranger, 2010).

Although all major insurers are assessing the business implications of climate change (Allianz Group and World Wildlife Fund 2006), few have presented the potential implications for insurance premiums or the insurability of certain high-risk regions. One exception that provides insight into potential changes in SIDS is a report by the Association of British Insurers (2004) that estimated even small increases in the intensity of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico-Caribbean could increase annual damage costs substantially, and to reflect the changed risk, regional insurance premiums would need to increase an estimated 20–80%. Since then, the Association of British Insurers has concluded that the consequences of changes in weather patterns have been underestimated, and that these estimates are probably conservative and insurance premiums would double in many high risk areas (Davis, 2009).

The cost implications for tourism infrastructure in high-risk SIDS coastlines is obvious and could make insurance unaffordable for many smaller tourism operators. In some coastal areas, insurance coverage may no longer even be available, exacerbating the impacts of climatic extreme events, as some tourism operators may not be able to rebuild (leaving dilapidated properties that diminish destination image) and restricting new investment.

In the same way that insurance risk is increasingly being re-evaluated to consider the implications of climate change, climate risk is also beginning to be considered in credit assessments, investment strategies and equity valuation (Climate Service Center, 2009; UNEP, 2011b). There is little evidence that the direct implications of climate change for portfolios of tourism properties and risk assessment of tourism developments have yet been incorporated into the tourism development master plans within SIDS.

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4.3.2 Indirect Climate Change-induced Environmental Changes

Climate change has the potential to alter and degrade many aspects of the natural environment that are very important in determining the attractiveness of destinations and provide essential environmental services for tourism in SIDS, including freshwater availability, marine biodiversity (e.g., coral reefs, sport fish), landscape aesthetic (i.e., loss of beaches), and damage to tourism infrastructure and heritage tourism assets through coastal flooding and erosion.

Freshwater

Tourism is dependent on freshwater resources and an important factor in freshwater use in SIDS (Gössling et al., 2010). The availability of freshwater is an important issue for tourism operations and a strategic factor in tourism development in some SIDS (see chapter 2). Many SIDS are currently rated as having high water security risks (Maplecroft, 2010). The projected changes in annual and seasonal precipitation and runoff regimes in SIDS regions outlined in the previous section and also increase saltwater intrusion in coastal freshwater aquifers resulting from sea level rise, are expected to exacerbate water availability challenges for tourism in SIDS (Gössling et al., 2010; Scott et al., 2012a).

Available evidence suggests many SIDS will need to evaluate the sustainability of tourism development strategies (e.g., continuation of the golf tourism strategy and the provision of limited freshwater to cruise ships) in light of diminished and more expensive water resources. It is important to note that the implications of climate change-altered water resource availability (both geographically and seasonally) for tourism operations and future development have not yet been adequately assessed, and further analysis is needed to examine whether the seasonal timing of increased or reduced precipitation and runoff coincides with peak tourism arrivals. SIDS are some of the most data-poor nations in terms of water resources, even though their tourism industries are likely to be among the most affected by changing water availability.

Marine biodiversity and coral reefs

Coral reefs, sometimes referred to as the ‘rainforests of the marine world’ for their biological diversity and productivity (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007), are one of the most important marine ecosystems for SIDS tourism and are also considered one of the most vulnerable to climate change (Hughes et al., 2010). Reefs are the basis for strong dive tourism industry in some SIDS and provide a secondary attraction at many others, as well as other important services, including an important resource for sport fishery, supply of fish to tourists, and coastal protection against storms.

Reefs are vulnerable to several climate change-related impacts: ocean acidification, coral bleaching, and for those coral reefs located close to shore, greater runoff and pollution as a result of increased storm events. Ocean acidification has been described as ‘other CO2 problem’ for the oceans. Global surface ocean pH has decreased over the last 100 years due to uptake of uptake of increased atmospheric CO2. This increased acidity affects levels of calcium carbonate, which forms the shells and skeletons of many sea creatures, and also disrupts reproductive and physiological activity. Coral bleaching can occur for multiple reasons, but sea surface temperature change is the primary cause, and changes in water chemistry (acidification) can be a strong contributor. The temperature-induced 1998 mass-bleaching event devastated coral systems worldwide (Wilkinson, 1998) and is often considered a precursor to what is expected under climate change in the XXIst Century. The IPCC (Schneider et al., 2007) and other reviews (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007) have concluded that even under lower-range emission scenarios, serious if not devastating impacts on the world’s coral reefs would occur.

For destinations where reefs are the key attraction for tourists, the long-term damage arising from bleaching incidents is likely to have important implications for the quality of tourist experiences (snorkelling and scuba-diving) and eventually for the sustainability of some tourism operators. The closure of several marine parks and dive sites due to a severe bleaching event in Southeast Asia and the

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Indian Ocean in 2010, in an attempt to try and reduce further damage (Sarnsamak, 2011), may provide an analogue for what reef tourism operators and managers will increasingly face in the future. The vulnerability of reefs near SIDS will vary spatially and temporally, with shallow reefs, reefs with species closest to their thermal maximum threshold, and those closest to sources of pollution or other human impacts the most vulnerable and where impacts will be visible to tourists the soonest.

Studies of past bleaching events in the Philippines, Zanzibar, Tanzania and Mombasa, Kenya generally found limited awareness of coral bleaching among tourists, but greater awareness among dive tourists and experiences diver segment and therefore more acute impacts among tourism operators and resorts that cater to the dive tourism market (Cesar, 2000; Westmacott et al., 2000). The majority of dive tourists interviewed in SIDS in the Caribbean and Indian and Pacific Oceans indicated that knowledge of bleaching would affect their decision to visit the region or to dive there (Westmacott et al., 2000; Uyarra et al., 2005). Dive tourists were found to have a willingness to pay to visit reefs that were not bleached (Ngazy et al., 2002). However, a substantive proportion of those surveyed also indicated they would still be interested in diving in bleached areas, especially at a discounted price, suggesting there may still be a market for degraded reefs, but with important implications for economic sustainability of tourism operators in these destinations.

Coastal tourism and sea level rise

Coastal tourism is considered to be the largest segment of the global tourism industry and dominates the tourism marketplace in SIDS. The environmental and socio-economic impacts of coastal tourism are varied and typically highly uneven within coastal communities. Offering a tourist product of unfettered views of the sea and direct access to beaches, most coastal tourism infrastructure in SIDS is constructed in very close proximity to the shoreline; exposing it to any change in the frequency or intensity of extreme events and the long-term flooding and erosion impacts from sea level rise.

Although the exact magnitude of future global SLR remains uncertain, it is considered to be one of the most certain and most prominent consequences of anthropogenic climate change (Solomon et al., 2007; Nicholls et al., 2011). Despite the high value of tourism properties and economic activity in the coastal zone, a remarkably little analysis of the implications of SLR for the tourism sector has been undertaken and the tourism sector has been absent from several regional and global scale studies of the impacts of SLR (Scott et al., 2012a).

The limited information about the impacts of SLR on SIDS tourism all indicates the impact would be transformative for coastal tourism in these nations, with implications for property values, insurance costs, marketing, and destination competitiveness. Analysis of coastal inundation and erosion impacts on tourism beaches (83%) and hotels (62%) on the island of Martinique concluded that the attractiveness of the island destination was likely to decline as a result of SLR (Schleupner, 2008). The multinational study of the impacts of 1m SLR on tourism infrastructure in 19 countries in the Caribbean similarly revealed that 29% of coastal resort properties would be partially or fully inundated by 1m SLR and between 49% and 60% would be at risk to erosion damage associated with the same 1m SLR (Scott et al., 2012b). An even greater proportion of coastal resort properties were at risk in St Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, British Virgin Islands, Haiti and the Bahamas.

The potential impact of beach loss on coastal tourism demand is also significant for SIDS. In the Caribbean, a survey of tourists on the islands of Barbados and Bonaire found that under a severe scenario where ‘beaches largely disappeared’, 77% would be unwilling to return to the 3S destination of Barbados for the same price (Uyarra et al., 2005). Furthermore, the impact of contemporary beach erosion perceived resort attractiveness, room rates, and property value (Houston, 2002; Cowell et al., 2006; Buzinde et al., 2010a, 2010b; Hamilton, 2007) serves as a useful analogue for the future impacts of SLR.

Nicholls et al. (2011) conclude that while the potential land loss and infrastructure damage impacts of a 1m to 2m SLR over the XXI Century would be severe; these will be partially avoided through widespread implementation and upgrade of coastal protection. Although structural and ‘soft’ engineering (particularly

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beach nourishment) protection strategies have widespread application in coastal tourism destinations, their use for SLR adaptation in the tourism sector presents some special challenges. Typical structural coastal protection is not well suited to the business objectives of coastal resorts: providing unobstructed views of the sea and maintaining unhindered access to the beach and sea. While structural protection can be easily designed to protect resort buildings, coastal squeeze will mean that resorts will lose their critical beach asset unless it is accompanied by substantial investment in beach nourishment.

