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This study aims to investigate growth differentials among small islands and the impact of tourism specialization on the growth and the economic performance of small islands.

The study is based on trade theory and uses data from a panel of small islands for 1995-2007. It applies panel regression and standard time series methods combined with a qualitative approach.

Small islands experienced stronger basic patterns of growth than many developed countries, especially where economies of scale are not an issue. The findings further suggest that tourism specialization is not harmful to growth, and, in lieu of technological gaps and resource limitations, tourism specialization is a sound option. Size, a lack of complete sovereignty or independence and export orientation do not seem to affect the variance in the real per capita GDP at a greater degree. Finally, small islands may leverage returns to scale in global markets.

While tourism specialization is assumed to enhance growth, in the case of small island destinations, the study did not formally test whether increased terms-of-trade may be perpetually improved.

The study prompted four policy suggestions: small island economies should engage in tourism specialization; small island economies should allocate more resources to the tourism industry than other economic sectors; the success of tourism specialization does not depend exclusively on comparative advantage; and institutional realities and path dependence may play a role in economic performance.

The originality of this study lies in the detection of a paradox in mainstream economics that indicates that small islands may not enjoy sustained economic growth. The detection led to a surprising discovery that tourism specialization may propel growth. The value of the study is twofold: theoretical value is added by suggesting a reconceptualization of the construct capital; and, practical value is strengthened in the sense that tourism specialization may only work under a condition where upon tourism offerings command higher prices than other commodities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of inclusive tourism in a small-island tourism economy of the Caribbean. Dubbed the “One Happy Island” in the Caribbean, the operationalization and development of direct and indirect channels of inclusive tourism are studied and discussed to foster policy guidance and future studies.

Based on an in-depth case study of Aruba, the findings yield significant insights on the unfolding of inclusive tourism within the context of a maturing small-island tourism economy in Aruba. A mix of historical socioeconomic analysis in conjunction with community resident perspectives provides an expanded framing of small-island inclusive tourism development.

In mature, small-island tourism economies such as Aruba, social and ecological disparities are particularly evident and over an extended period have exceeded direct economic contribution. The case study reveals an Aruban community experiencing significant negative socioecological impacts and subsequent diminishing economic contribution and well-being. Concerns about environmental pollution and destruction, the loss of quality of life and income equality, in addition to over construction and crowding, indicate a growing animosity toward tourism and further tourism growth.

Based on previous studies, this study provides an extended framing of small-island inclusive tourism, which opens opportunities for further testing and validation across other small-island tourism economies. It provides a conceptual critique of classical tourism growth maxims in small-island developing states.

The paper provides rich historical insights using an in-depth case study approach that extends the concept and evolution of inclusive tourism in mature, small-island tourism destinations, especially in the Caribbean, thus providing a contemporary framing of inclusive tourism.

This paper aims to identify factors that affect the sports tourism destination's competitiveness on a small island. Hence, this study looks at and evaluates these factors. The study then comes up with a model that clarifies the interrelationships between these factors.

The authors broke down the data analysis process into three steps. The first step was to conduct a literature review and use industry and academia experts' help to determine the essential aspects (fuzzy Delphi method). Then, a hierarchical model was developed, and the factors were categorised using the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach. Factors' driving and dependency power were also determined using MICMAC analysis.

This work has identified 13 key factors related to the sports tourism destination's competitiveness on a small island. For a small island like Kish Island, the two independent variables (government support and destination political stability) that define the institutional framework for the destination are most important. Building corresponding competitive and support strategies to address these two independent variables is thus beneficial.

The research's results provide decision-makers, practitioners, and researchers with new insights into the hierarchical model of determinants. The study will fill the existing gap between theory and practice.

Sports tourism destination managers on small islands may benefit from the proposed model since the model will enable them to organise the managers' priorities better to enhance the managers' destinations' competitiveness and provide tourists with a more accurate depiction of the destination.

