Tourism on small islands: The urgency for sustainability indicators

An article written by CTR researcher, Prof. Joseph M. Cheer has been published in The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Islands Economic Cooperation Forum ANNUAL REPORT ON GLOBAL ISLANDS 2019. This is from a keynote which Prof. Cheer made at the forum held in Hainan, China in August 2019.

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Title

Tourism on small islands: The urgency for sustainability indicators

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Author

Joseph M. Cheer, Center for Tourism Research, Wakayama University, Japan

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Source

The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road
Islands Economic Cooperation Forum
ANNUAL REPORT ON GLOBAL ISLANDS 2019
Chapter 5, pp. 129-152

ISBN 978-1-988692-37-1 (print)
ISBN 978-1-988692-38-8 (digital)

Island Studies Press at University of Prince Edward Island

Tourism on small islands The urgency for sustainability indicators

http://projects.upei.ca/unescochair/files/2020/07/Annual-Report-on-Global-Islands-2019.pdf

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Abstract

To consider small islands as places for sustainable tourism¡ªor sustainable anything, for that matter¡ªmust surely be cause for critical deliberation. Small islands as sanctuaries, or rare citadels for ecological safekeeping and tight-knit communities, runs counter to islands as sites for extraction and development, yet increasingly the latter prevails. However, the former are the precise reasons that small islands are aligned with the global travel supply chain. Consuming small islands abides with the tropical idyll narrative and, within such invocations, the exposure of small islands to externalities renders its utility to purposes that run counter to benign and constructive outcomes. Herein is the dilemma for small islands and their entanglements with tourism expansion.
The principal question posed asks: is the proliferation of tourism on small islands enhancing the development of social-ecological resilience, or accelerating the onset of system failure? If so, how can unfolding trajectories be monitored and assessed? The UNWTO¡¯s Mandatory Issue Areas for the observation of sustainable tourism are applied as guiding indicators. The urgency to articulate indicators of sustainable tourism devel- opment is palpable because the conceptualization of small islands as ideal tourist escapes will likely intensify. Small islands cannot afford to experience monumental blunders given their scale, adaptive capacity limitations, and relative fragility.