The economics of structural protection and beach nourishment required to adapt to 1 million SLR has not been adequately assessed for coastal tourism in SIDS. So while structural protection will be a prudent course of action for certain tourism sector assets, such as airports, cruise ship terminals, and large settlements that function as important tourism destinations, it is uncertain whether it would similarly represent an effective and economical response by coastal resorts that must maintain beach area and aesthetics sufficient to attract international tourism clientele. Furthermore, the capacity of SIDS to finance such major structural works to protect their coastal tourism industry is very limited.

4.3.3 Indirect Climate Change-induced Socio-Economic Changes

Climate change and the economy

As the late 2000s economic recession illustrated, tourism is highly sensitive to economic conditions (see chapters 1 and 2 for a discussion of the specific impacts on SIDS tourism). It is well established that climate change would affect many countries and economic sectors and, for some, poses a potential risk to future economic growth (Stern Review, 2006; IPCC, 2007; UNDP, 2008). Any reduction of GDP from climate change in tourism-generating areas would reduce the discretionary income available to tourism consumers and have negative repercussions for anticipated strong future growth in tourism worldwide, but particularly for long-haul travel required to reach most SIDS.

Climate change and security

Climate change is also increasingly seen as a national and international security risk in some regions (Diamond, 2005; German Advisory Council on Global Change, 2007; Barnett and Adger, 2007; Raleigh and Urdal, 2007; Zhang et al., 2007). The IPCC (Yohe et al., 2007) concluded with very high confidence that climate change would impede the ability of many nations to achieve sustainable development by mid-century and become a security risk that would steadily intensify, particularly under greater warming scenarios. While climate change security evaluations are not widely available for SIDS, regional security hotspots have been identified for Southeast Asia and the Caribbean (Vivekananda, 2007).

As demonstrated by their historical response to terrorism or political unrest, tourists, particularly international tourists, are highly averse to political instability and social unrest (Cohen and Neal, 2010; Hall, 2010). A security-related decline in tourism would exacerbate deteriorating economic conditions in SIDS afflicted by climate change induced unrest, with the potential to further undermine development objectives.

The significance for future tourism development in these regions is not underestimated by the tourism industry: ‘Given that destination stability is a foundation for successful tourism, WTTC understands the impact that climate change has on food and water security and its influence on a nation’s political stability’ (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2010: 3). Nonetheless, to date there has been no attempt to quantify how regional tourism development would be affected by climate change-related security challenges, nor how a significant decline or cessation of tourism would compound deterioration of economic performance and difficult socioeconomic conditions in the SIDS looking to tourism as a future economic engine for their economy.ht

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4.3.4 Climate Change Mitigation Policy and Travel Costs and Accessibility of SIDS

Mitigation policies are likely to have important impacts on the transport sector and consequently on tourist flows, as changes in cost structures cause tourists to reconsider transportation modes and the distances they travel for tourism experiences. Mitigation policies may also contribute to greater environmental awareness of GHG emissions related to travel, which may also foster changes in travel patterns.

Discussions of the impact of mitigation policy on tourism have thus far focused exclusively on the aviation sector. While international aviation was not included in the Kyoto Protocol, ICAO has facilitated considerable dialogue on policy frameworks to facilitate or require future emission reductions in this sector over the last decade. With carbon-justified levies on international flights (e.g. United Kingdom air passenger duty) and international aviation entering the EU Emission Trading System in 2012, the impact of mitigation policies influencing air travel costs has become reality and is an important concern for long-haul destinations. The Caribbean Hotels Association and Caribbean Tourism Organization (CHA–CTO, 2007: 3) voiced their concern that ‘every effort must be made to ensure that future consumer movements and government action in the EU to address climate change… do not deter potential European travellers from taking vacations in the Caribbean’. The Pacific Asia Travel Association and other tourism organizations have been equally critical of the 2010 increase to the United Kingdom Air Passenger Duty (APD). The Australian Tourism Export Council suggested that the APD would ‘also impact on developing nations – for example those in the South Pacific – who are reliant on inbound tourism to generate much of their export income’ (TravelMole, 2008).

The UNWTO (2010e) has also cautioned against climate change related passenger levies or mitigation policies for air transport that does not consider the negative impacts on tourism in developing countries. More specifically, UNWTO (2010e) asserts that the eleven principles set out in box 4.1 should guide on-going international negotiations on mitigation of GHG emissions from air passenger transport, including specific policy adjustments to alleviate negative impacts in least developed and SIDS.

Box 4.1 UNWTO principles for international air travel mitigation policy

1. Assessment of mitigation measures in the context of broad-spectrum tourism, including domestic, inbound and outbound flows, rather than for air transport in isolation, considering social and economic costs and benefits in cohesion with the climate change mitigation impact.

2. Application of the UNFCCC principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities amongst countries.

3. Classification of differentiation to alleviate negative impacts on tourism destination markets in developing and particularly least developed and island countries, through differentiated targets, financial transfer mechanisms, and/or reductions in emissions levies or requirements for emissions permits, preferably applied in a framework of traffic flow origin and destination rather than solely according to country.

4. Effective performance monitoring, unambiguous and appropriate indicators and targets, transparent and public reporting and auditing processes, at national and global levels.

5. Treatment of air passenger transport operations analogously with alternative passenger transport modes where available (for example at short-haul) taking into account such factors as respective taxation and subsidy regimes (including government contributions to infrastructure) and enabling such travel choice criteria as price, comfort, convenience and trip duration to be assessed along with GHG emissions and on a non-discriminatory basis amongst modes.

6. Open access for air transport to carbon markets, whether national, regional or global.

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7. Non-duplication of emissions levies on transport and other tourism-related activities (for example as a result of application by more than one authority or through different regimes such as taxation and emissions trading).

8. Earmarking of all revenues from levies and trading of emissions permits to GHG mitigation activities yielding measurable, reportable and verifiable mitigation results, including projects in transport and other tourism-related activities, and financial and other incentives for the earliest possible global introduction of sustainable additional or alternative fuels for air transport.

9. Acknowledgement of the pivotal role of the private sector and of the efforts and collective commitments by airports, air navigation service providers, air carriers and manufacturers for increased fuel efficiency, setting aspirational targets and working towards carbon neutral growth and subsequently substantial absolute reductions in emissions.

10. Continued recognition of a key role for ICAO in the fields of airframe and engine technology, air traffic management and operational approaches leading to tighter standards on aircraft emissions and improved operating procedures, and promotion of early certification and acceleration into usage of sustainable additional or alternative fuels for air transport.

11. Addressing of reduction targets and economic instruments for aviation emissions in co-operation with all parties representing directly affected sectors, including tourism in particular, and development of any global GHG emissions mitigation framework or globally accepted approach specific to aviation in partnership by all related intergovernmental parties including UNWTO and in close consultation with relevant NGOs and with input from both the public and the private sectors.

A number of studies have examined the potential impact of a range of aviation sector targeted mitigation policies on the future of international tourism. All studies project that currently proposed policies would have a small decrease in the growth of international tourist arrivals versus a scenario with no emission reduction policies, but that demand for air travel and international tourism would continue to grow (Mayor and Tol 2007, 2010; Gössling et al., 2008; Pentelow and Scott, 2010, 2011). Only much more stringent hypothetical emission reduction policies, with much higher costs internalization of carbon emission, resulted in substantive impacts on tourism demand.

Because of variation in proximity to major markets the impacts on demand to long-haul destinations differed from country to country, with important implications for some SIDS. An analysis of a global carbon tax on aviation fuel found international air travel (passenger kilometres) declined by less than 1% and that regionally, the Americas, Africa and Western Europe would suffer the greatest losses, while countries near to China and India would gain (Mayor and Tol, 2007). A study of the impact of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and future oil prices on flight costs and tourist arrivals to ten SIDS around the world found that the EU-ETS would marginally affect demand for air travel to these developing countries, but with only a slight delay in growth in arrival numbers through to 2020 (arrivals would be 0–6% lower relative to a business-as-usual scenario) (Gössling et al., 2008). The consequence of a much more stringent global aviation mitigation policy regime, which could portend a post-2020 policy regime, on these same countries was potentially much greater for some individual nations, where arrivals were projected to decline by 4–72% compared with the business-as-usual growth scenario. A similar analysis of the implications of the EU-ETS and an identical implementation in the United States of America and Canada for Caribbean tourism also found that reductions in tourist arrivals from the major markets would be negligible versus business-as-usual growth projections (reduction of 1 to 4% region-wide through 2020) (Pentelow and Scott, 2010). Only under a very stringent mitigation policy scenario, was a significant decrease in tourist arrivals projected (–24% versus business as usual) (Pentelow and Scott, 2011).

