Small island states are a bit of paradise for visitors, and most
have limited possibilities for diversifying their economic base.
So tourism is often the best prospect for encouraging development,
job creation, foreign exchange earnings and other benefits. But
small islands – and particularly developing ones – are also more
vulnerable than other destinations to the excesses of tourism.
So more economic and technical support is needed to ensure that
its development is sustainable and that the income it generates
benefits island communities.
These were among the main recommendations to come out of a joint
World Tourism Organization (WTO)/ UNEP Conference on Sustainable
Tourism in Small Island Developing States and other Islands, held
in Lanzarote, Spain last year. WTO presented its conclusions to
the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development’s special
session on tourism last April, and they have also been used to
help prepare the agenda for the special session of the General
Assembly on Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
A long-term solution
Our main message is that tourism can be a viable option for small
islands, but only if it is solidly based on the principles of
sustainable development – and especially if it has the economic
and technical support of international organizations.
WTO is working to convince the World Bank, the Interamerican Development
Bank and international financial institutions to grant special
credits for funding sustainable tourism development projects.
Meanwhile, island governments need to do their part by adopting
long-term strategies for sustainable development, rather than
opting for the quick gains that uncontrolled tourism brings.
We believe that tourism in SIDS should be considered as only one
component of their overall sustainable development – and should
be fully integrated into it. This will require all the stakeholders
in tourism development and management to change their mentality.
So it is essential to develop awareness campaigns and educational
programmes directed at them.
Tourism is booming. WTO’s study, Tourism: 2020 Vision, predicts that 1.5 billion tourists will be visiting foreign
countries annually by the year 2020, spending more that $2 trillion
– or $5 billion every day. In other words, there would be nearly
three times as many international tourists, spending nearly five
times as much as last year. (In 1998, 635 million of them spent
over $439 billion.) Tourist arrivals are predicted to grow by
an average 4.3 per cent a year over the next two decades, and
receipts from international tourism by 6.7 per cent a year.
Tourism in the 21st century will not only be the planet’s biggest
industry, it will be the largest by far that the world has ever
seen. Along with its phenomenal growth and size, the tourism industry
will also have to take on more responsibility for its extensive
impacts. That is not only its economic impact, but also its impacts
on the environment, on societies and on cultural sites – all of
which will be increasingly scrutinized by governments, consumer
groups and the travelling public.
Tourism is both an opportunity and a challenge for SIDS: an opportunity
to diversify limited economic activities and employment in the
islands; and a challenge, as tourism has considerable impacts
on island systems, which are usually extremely vulnerable. These
impacts need to be fully taken into account and properly managed.
Positive interaction
Sustainable tourism development is becoming an irrevocable and
irreversible demand by tourists and local populations all over
the world – and hence in SIDS and other islands. There are growing
demands for quality surroundings in which environmental sustainability,
nature, culture, authenticity and exceptional places with an identity
of their own are considered to be key values both for tourism
appeal and local quality of life. Thus, a positive interaction
should be sought between tourism and environmental, socio-cultural
and economic factors.
The viability of new sustainable tourism policies in SIDS and
other islands increasingly depends on a very broad participation
by all stakeholders. It will be impossible to multiply the economic
effects of tourism, achieve positive social and cultural development
or conserve island ecosystems and natural resources without making
the local community jointly responsible for meeting these aims.
Criteria, instruments and lines of action must be established
to steer tourism and island development towards sustainability
– and implemented forthwith. The ‘carrying capacities’ of island
systems in relation to tourism are all-important, and integrated
long-term strategies must be introduced as a preventive measure.
Delaying the application of sustainable policies until such problems
as economic downturn and cultural or environmental degradation
emerge, can make it very difficult, even unfeasible, to put things
right.
Tourism development in SIDS and other islands is characterized
by its potential for expansion and by the unequal situation of
different islands and regions. In the last four years, 90 per
cent of SIDS have seen an increase in visitors’ numbers, but island
states in Africa and Asia/Pacific are finding it more difficult
to make tourism take off.
There is an overriding concern with problems which limit its growth
in the short term – mainly air access, capital and infrastructure
– in SIDS and other islands which are trying to launch or strengthen
their tourism development. The need to introduce sustainability
criteria, geared to preventing serious socio-cultural and environmental
imbalances in island systems emerging in the future, is not yet
perceived as important.
In SIDS and other islands where tourism has reached maturity in
the absence of sustainability criteria, problems tend to arise
in connection with the obsolescence and congestion of the tourism
product, poor economic integration of tourism, increasing degradation
of the environment, and growing social intolerance towards tourism
and imported labour: these are difficult to resolve.
|
Selected small island tourism destinations, 1998
|
| |
International tourist arrivals
|
International tourism receipts in million $
|
| 1. Puerto Rico |
3,396,000
|
2,233
|
| 2. Dominican Republic |
2,309,000
|
2,142
|
| 3. Cyprus |
2,235,000
|
1,667
|
| 4. Bahamas |
1,590,000
|
1,415
|
| 5. Cuba |
1,390,000
|
1,626
|
| 6. Jamaica |
1,225,000
|
1,162
|
| 7. Guam |
1,137,000
|
1,378
|
| 8. N. Mariana Islands |
660,000
|
647
|
| 9. Guadeloupe |
639,000
|
583
|
| 10. Aruba |
647,000
|
675
|
|
Source: World Tourism Organization
|
|
The way forward
In recent years – and particularly as a result of the 1992 Rio
Earth Summit and the 1994 Barbados Conference – there has been
evidence that various measures are being developed in SIDS and
other islands to try to integrate tourism better in sustainable
island development. Nonetheless, inter-island cooperation and
information is still very weak and generally there is a shortage
of specific knowledge and suitable indicators to evaluate the
real situation. Available analyses do not incorporate the implications
of the various levels of island development, and real experiences,
which could expedite progress in sustainable tourism development
in SIDS and other islands, are barely divulged outside their territories.
Under its mandate from the United Nations Commission on Sustainable
Development, WTO is setting up a working group on sustainable
tourism development which will take a special interest in the
problems of small island states. Its main objectives are to find
ways of maximizing the benefits of tourism for local communities
and to build the technical capacities of developing nations in
this field – so that SIDS can remain a paradise for those who
live there as well as those who visit. 
Francesco Frangialli is Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization.
PHOTOGRAPH: Topham Picturepoint
|
