Abstract

Tourism is widely considered as one of the leading economic sector in many small islands. The need to implement the principles of sustainable development in tourism to positively benefit coastal communities is often emphasised by researchers, planners and policy makers. Research related to tourism sustainability is on going in several destinations with a concern that the principles of sustainable development are difficult to implement in small islands as a result of their resource limitations and increasing threats of global warming. Evolving practical and effective frameworks and adaptation measures would help the islands, which rely on tourism, to minimise negative impacts such as economic leakage, gender differences in employment, environmental impacts and achieve sustainable development more effectively. In this context, the conference paper aims to address the role of international organisations in promoting sustainable tourism whilst proposing practical approaches to meet challenges and to effectively achieve sustainable development particularly in small islands and coastal areas. Firstly, the paper will discuss the development and significance of tourism industry by analysing the case studies of small islands from the Asia Pacific, Caribbean and Mediterranean regions and the diversified impacts of tourism noticed. The case studies will assess the wide range of limitations of small islands (such as political insularity, poverty and economic dependency, gender inequality, migration, social transformation, cultural and environmental vulnerability and challenges related to climate change) along with more traditional challenges of tourism. Secondly, the paper will outline the ongoing initiatives of international organisations such as UNESCO, UNWTO and UNEP in relation to sustainable tourism and climate change issues and the specific challenges facing small islands to achieve sustainable development, such as, lack of awareness to involve local stakeholders to achieve tourism sustainability and act towards the socio-economic revival of these vulnerable communities facing the impacts of global warming and natural disasters. Thirdly, it will debate on the practical ways to overcome some of these challenges by involving local communities to achieve tourism sustainability, and the ways to revive the socio-economic livelihood of the coastal communities. The paper will discuss some of the potential frameworks developed by the author such as the ‘bottom-up’ framework of developing sustainable tourism indicators for the Andaman Nicobar Islands of India by analyzing projects initiated, in different parts of the world, by international organizations such as the United Nations (CSD), World Bank. The presentation will also address how some of these practical methods can be adopted to benefit other small islands facing similar challenges as well the need to develop international education and research partnerships to meet these challenges. The paper will be useful for researchers, planners and policy makers working on issues related to the sustainable development of small islands.