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Influence of GHG emission on travel decisions

Thus far there is little evidence that tourists are willing to voluntarily change travel patterns (e.g., travel less by air, substitute destinations) despite the majority stating concerns about climate change and awareness of GHG emissions generated by travel. Although market surveys reveal a stated willingness to utilize carbon-offsetting to compensate for travel-related GHG emissions (i.e., purchase emission reduction credits from other economic sectors that reduce their emissions), the very low uptake of voluntary carbon-offsetting suggests this is more of an indication of support for policy to require all travellers to contribute to paying for social costs of aviation emissions (Becken, 2004; Brouwer et al., 2008; Darguay et al., 2006; Dawson et al., 2010; McKercher et al., 2010). However, market surveys have also found that tourists are more likely to adjust their behaviour (travel less by air) in response to higher prices in the longer term, rather than immediately. This suggests a gradual influence on destination choice and transport mode, as price structures remain higher over time. Because SIDS do not possess alternate transport modes that would not be influenced by a price on GHG emissions, the expected impact would be diminished demand.

Future mitigation policy for international aviation is very likely to alter the competitive marketplace and to have considerable consequences for tourism-dependent destinations, including many SIDS. Discussions of the impact of mitigation policy on tourism have not yet considered the implications of policy changes related to international marine bunker fuels (see Chamber of Shipping et al., 2009) on cruise tourism, which is an important travel market for many SIDS. As most cruise tourists fly to port of departure, analysis of the combined impact of future mitigation policy on cruise tourism packages (flight and cruise cost implications) is an important for future policy modelling with respect to SIDS tourism. Air and marine mitigation policy deliberations will need to determine whether compensation for SIDS is appropriate.

4.4 Moving Forward: The Climate Change Adaptation Imperative for SIDS Tourism

Accumulating evidence indicates that climate change, particularly high emission scenarios, would transform key aspects of the global tourism sector (Scott et al., 2012a). Nowhere is this more the case than in SIDS, where the integrative impacts of climate change on their increasingly important tourism economy are expected to pose a salient barrier to long-term sustainable development.

The scientific assessment commissioned by UNWTO, UNEP and WMO in 2008 concluded that all tourism destinations will need to adapt to climate change in order to minimize associated risks and capitalize on new opportunities in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner.

Subsequent assessments of the state of climate change adaptation by destination and regional tourism stakeholders in very diverse tourism regions, including some SIDS, have consistently found low but improving levels of climate change awareness, relatively low perceptions of climate change risk, substantial optimism about the capacity of adaptation to overcome the challenges of climate change, but little evidence of long-term strategic planning in anticipation of future changes in climate (Scott et al., 2012a). Several key barriers to adaptation at the enterprise and destination level include: scientific uncertainty, incompatibilities between business and climate change impact timelines, limited financial and technical capacity, the need for government leadership. The recent OECD and UNEP (2011: 4) assessment of adaptation preparedness in 18 countries similarly concluded that, “the inescapable conclusion is that current [national tourism] policy [to adapt to climate change], with few exceptions, is inadequate to the scale of the challenge, both on mitigation and on adaptation”. No responses were received from SIDS, but the state of adaptation preparedness in the SIDS tourism sector is similarly thought by experts to be at a very early stage.

Much is required in order to mainstream climate change adaptation in tourism decision-making within SIDS and broadly increase their adaptive capacity. SIDS cannot afford the costs of adaptation on their own and significant support and investment from Official Development Assistance and international

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climate change adaptation funds will be required. Failure to meet the challenge of climate compatible tourism development in SIDS raises the potential for significant economic losses, unemployment and adverse social consequences for the communities that are highly dependent on tourism.

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Chapter 5

All destinations that seek to establish and maintain a successful tourism sector as a significant contributor to their sustainable development must be able to attract and retain a strong and predictable flow of visitors, who form the lifeblood of any tourism economy. Effective marketing is an essential component of a sustainable tourism strategy.

This chapter considers first the source markets for tourism in SIDS and how these relate to global forecasts of market change and growth. It then considers the development of marketing strategies and some issues that need to be addressed by SIDS.

5.1 Current and Future Source Markets for SIDS

Table 5.1 presents data on the proportion of arrivals in individual SIDS from the different regions of the world.

Table 5.1 Source markets for SIDS (overnight tourism arrivals, %)

Source market Total (Average

2006–2010, x 1,000)

Africa Americas East-Asia/

Pacific

Europe Middle East

South Asia

AIMS – Atlantic/Indian Ocean

Singapore 10,295 1 5 71 13 1 9

Bahrain 7561 1 3 5 6 70 14

Mauritius 886 24 1 4 65 1 5

Maldives 682 1 2 21 71 1 4

Seychelles 158 11 3 2 79 4 2

Comoros 16 32 3 3 60 0 0

Cape Verde 293 0 2 0 83 0 0

Guinea-Bissau 21 38 11 11 37 1 2

Sao Tome and Principe 12 21 4 1 50 0 0

Caribbean

Dominican Republic 4,009 0 53 0 32 0 0

Cuba 2,337 0 59 2 38 0 0

Jamaica 1,780 0 84 0 16 0 0

Bahamas 1,458 0 92 0 6 0 0

Barbados 551 0 56 1 43 0 0

Trinidad and Tobago 438 0 81 1 16 0 1

Tourism Marketing Strategies for SIDS

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Source market Total (Average

2006–2010, x 1,000)

Africa Americas East-Asia/

Pacific

Europe Middle East

South Asia

Saint Lucia 294 0 69 0 30 0 0

Haiti 266 0 87 0 6 0 0

Antigua and Barbuda 254 0 56 0 42 0 0

Belize 243 0 81 2 13 0 0

Suriname 165 0 37 2 61 0 0

Guyana 129 0 91 0 7 0 0

Grenada 124 1 52 1 32 0 0

Saint Kitts and Nevis 115 0 88 0 8 0 0

St Vincent and the Grenadines

84 0 74 0 25 0 0

Dominica 80 0 84 1 15 0 0

Pacific Ocean

Fiji 569 0 13 75 10 0 0

Samoa 123 0 7 89 4 0 0

Papua New Guinea 99 1 8 82 8 0 2

Vanuatu 88 0 3 90 5 0 0

Palau 87 0 9 84 3 0 0

Tonga 46 0 13 79 7 0 0

Timor-Leste 31 0 8 61 12 0 4

Fed States of Micronesia 22 0 39 48 12 0 0

Solomon Islands 15 0 7 85 6 0 0

Marshall Islands 6 0 25 63 4 0 0

Kiribati 4 0 20 66 7 0 0

Tuvalu 1 0 7 80 8 0 0

Source: UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook.

A very clear pattern can be seen, with the three regional groupings of SIDS each relating strongly to three different world regions. The SIDS in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are very dependent on Europe for their tourism, although for a few of them a significant proportion of incoming visitors arrive from Africa. Bahrain and Singapore, understandably, receive most arrivals from the neighbouring regions to which they are connected.

Europe is also a relatively strong market for the Caribbean. However, in almost all of the Caribbean SIDS the leading region of origin is the Americas, sometimes by quite a large margin. There are some differences between the countries. Barbados, Antigua, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Granada and St Lucia have quite a strong showing of European visitors and in Suriname they are the largest source market, presumably owing to its links with the Netherlands.

Tourist arrivals in the Pacific SIDS come overwhelmingly from East Asia and the Pacific region, most notably from Australia and New Zealand. This is clearly a factor of geography, transport and other links. A few of the Pacific SIDS do receive significant proportions of visitors from the Americas, especially

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83Tourism Marketing Strategies for SIDS

those to the north which have closer geopolitical links to the United States of America. Europeans do travel to the Pacific SIDS, but in relatively far smaller proportions than to the other SIDS regions.

Some of the market relationships between source and receiving regions and especially between individual SIDS and individual source countries may reflect historical ties, including with past colonial powers such as the United Kingdom and France. This may influence visitor flows associated with family, business and cultural relations, as well as other influences on propensity to visit such as language and visa regimes. A sizeable international diaspora, which could be resident in many different countries, forms a very important component of incoming tourism to some SIDS.

The relationship between source markets and air routes is a close and circular one. At one level, the presence of a route may reflect an existing historical association, early market opportunity or convenient access link. Subsequently, it may then be a key factor in dictating the flow of visitors and potential for future growth from that source.

Global growth forecasts and future market patterns

Forecasting future tourism trends cannot lead to precise and perfect predictions but point to likely outcomes, indicating the direction and magnitude of change.1 In order to guide future policies and strategies for tourism the publication Tourism Towards 2030 (UNWTO, 2011b) provides forecasts of international tourism arrivals by 2020 and 2030 based on 2010 baseline data. It employs a model that is primarily driven by predictions of change in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in different parts of the world and in the cost of transport. Projections are made only at the aggregate level and not for individual destination countries. Projecting the latter is a more complex exercise as the extent to which a destination succeeds in tapping into its potential depends to a fair degree on the effort put into developing tourism and attracting visitors by that destination.

The forecast is for global growth in international tourist arrivals to continue but at a more modest pace, from 4.2% per year (1980–2020) to 3.3% (2010–2030) as a result of four factors: the higher base volumes; lower GDP growth as economies mature; lower elasticity of travel to GDP; and a shift of falling transport costs to increasing ones. It is predicted that growth will be quite modest in the next few years but will strengthen in the latter half of this decade followed by some slowing down in the 2020s.

Within this forecast, there are predictions of a degree of changing market share for the different regions of the world. Incoming arrivals to emerging economies are predicted to grow at 4.4%, compared with 2.2% for advanced economies, and will become the major recipients of tourism before 2020. Greatest growth will occur in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and the Middle East. Looking at the predictions for sub-regions, the two areas containing the most SIDS are predicted to grow relatively modestly – the Caribbean by 2% per year and Oceania by 2.4%. This places them more closely in line with the performance of Western Europe (1.8%) and North America (1.7%) than with sub-regions in Asia (South Asia will be the fastest growing sub-region at 6%), Africa and Latin America. These growth rates for the Caribbean and Oceania are, however at least as good as those achieved by them on average between 1995 and 2010 and do not represent a decline in growth.

Looking at source markets for tourism, which is an important question for marketing strategies, fastest relative growth will come from Africa (5.7% per year) and Asia/Pacific (5.0% per year). However, in terms of overall volumes, the greatest total growth in international arrivals between 2010 and 2030 is predicted to come from Asia-Pacific (17 million additional per year) followed by Europe (16 million), Americas (5 million), Africa (3 million) and Middle East (2 million). By 2030 Europe will continue to dominate as the top region of origin of international tourists (accounting for 832 million arrivals compared with 581 million generated by Asia-Pacific and 264 million by the Americas). A key fact, however, in interpreting these figures is that globally most international tourism takes place within the region of origin. Currently in Europe 88% of arrivals are from other European countries, with equivalently

1 The UNWTO has described the processes involved in the Handbook on Tourism Forecasting Methodologies (UNWTO, 2008).

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high figures within Asia-Pacific (79%) and the Americas (74%). It is predicted that there will very little change in this within-region dominance of travel patterns by 2030.

Taken together, this picture suggests that SIDS should see continuing growth in forthcoming years up to 2030. Although this may not be as much as may be achieved by some other countries, it should be similar to what they have experienced in the past. Broadly, their main source markets should continue to grow and there may be no major change in the origin of their tourism. The regional relationships noted earlier should continue to be very important. In addition, the relatively faster rates of growth predicted for Asia-Pacific and Africa, as destination and originating regions, may provide further opportunities for SIDS, notably those in the AIMS and Pacific regions.

It is important to note that these predictions are broad and generalized and cannot account for what may happen in individual countries and years. Tourism Towards 2030 also postulates a number of scenarios for world tourism using alternative assumptions about economic growth and transport costs. The model is very sensitive to world GDP. Should this grow at 2.8% rather than the 4% predicted then international tourist arrivals would be 22% less by 2030 than has been presented above. Should transport costs increase by 2.1% per year rather than the 1.4% assumed, then total arrivals in 2030 would be 8% less than shown in the model. This is based on a formula that indicates a 0.6% fall in arrivals per 1% increase in transport costs.

Although total arrivals are less sensitive to transport costs than GDP, the UNWTO analysis points out that the former can influence the nature of trips, such as distance travelled, length of stay and mode of transport, more strongly than whether or not to travel. Higher transport costs would encourage staying closer to home and decrease travel between regions. This would have important implications for SIDS and point to placing a further emphasis on nearer markets. The balance of environmental and economic impacts of such a result relate to a number of the challenges and issues covered elsewhere in this document.

None of the above modeling includes domestic markets – tourism within the home country, which globally account for around four times as many trips as international tourism. Recent work by UNWTO has been reviewing domestic tourism. Domestic markets assume even greater importance strategically at times of economic difficulty, increasing travel costs and environmental concerns. SIDS are at a relative disadvantage here, owing to their small population size, but even they should look to maximize the spending by local residents on tourism related services.

5.2 Marketing Strategy Development

Various studies and guidance documents have covered the process of developing a marketing strategy of a destination, relating this to wider destination management (UNWTO, 2007; UNWTO, 2011c). This section does not seek to repeat this but rather considers some of the key issues for SIDS in their approach to marketing.

Marketing strategies should be integral to the overall sustainable tourism strategy of a destination. A starting point in approaching marketing is to relate this back to the primary aims for tourism, taking account of the country’s policies for sustainable development and its vision for the sector.

A key early stage is the identification of target markets. This should take a whole range of factors into account. Some of these are considered below in the context of SIDS.

Current markets. It is easier to retain existing markets and gain more benefit from them than to build new ones. Some SIDS may need to learn more about their current markets.

Global market trends. Changes in world patterns as they may affect SIDS were presented earlier. Other trends in visitor values and preferences are considered later in this section.

Strengths of the destination. The requirements of the selected markets need to fit with what the destination currently offers or can offer in the future. The majority of SIDS have some overall inherent appeal and specific opportunities to build on.

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Ease of access. This includes physical access and also an ability to communicate with the market efficiently. For SIDS, the relationship between markets and air routes and cruise itineraries is critical, as is communication both directly and through key tour operators and carriers.

Seasonal capacity and need. Economic, social and environmental benefit can be gained from using marketing to deliver a more even flow of visitors and fill spare capacity at certain times of year. The reliance of many SIDS on delivering sunshine in months when this is less available at home leads to peaks and troughs in demand and points to a need to diversify the offer and markets.

Resilience and risk spreading. At a time of economic uncertainty and following other unpredictable events affecting travel in different parts of the world, a policy of not relying on only one or two source markets makes sense. Likewise, building offers around different themes and also offering product within a broad price range can help to avoid over-dependency. Some SIDS have been reliant on high spend markets from a few long-haul sources.

Economic yield and distribution. Likelihood of the markets to maximise benefits in terms of spend per head and length of stay, but also spending which benefits poor communities, are aspects that should be considered against policy aims and needs. This may vary between SIDS as a major factor.

Environmental and cultural considerations. Some types of market may be more likely to have interests and undertake activities that respect and benefit local biodiversity and communities. Nearer markets will generate fewer emissions from travel. Longer stay holidays for long haul markets will result in fewer emissions per day spent. These factors may grow in importance for SIDS.

In identifying target markets, destinations should not only be considering different source markets in a geographical sense but identifying market segments according to their life stage and style, interests, activities, budgets and travel habits. Market research within potential source markets is very important in informing segmentation and relating this to the potential response to different SIDS and their products. This is an area where individual SIDS could work together with others, especially those within the same region, to build up knowledge and keep it up to date.

Consumer trends and product opportunities

Overall consumer trends and how they play out in travel choices have a strong influence over the marketing options and opportunities for destinations. Some of the main implications for SIDS are considered below.

Within developed countries, consumers have become increasingly motivated by the need for self-expression and fulfilment. This has meant that travel choices and activities on holiday are now far more driven by the ‘experience’ on offer than was the case twenty years ago. Coupled with this are more specific motivations related to health, wellbeing and education. This has led to growth in demand for activity based holidays, adventure travel, participatory experiences and exploring new destinations. In seeking to fulfil these motivations, a key requirement is for the experience to be authentic. The general position of SIDS as relatively ‘exotic’ destinations places them in a good position to benefit from these trends but requires them to add a certain edge to their offer beyond simply rest and relaxation.

Similar consumer trends, together with unfolding information about climate change, have broadly led to a stronger environmental and social awareness and interest amongst tourists. Various studies on travel choice have pointed to positive attitudes towards businesses and products that can demonstrate actions to support the environment and local communities, and willingness to pay for this is quite high (UNEP, 2011a). In terms of destination choice, the presence of unspoilt environments and intact heritage are increasingly important attributes. However it appears that only a small minority of tourists are, as yet, electing to change their travel patterns simply in order to reduce their own contribution to carbon emissions and climate change.

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Consumer trends towards activity, participation, authenticity and environmental and social awareness, coupled with a need for SIDS to diversify markets, spread risks and increase year round tourism, point to a need to strengthen the range and distinctiveness of the product content in their tourism offers.

Adding distinctive product content can serve at least two purposes:

providing general tourists, who may be attracted by the primary appeal of sun, sea and escapism, with a more varied and richer experience and opportunities to spend more money in the local economy; and

attracting niche markets that travel specifically to participate in a particular special interest or activity.

This is already happening in different SIDS. Mauritius has been placing emphasis on the development of nature-based inland tourism, ecotourism and cultural tourism and, more specifically, on becoming a hub for medical tourism for clients from Africa. Dominica has for many years pursued a strategy of promoting itself as a primary destination of ecotourism in the Caribbean, backing this up with strategies towards hiking and organic food production. Vanuatu offers bird watching, river tours, fishing and various water sports. These are just three of many examples.

Particular areas for diversification which have been followed by a number of SIDS and offer further potential include:

Diving. A key activity in a majority of SIDS, with excellent potential for the casual as well as the specialist diver and a broadening market amongst the retired, families, women and others.

Weddings and honeymoons. A market within which SIDS have a specialist strength and with strong recent growth, offering good potential for more creative packaging.

Wildlife tourism. A number of SIDS are specialist destinations for bird watching. There has been strong growth in whale watching and other add-on excursions.

Specific sports. Particular opportunities relevant to SIDS include sailing (charter hire, flotilla holidays, marina services) game fishing and other maritime sports, although individual SIDS will offer other specific options.

Living culture, festivals and events. Extremely important in adding colour and interest to all visits, placing an emphasis on authenticity. Major events can be used strategically to attract off-season interests.

Gastronomy. Highly important for the quality of the visitor experience and increasingly seen as strong selling point for destinations, underpinning local distinctiveness.

An increasing problem is that many destinations are already diversifying actively into these areas. A challenge is to seek further differentiation within them through creativity and innovation, and to identify new ideas for development.

Multi-centre holidays, both within individual SIDS and potentially through linking some together, may provide further opportunities for offering a varied longer-stay holiday. This merits further investigation and development within the established regions. The recent cooperation agreements between SIDS in the Indian Ocean, marketing as the Vanilla Islands, could offer opportunities for product combinations and differentiation as well as joint promotion.

In addition to product differentiation, price considerations should play a part in marketing strategies. Although this is largely in the hands of individual enterprises, destinations can seek to encourage and promote opportunities in different price bands. Seychelles, for example has been seeking to show how it can be affordable for visitors with a wide range of budgets. ht

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Branding issues and promotional strategies

A key issue for SIDS is the level of awareness of them in different markets and the development of a brand position. Amongst the 52 SIDS, awareness will vary considerably between them. Market research for the South Pacific amongst the global travel trade found that for the twelve most known SIDS, name recognition varied from 100% (Fiji, Cook Islands) to under 25% (Kiribati, Tuvalu) (South Pacific Tourism Organisation, 2005).

Establishing brand awareness is a time consuming process and potentially costly. For small SIDS, which may be more likely to have both low awareness and limited budget, this is a particular challenge. For them, linking to a strong regional brand presence, such as the Caribbean or South Pacific, can be very helpful, especially in more distant markets, while also strengthening their own brand exposure in the nearest markets.

For similar reasons, corporate brands can be particularly important for SIDS. These may be provided by international tour operators or hotel and resort chains with similar product in different island destinations. Product development and promotional strategies based on attracting and working with such companies, as well as with airlines serving the destination, should form a key part of the marketing approach.

However, equal attention should be paid to the increasing number of individual tour operators and service providers, both incoming and international, offering specialist, quality experiences in SIDS and frequently selling directly to clients.

Web-based marketing of all kinds has opened up opportunities for small destinations such as SIDS. Establishing and maintaining attractive websites and pursuing e-marketing strategies, including work with social media, present many flexible options.

Customer generated content and the increasing influence of commercial websites and other media driven by visitor feedback serves to underline the importance of delivering a quality experience to existing visitors as the first priority in marketing. Partly for this reason the provision of effective information to visitors within each country should be a central part of the marketing strategy. This is also highly important for promoting activities linked to the aims of sustainable tourism, such as opportunities to visit local communities, buy local produce and experience natural areas in responsible ways. Information delivery can involve a whole range of media and approaches, including mobile web access, well distributed print, guidebooks, active promotion of local excursions, and above all, working with local hosts to help them be aware of all that their destination has to offer and to pass on the message to their guests.

Finally, the need for marketing strategies to pay attention to the handling of crises, either within the destination or externally, is increasingly recognised. This may be particularly relevant in SIDS owing to their vulnerability to natural disasters and other shocks. UNWTO has addressed this topic, considering the role of market intelligence in times of crisis and preparing tools for crisis communication (UNWTO, 2011d).

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The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) works to mainstream tourism in the global economic and development agenda. Through the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism, UNWTO endeavours to maximise tourism’s contribution to socio-economic growth, job creation, development, environmental conservation, cultural enrichment, peace and international understanding while minimising its potential socially or environmentally negative impacts. The global remit of UNWTO means that these goals apply equally to tourism in all countries, including Small Island Developing States.

However, certain interests of UNWTO are especially relevant to the special circumstances of SIDS. Amongst the overall portfolio of their work, particular aspects are well placed to support and inform SIDS in their thinking about the part that tourism can play in their sustainable development, and the challenges and opportunities that tourism can bring.

References to UNWTO’s work and publications have been made throughout this document and many resources are listed in the bibliography. This chapter presents a selection of the programmes, publications, alliances and international events with which UNWTO is involved and which may have a special bearing on SIDS.

The overall priorities of UNWTO

As the UN specialised agency for the promotion and development of a competitive and sustainable tourism sector, the work of UNWTO is focused on six priorities:

Mainstreaming tourism in the global agenda: Advocating the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for the sector to develop and prosper.

Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving the competitiveness of UNWTO Members through knowledge creation and exchange, human resources development and the promotion of excellence in areas such as policy and planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.

Promoting sustainable tourism development: Supporting sustainable tourism policies and practices which make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits for all.

Advancing tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the MDGs by making tourism work as a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.

Fostering knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries to assess and address their needs in education and training, as well as providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.

Building partnerships: Engaging with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academia and research institutions, civil society and the UN system to build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector.

Chapter 6

The Role of UNWTO in Supporting SIDS

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SIDS in membership of UNWTO

In 2012, 155 countries were Member States of the UNWTO, with a further 7 territories being Associate Members. Amongst the SIDS, 16 are UNWTO Member States and 3 are Associate Members, as shown in table 6.1.

Table 6.1 SIDS in membership of UNWTO

UNWTO Member States

Bahamas Jamaica

Bahrain Maldivesb

Cape Verdeb Mauritius

Cuba Papua New Guinea

Dominican Republic Sao Tome and Principea

Fiji Seychelles

Guinea-Bissaua Timor-Lestea

Haitia Vanuatua

UNWTO Associate Members

Aruba Puerto Rico

Netherlands Antilles

Notes: a) Least Developed Country. b) Recently graduated LDC.

6.1 UNWTO Activities in Sustainable Development, Relevant to SIDS

Sustainable tourism

Integration of sustainability into tourism policies is the fundamental step towards the development of a sound and long lasting tourism industry. The work of UNWTO in sustainable tourism is grouped around the three goals of sustainability: environmental protection, social equity and economic prosperity and includes developing policy guidelines, providing sustainable tourism indicators and monitoring sustainability through worldwide observatories. The programme of work is consistent with the Global Code of Ethics and the Millennium Development Goals.

Making Tourism More Sustainable – A Guide for Policy Makers, 2005

In this publication, UNEP and UNWTO came together to address the development and the implementation of sustainable tourism policies, and the strategies and tools needed for the development of sustainable tourism. The Guide sets out 12 aims for sustainable tourism and their implications for policy; presents a comprehensive set of instruments for governments, ranging from planning regulations to economic instruments and the application of certification and indicators; and describes the collaborative structures and strategies that are needed at a national and local level.

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91The Role of UNWTO in Supporting SIDS

Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations – A Guidebook, 2004

A comprehensive manual on the development and use of indicators for the monitoring and measurement of the sustainable development of tourism at a destination level. The guide shows how different indicators can be selected by stakeholders to suit their particular circumstances and provides many practical examples relevant to all types of destination, including small islands.

Joining Forces – Collaborative Processes for Sustainable and Competitive Tourism, 2010

The growing appreciation that sustainable tourism requires a strong process of collaboration between the wide range of actors who can influence its impact or who are affected by it, both in the global north and south, underpins this publication. Informed by international case studies, it was designed to assist stakeholders concerned with the sustainability of tourism to work better together, focusing on collaborative processes: who should collaborate and why they should do so; actions to deliver sustainability which most require a collaborative approach and at what levels; and, finally, how collaborative processes can be established and strengthened and the factors for success.

Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria

UNWTO is part of a global initiative to develop worldwide criteria for the minimum requirements that hotels and tour operators should strive for in sustainability. Voluntary standards help travel suppliers around the world meet increasing consumer demand for products and services that will have positive effects on communities and the environment.

UNWTO Global Code of Ethics

This set of principles is intended to guide tourism stakeholders in the development of tourism. The ten articles of the Code set out the rights and responsibilities of travellers, operators and governments in ensuring maximum benefits for tourists, local communities and their natural and built environments. The Code was officially endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2001 and again in 2010.

Technical Cooperation and Services Programme

UNWTO Technical Cooperation and Services carries out a wide range of projects – long-term as well as short-term – aimed at the promotion and development of tourism in developing and transition countries. These projects are implemented through funding obtained from a variety of major donor agencies.

UNWTO Technical Product Portfolio

The Portfolio, which will be continuously expanded and updated, sets out a series of technical products, covering specialised thematic assistance as well as more general support, in four key areas: Policy planning and economic development; Statistics and quality standards; Sustainable development; and Product development, marketing and promotion.

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Tourism and poverty alleviation

UNWTO ST-EP Programme

The Sustainable Tourism – Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) program was established to harness the developmental power of tourism in the fight against poverty. The initiative is supported through UNWTO Technical Co-operation and Services, the operational arm of UNWTO which translates technical expertise and knowledge of best practice from around the world into practical application in the field. The ST-EP Initiative is directly tied to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which include the halving of extreme poverty by 2015. Since its establishment in 2005, the portfolio of ST-EP projects has included 102 projects among 36 developing countries; in 2012, a first ST-EP project in a SIDS will be launched in Timor-Leste.

Tourism and Poverty Alleviation – Recommendations for Action, 2004

This publication provides evidence of the contribution that tourism can make to alleviating poverty. It introduces 7 mechanisms that through which tourism can deliver benefits to the poor. It also sets out the roles of governments, private tourism companies, international and bilateral development agencies and other stakeholders in the process.

Manual on Tourism and Poverty Alleviation – Practical Steps for Destinations, 2010

UNWTO produced this publication jointly with SNV, aimed at organizations and individuals working at destination level. It is in three sections: analysis and planning; action; and assessment. Within each, it provides practical guidance, including how to identify the contribution of tourism to the poor and how to strengthen the seven mechanisms for channelling benefit to poor communities.

Other UNWTO publications on the topic: Tourism and Poverty Alleviation, 2002; Tourism Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation, 2005; Poverty Alleviation through Tourism – Compilation of Good Practices, 2006.

Tourism and Biodiversity

It is the aim of UNWTO to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between tourism and biodiversity and to assess the way that tourism can contribute to the protection of biodiversity and enhance its role as a main resource for tourism destinations. A biodiversity focus is included in the Global Code of Ethics and is also apparent in many ST-EP projects. In addition, UNWTO counts on a specialised unit on Tourism and Biodiversity based in Bonn, Germany, which develops biodiversity related tourism projects and offers advisory services to UNWTO Members on issues of tourism and biodiversity.

Tourism and Biodiversity – Achieving Goals towards Sustainability, 2010

This publication illustrates the high value of biodiversity for tourism, outlines current policies, guidelines and global initiatives in which the interrelationship between tourism and biodiversity is addressed, and identifies risks and challenges for the tourism sector from the global loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The report concludes with ten recommendations for actions on biodiversity and tourism for governments, the tourism private sector, international organizations and NGOs.

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Climate Change and Tourism, 2003

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in collaboration with UNWTO, established an Expert Team on Climate and Tourism. Their role was to improve the application of information in the tourism sector. In 2007, UNWTO launched a Climate and Tourism Information Exchange Service to enable tourism stakeholders to have access to research and data. The climate change response framework of the UNWTO outlines a clear commitment to adapt to changing climate conditions, mitigate emissions, apply new technologies and secure financing to assist poorer regions and countries. The Davos Declaration (see below) calls on governments, the tourism sector and destinations, and on consumers to each play their part through taking appropriate action.

Climate Change and Tourism – Responding to Global Challenges, 2008

This publication contains the key proceedings and technical report of the Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism, held in Davos, Switzerland, 1–3 October 2007. The technical report, which was commissioned by UNWTO, UNEP and WMO, provides a synthesis of the state of knowledge about current and future likely impacts of climate change on tourism destinations around the world, possible implications for tourist demand, current levels and trends in GHG emissions from the tourism sector, and an overview of policy and management responses adopted by key stakeholder groups with respect to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.

Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Tourism Sector – Framework, Tools and Practices, 2008

This publication, published by UNWTO, UNEP, the University of Oxford and the WMO provides practical guidance and capacity building for climate change adaptation and mitigation practices in the tourism sector. Combined with a comprehensive series of international and regional seminars, it was designed to strengthen the capacity of professionals to understand and respond effectively to the global challenges of climate change in tourism destinations.

From Davos to Copenhagen and Beyond – Advancing Tourism’s Response to Climate Change, UNWTO Background Paper, 2009

Hotel Energy Solutions, 2011

The HES initiative aims at educating and sensitizing SME’s hotels on better energy management. The HES E-toolkit available online proposes adapted solutions for increasing the energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies for the hotel sector. The tool is available for EU Member States but adaptable for SIDS.

Gender and Tourism

UNWTO is committed to enhancing the positive impact of tourism development on women’s lives, and, in so doing, contributing to the achievement of the Third Millennium Development Goal –”promote gender equality and women’s empowerment”. In 2007, UNWTO dedicated World Tourism Day to the theme of ‘tourism opens doors for women’, and organized a Forum on Women in Tourism at the 2008 edition of the ITB Berlin fair. Through its Ethical and Social Dimensions of Tourism (ESDT) Programme, UNWTO has been working in partnership with UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) to bring gender issues to the forefront of the tourism industry, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and encouraging member states to mainstream gender issues in their respective tourism policies.

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The Global Report on Women in Tourism, 2011

Officially launched at ITB Berlin in March 2011 – constitutes the 1st phase of this close collaboration.

Steering Committee on Tourism Development

On the initiative of the UNWTO, nine UN agencies and programmes (ILO, ITC, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNIDO, WTO – came together to co-ordinate their tourism-related work under the UN Steering Committee on Tourism for Development (SCTD). The SCTD builds on the strengths and expertise of its members to support developing countries in the area of tourism for sustainable development and poverty reduction, by providing integrated specialised technical assistance aimed at maximising the capacity of tourism to help countries in reaching their development goals, while preserving their cultural and environmental assets.

Activities include:

A joint portfolio of services on Tourism for Development, consolidating around 50 services available to LDCs and developing countries, organised around the four pillars of: (i) building good governance and sustainable in all its dimensions; (ii) promoting investment in the tourism economy; (iii) fostering the poverty reduction impact of tourism; and (iv) encouraging human resources development in tourism.

Supporting LDCs access to funding mechanisms, identifying the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) – an Aid-for-Trade mechanism for LDCs – as a key source of funding.

Building more capacity for Resources Mobilization with the Inter Agency Task team for Resources Mobilization under the IPOA.

Partnerships for Development and the private sector

In partnership with the UN Global Compact, the largest corporate responsibility initiative in the world, UNWTO contributes to the UN Business website, offering partnership opportunities to a network of stakeholders committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals within a framework for Tourism Partnerships for Development, creating closer links between the public and private sectors and driving CSR in the tourism industry.

Tourism and the Millennium Development Goals, 2010

On-line resource and guide to a range of programmes and actions that promote private sector engagement in the MDGs, including a relationship to CSR.

Tourism and Crisis Management

UNWTO works closely with governmental institutions involved in emergency planning, co-ordination and management to develop crisis management systems and integrate tourism into national emergency procedures.

Toolbox for Crisis Communications in Tourism – Checklist and Best Practices, 2011

This comprehensive Toolbox on Crisis Communications in Tourism was developed by UNWTO for National Tourism Organizations (NTOs), Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and private sector organizations involved in travel and tourism as a practical guide to effectively

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address the challenges generated by crises. It includes step-by-step protocols, check-lists, sample templates configured by type of crisis and media categories, guidelines for measuring effectiveness, best practices and a special chapter fully dedicated to the use of social media in times of crisis.

6.2 Recent Events Involving UNWTO, Relating to SIDS and Rio+20

This brief chronological account identifies some of the main events in which UNWTO has promoted awareness of the role of tourism in sustainable development, including addressing the needs of SIDS, in the period leading up to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

2007

In 2007, the Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism was convened by UNWTO, jointly with UNEP and WMO and with the support of the WEF. The conference adopted the Davos Declaration, subsequently endorsed by the London Ministerial Summit on Tourism and Climate Change. In urging action by the entire tourism sector to face climate change as “one of the greatest challenges to sustainable development, and to the Millennium Development Goals in the 21st Century”, one of the main points reiterated was that special consideration should be given to the least developed countries and SIDS in the provision of financial, technical and training support to tourism destinations and operators to ensure that they can participate in the global climate response framework, through established initiatives, such as the Clean Development Mechanism. Later the same year, the XVII Session of the UNWTO General Assembly adopted the Declaration.

2008

In 2008, UNWTO, the United Nations Foundation, UNEP and the Rainforest Alliance launched the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

2009

In 2009, in response to the impact on tourism of the global economic recession, UNWTO published its Roadmap for Recovery, demonstrating how tourism can contribute to economic recovery and the long term transformation to the Green Economy.

In 2009, UNWTO and World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) hosted a side event at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-15) negotiations demonstrating the commitment of the tourism industry to the climate imperative.

2010

In reaffirming its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals in 2010, UNWTO placed special emphasis on the significant role that the tourism industry can play through its strengthening approach to corporate social responsibility in the achievement of MDG1 (Eradication of Poverty); MDG3 (Gender Equality); MDG7 (Environmental Sustainability); and MDG8 (Global Partnerships for Development).

To coincide with the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, UNWTO held World Tourism Day 2010 under the theme ‘Tourism and Biodiversity’, a unique opportunity to demonstrate how tourism not only depends on the conservation of biodiversity for its long-term growth, but can also significantly contribute to its protection. The day brought together government representatives from around the world, leading biodiversity researchers and private representatives. Together, they crafted the UNWTO

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Recommendations on Tourism and Biodiversity, which were presented to the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, considering the relationship between tourism and biodiversity, and assessing how tourism can contribute to protecting biodiversity and enhance biodiversity’s role as a main resource for tourism destinations.

A Side Event at the Conference of the Parties (COP-16) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, titled Tourism’s Response to Climate Change, provided an opportunity for UNWTO to express the need for decision making on mitigation measures affecting tourism to take the positive impacts of the sector into account, particularly in developing countries and island states dependent on long-haul travel.

In November 2010, the Caen Recommendations arose from an International High-level Meeting of Experts on Sustainable Tourism for Development in the Least Developed Countries, which was held in preparation for the 4th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV), 2011. These included a call for international development partners to co-operate with LDCs to offer support in their development of sustainable tourism.

The commitment of the United Nations to Delivering-as-One (DaO) is intended to ensure more effective development assistance and to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Within this context UNWTO launched the Steering Committee on Tourism for Development (SCTD) involving 9 UN bodies – see above.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus at its 65th session three separate resolutions emphasising the role of tourism in sustainable development. The first resolution specifically endorsed the importance of sustainable tourism for Small Island Developing States, stressing the significance of the sector to the development agenda in terms of sustainability, employment and poverty elimination. It noted that climate change, along with other sources of environmental degradation, could have an adverse impact on the sustainability of tourism in SIDS. The resolution arose from the outcome document of the High-level Review Meeting on the Implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, held in September 2010. Acknowledging the important contribution of tourism to employment, foreign exchange and economic growth for most small island developing States, the Resolution called upon the UNWTO, relevant UN agencies and stakeholders to “support the development and implementation by small island developing States of measures to promote sustainable tourism in such States.”

Two further resolutions were passed at the 65th session in December 2010. The first of these, on the implementation of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, invited member states and other tourism stakeholders that have not yet done so, to integrate the principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in their relevant legislation, professional practices, and codes of conduct. The second, on the promotion of ecotourism for poverty eradication and environment protection, recognised that ecotourism creates significant opportunities for conservation, protection and sustainable use of natural areas and can contribute directly to the Millennium Development Goals.

2011

In February 2011, a tourism chapter developed in partnership with UNWTO was published within the report Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication (UNEP, 2011a). With a special emphasis on investing in energy and resource efficiency, tourism was identified as one of ten key sectors which can lead in the transformation to a new growth model based on a low-carbon, resource-efficient ‘green economy’ that can also help to reduce poverty.

At a Joint Tourism Special Event, Promoting Tourism for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction, 4th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV), May 2011, Istanbul, the SCTD supported the LDCs in drawing the attention of the international community to the potential contribution of tourism to the development of these countries under a new Programme of Action for the

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forthcoming decade (2011–2020). UNWTO, with the SCTD, is working closely with the OHRLLS office for LDCs, LLCs and SIDS, including specific actions in the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) resulting from the LDCIV conference held in Istanbul in 2011.

In October 2011, the first SCTD workshop was held in Geneva, titled Project Development in Tourism for LDCs.

In October 2011, ON-HRLLS convened a Special Event, with the participation of the UNWTO Secretary-General, as a lead-up to Rio+20, on the SIDS Tourism, Biodiversity and Culture Nexus in the Context of the Green Economy. This highlighted the opportunity that tourism presents to SIDS to take a bigger role in the international economy, as well as touching on important issues for the sustainability of the sector in so doing.

In October 2011, a Ministerial Roundtable was held as part of the 19th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly, titled ‘Fostering Growth and the Achievement of the MDGs through Tourism, Culture and Sports’.

In November 2011 a workshop on Sustainable use of oceans in the context of the green economy and poverty eradication was held in Monaco. With a thematic approach around food security, energy and tourism, the workshop aimed at promoting and sharing best practices, and to propose concrete political recommendations to Rio+20 to achieve the sustainable use of oceans. UNWTO participated at the meeting and helped in the elaboration of a set of propositions and recommendations contained in the Monaco Message which was presented by the Delegation of the Government of the Principality of Monaco at the Second Inter-sessional Meeting of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in New York, in December 2011.

In November 2011, the UNWTO Input to Rio+20 was submitted, outlining tourism’s contribution to sustainable development and a strengthened and mainstreamed role for the sector.

2012

In February 2012 The Ramsar Convention and UNWTO joined forces to celebrate World Wetlands Day – Wetland Tourism: a great experience, opening the way for the Convention and UNWTO to join forces in exploring common issues and advance sustainable tourism development in the wetlands.

A third SCTD event was coordinated by UNCTAD and UNWTO in April 2012, at the thirteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) in Doha, titled Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Growth and Development: How can the tourism sector contribute?. The outcomes demonstrate the potential and the importance of tourism for developing countries, and SIDS.

RIO+20 and tourism

UNWTO is working towards including tourism in the RIO+20 Outcome document for the first time, with the support of its Member States. Tourism is already included in the UN CEB (Chief Executive Board) Statement, as well as in the “Oceans Compact”.

UNWTO will participate in Rio+20 and specific events are planned on Green Innovation in Tourism with OECD and UNEP and on Tourism for a Sustainable Future with SCTD, as well as the launch of this Report on SIDS.

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From the earliest recognition of Small Island Developing States as a set of countries with particular needs and vulnerabilities in the pursuit of sustainable development, tourism has been identified as an opportunity for them to gain benefit from their special character as small maritime nations with exceptional natural and cultural heritage.

During the twenty years since the first Earth Summit, tourism has played a strong part in developing the economies of most SIDS, providing a source of livelihood for many local people. Since 2000, tourist arrivals have grown faster than in most developed countries. Despite a significant downturn in 2009, visitor numbers in most SIDS recovered strongly in 2010, with many achieving record high levels. The tourism sector accounts for over half the export earnings in at least 12 SIDS and over one quarter of GDP in at least seven of them. Incoming tourism has increased fastest in the less developed SIDS. Two SIDS have graduated from their previous status as LDCs on account of their tourism growth and at least two more are on track to do so.

Despite this positive story, tourism cannot simply be treated as an economic force that can be left alone to deliver its rewards. Those SIDS that have graduated from being LDCs will now require tourism to continue to deliver the growth that brought them to this point and many more SIDS will also rely on this for their increasing prosperity. As with all destinations, this will require careful planning and management.

The concept and meaning of sustainable tourism is now much better understood than it was twenty years ago. The need to address the economic, socio-cultural and environmental context of tourism development, as a fundamental requirement for the competitiveness and sustainability of the whole sector, is widely accepted. In SIDS, with their small size and limited resources, the challenges of sustainable tourism development and the need for sound management are particularly apparent.

A key requirement of SIDS in pursuing sustainable tourism is to strengthen their ability to address the vulnerability that their size and location brings through adopting strategies that build up their resilience. This is partly about achieving balance and spreading risk, avoiding over-reliance on any one source of income. It is also about building up local capacities and taking appropriate actions to mitigate and adapt to change.

SIDS vary considerably in their level of development and their competitiveness as destinations for tourism investment and enterprise. However, a common strength is their relative openness to tourism. As small economies, they have much to gain from foreign investment and economic liberalisation. This has served many SIDS well, in attracting new tourism developments and in expanding transport services, including air carriers and routes. However, there is also a need to be watchful of the impacts of the interests of external parties and to pursue policies which encourage partnership and maximise local benefit.

An important aspect of gaining local economic benefit is to seek more value added from existing tourism and to reduce leakages from island economies. More could be done to ensure the take up by local people of employment opportunities in tourism, including increasing the availability of, and access to, training. There is also potential to strengthen local supply chains, notably through links with agriculture as pursued by a number of SIDS, and to pursue initiatives to assist small businesses and community based projects, ensuring that they are properly linked to markets and sources of support. Tourism based on cultural heritage may offer particular opportunities to strengthen links to local communities and to develop locally distinctive product.

Conclusions

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The whole area of resource management is very challenging for SIDS. Avoiding damaging competition between tourism demand and the needs of local residents for water, energy and other local products is a fundamental requirement. Likewise, minimisation and effective handling of waste is highly important in SIDS. Much can be achieved by engaging private businesses in environmental management, supported by public sector investment. Some SIDS are already pursuing positive initiatives in this area.

Most SIDS have exceptional coastal environments and a rich and unique biodiversity. Coral reefs are a feature of the majority of SIDS and are a key tourism asset. These precious resources need very careful handling. The expansion and management of terrestrial and marine protected areas is a key strategy. Tourism can play an important role here in supporting conservation both directly and indirectly.

Climate change has been recognised internationally as a major issue for global sustainable development with far reaching consequences for tourism and especially for SIDS. Its impacts could be greater than revealed in earlier models and predictions. While awareness has increased, leadership, action and external support have been inadequate to secure the significant adaptation measures that should be pursued now in order to provide SIDS with a long term future in tourism.

A critical indirect impact of climate change on tourism in SIDS, which is also related to other major global challenges including economic recession and the availability and price of fuel, is the potential influence of mitigation policies and measures on global transport costs. In the medium to long term, this could have very significant consequences for long haul markets.

In future policy development in the area of transport and climate change, a strong case can be made for adopting a differentiated approach to SIDS owing to the high dependency of their economies on air access, especially for tourism. However, SIDS should also be seeking to build the resilience of their tourism sectors to the possible effects of any future changes in transport costs and travel patterns, through strengthening links to local and regional markets, diversifying offers and developing products to encourage longer stays and maximise spend per head. Cruise tourism may be a component in the mix, but must also be considered vulnerable to the impacts of increasing fuel costs.

A feature of many SIDS is the high profile and relative importance afforded to tourism. This should be maintained and reflected in high level policies for sustainable development. At the same time, the need to build resilience requires the avoidance of over-reliance on tourism within the economy. Again, this will be a question of balance, and also subject to the availability of alternative economic pathways.

Previous international conferences on SIDS and recent work on furthering the position of tourism in delivering a green economy have underlined the need for individual states to develop clear tourism policies and strategies that embrace the principles of sustainability. Some SIDS have put in place tourism strategies which plan for growth while also seeking to address impacts on the environment and to ensure benefit for local communities. Other SIDS have yet to establish such strategies. A key challenge remains one of implementation and renewal, raising issues of financial and human resources and a need for capacity building and institutional strengthening. Future sustainable tourism strategies may need to be more far-reaching, notably with respect to the vital issue of climate change adaptation.

A wide range of tools for delivering sustainable tourism policies is available to SIDS, as in other destinations. These include opportunities to build on the increased awareness of sustainability issues across the private sector that has emerged in recent years, facilitated by voluntary tools such as reporting and certification. However, regulatory instruments will remain of fundamental importance in SIDS, notably in implementing clear land use planning and development control policies that are essential in sensitive coastal areas and wherever there is a scarcity of land and other resources.

It is increasingly recognised that effective implementation of sustainable tourism policies requires strong engagement by a wide range of public and private stakeholders, NGOs and civil society interests, facilitated by partnership arrangements. The small size of many SIDS will tend to act in favour of effective communication between stakeholders, but for some there may be a need to introduce or strengthen structures in order to achieve this. A particular opportunity may exist to build up formal organisations or informal groupings of tourism stakeholders, including community representatives, to work together

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101Conclusions

and implement destination management plans at a more local level, for example for individual islands or locally defined areas.

Finally, the very nature of SIDS underlines the need for them to collaborate with each other and with the wider international community, avoiding the confines imposed by their natural insularity. A number of regional bodies already exist to support tourism development, management and marketing and they will continue to play an important role. More ODA will need to be secured. There is potential for innovative partnerships which enable SIDS to share their considerable experience with each other in South-South exchanges of best practice in sustainable tourism initiatives.

Various structures are in place which bring together UN bodies and agencies, and other international organisations, in order to support SIDS. It is extremely important for UNWTO and other tourism interests to play a full role within these structures and that maximum attention should be given to ensuring that tourism is able to meet its great potential to deliver sustainable development in SIDS.

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Annexes

Annex 1 Compendium of Data on Individual SIDS Annex 2 Inbound Tourist Arrivals by SIDS region

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Ann

ex 1

Co

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105Annexes

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107Annexes

Annex 2 Inbound tourist arrivals (overnight) by SIDS region, 2000, 2005–2010 (x 1000)

Country 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Maldives 467 395 602 676 683 656 792

Mauritius 656 761 788 907 930 871 935

Sao Tome and Principe 7 15.8 12 12 15 15 8

Seychelles 130 129 141 161 159 158 175

Singapore 6,062 7,079 7,588 7,957 7,778 7,489 9,161

Sub-total for AIMS region 7,322.0 8,379.8 9,131.3 9,712.8 9,564.5 9,189.2 11,071.0

Antigua and Barbuda 207 245 254 262 266 234 230

Bahamas 1,544 1,608 1,601 1,528 1,463 1,327 1,370

Barbados 545 548 563 575 568 519 532

Belize 196 237 247 251 245 232 239

British Virgin Islands 272 337 356 358 346 309 330

Cuba 1,741 2,261 2,150 2,119 2,316 2,405 2,507

Curaçao 191 222 234 300 409 367 342

Dominica 70 79 84 81 81 75 77

Dominican Republic 2,978 3,691 3,965 3,980 3,980 3,992 4,125

Jamaica 1,323 1,479 1,679 1,701 1,767 1,831 1,922

Montserrat 10 9.7 8 8 7 6 6

Puerto Rico 3,341 3,686 3,722 3,687 3,716 3,551 3,679

Saint Kitts and Nevis 73 141 139 123 128 93 92

Saint Lucia 270 318 303 287 296 278 306

St Vincent and Grenadines 73 96 97 90 84 75 72

Suriname 57 161 154 167 151 151 205

United States Virgin Islands 546 593 570 586 574 563 590

Sub-total for Caribbean region

13,437 15,711.7 16,126 16,102.7 16,397.4 16,008.3 16,624.2

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Country 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Cook Islands 73 88 92 97 95 101 104

Fiji 294 545 549 540 585 542 632

French Polynesia 252 208 222 218 196 160 154

Guam 1,287 1,228 1,212 1,225 1,142 1,053 1,196

Kiribati 5 4.1 4 5 4 4 5

Marshall Islands 5 9.2 6 7 6 5 5

New Caledonia 110 101 100 103 104 99 99

Niue 2 2.8 3 4 5 5 6

Samoa 88 102 116 122 122 129 130

Solomon Islands 5 9.4 12 14 16 18 21

Tonga 35 42 39 46 49 51 45

Tuvalu 1 1.1 1 1 2 2 2

Vanuatu 58 62 68 81 91 101 97

Sub-total for Pacific region 2,215 2,402.6 2,423.8 2,462.2 2,416.6 2,269.9 2,494.7

Q Pear year 2005-2010 Q Increase on previous year Q Decrease on previous year

Source: UNWTO (2008); UNWTO Elibrary, Tourism Factbook.

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ACI Airport Council International

ADB Asian Development Bank

AfDB African Development Bank

AIMS Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South China Seas

AOSIS Alliance of Small Island States

APD Air Passenger Duty

ASA Air Service Agreement

BPOA Barbados Programme of Action

CAPA Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation

CARICOM Caribbean Community

CAST Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism

CBD Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

CHENACT Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficiency Action Programme

CHTA Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association

CI Conservation International

CLIA Cruise Lines International Association

COAST Collaborative Actions for Sustainable Tourism

CTO Caribbean Tourism Organization

DESA UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

DMO Destination Management Organization

DTIS Diagnostic Trade Integration Study

ECC European Cruise Council

ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

EIA Environmental Impact Assessment

ETS Emissions Trading Scheme

FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

FDI Foreign Direct Investment

GCM Global Climate Model

GDP Gross Domestic Product

List of Acronyms

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GEF Global Environment Facility

GHG Greenhouse Gas

GSTC Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria

GTZ German Technical Cooperation

HDI Human Development Index

IACG Inter-Agency Consultative Group

ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization

ICZM Integrated Coastal Zone Management

IDB Inter-American Development Bank

IICA Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture

ILO International Labour Organization

IMO International Maritime Organisation

IPCC International Panel on Climate Change

IPoA Istanbul Programme of Action

ITC International Trade Centre

ITE Inbound tourism expenditure

IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature

LCC Low Cost Carrier

LDC Least Developed Country

MDG Millennium Development Goal

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

ODA Official Development Assistance

ODI Overseas Development Institute

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

POA Programme of Action

PSA Passenger Shipping Association

RIVAF Rapid Impact and Vulnerability Analysis Fund

SIDS Small Island Developing State(s)

SLR Sea Level Rise

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation

SPT South Pacific Travel

SPTO South Pacific Tourism Organisation

SCTD Steering Committee on Tourism for Development

ST-EP Sustainable Tourism – Elimination of Poverty

TSA Tourism Satellite Account

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111List of Acronyms

UN United Nations

UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNECA Economic Commission for Africa

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

UNFCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNGA United Nations General Assembly

UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization

UN-OHRLLS UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States

UNWTO World Tourism Organization

WB World Bank

WEF World Economic Forum

WHS World Heritage Site

WMO World Meteorological Organization

WRI World Resources Institute

WTO World Trade Organization

WTTC World Travel and Tourism Council

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