According to the authors' knowledge, the research design presented in this article has provided the first attempt to hierarchical analyse these factors and develop a model for sports tourism destination competitiveness on small islands and destinations with less-developed economies. This study fills the gap in the destination competitiveness and sports tourism literature by not only identifying the key influencing factors but also examining the interactions between these factors and providing empirical evidence supporting their relationships.

Local development is becoming increasingly dependent on the tourism industry, especially in fragile contexts such as islands, where tourism makes it possible to overcome, at least in part, the obstacles linked to geo-morphological characteristics. The relevance of the sector for the economy is documented by the international literature and underscored in various studies (Balaguer & Cantavella-Jorda, 2002; Croes & Vanegas Sr, 2008; Dritsakis, 2004; Durbarry, 2004; Eugenio-Martin, Martin-Morales, & Sinclair, 2008; Eugenio-Martin, Morales, Scarpa, 2004; Hazari & Sgro, 1995; Maloney & Montes Rojas, 2005; Pigliaru & Lanza, 2000; Sequeira & Maçãs Nunes, 2008), which explain why tourism is attributed a leading role and even recognized as a driving force for the local economy. It is capable of creating new economic opportunities, especially, as mentioned, for island contexts, and even more so for those of modest size, which require special attention given the specific characteristics that distinguish them from the mainland. Islands are, indeed, a unique cluster despite belonging to individual states, and, being located in different regions of the world and featuring different stages of economic development and tourism, they are the beneficiaries of development policies focused on the economy of services and culture. This is essentially due to reasons linked to specific territorial features in terms of morphology and geographical location, primarily associated with the condition of isolation from the mainland. The result is a particular condition that characterizes them both materially, with effects on transport and logistics, and therefore on their economic and production autonomy, and ideally, i.e. in relation to the place that islands have in the collective imagination. They are associated with the desire to escape, to get in touch with nature, to slow down the pace and break patterns, and to attract a large number of visitors who, however, are concentrated mainly during the summer months. This leads to many difficulties and has several implications, in terms of pressure and quality, and requires careful management from very early on, from the stage of discovery of the destination by the first tourists, in order to guide development by limiting the drawbacks.

Climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic are complex and have multifaceted effects on countries in an unpredictable and unprecedented manner. While both COVID-19 and the climate crisis share similarities, they also have some notable differences. Being both systemic in nature with knock-on and cascading effects that propagate due to high connectedness of countries, COVID-19, however, presents imminent and directly visible dangers, while the risks from climate change are gradual, cumulative and often distributed dangers. Climate change has more significant medium and long-term impacts which are likely to worsen over time. There is no vaccine for climate change compared to COVID-19. In addition, those most affected by extreme climatic conditions have usually contributed the least to the root causes of the crisis. This is in fact the case of island economies. The chapter thus investigates into the vulnerability and resilience of 38 Small Islands Developing States (SIDs) to both shocks. Adopting a comprehensive conceptual framework and data on various indices from the literature and global databases, we assess the COVID-19 and climate change vulnerabilities of SIDs on multiple fronts. The results first reveal a higher vulnerability across all dimensions for the Pacific islands compared to the other islands in the sample. There is also evidence of a weak correlation between climate change risk and the COVID-19 pandemic confirming our premise that there are marked differences between these two shocks and their impacts on island communities.

Drawing on theories of development economics and sustainable tourism, this research explores the differences between sovereign and nonsovereign small island tourism economies (SITEs) and identifies the antecedents and effects of overtourism in the Caribbean.

The research design is based on a comparative case study of selected Caribbean SITEs. Case study research involves a detailed empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context. The main purpose of a case study is to provide a contextual analysis of the conditions and processes involved in the phenomenon under study. A comparative case study is an appropriate research methodology to explore new multi-faceted concepts with limited empirical evidence.

The results confirm previous studies that nonsovereign SITEs have a distinctive overdrive toward tourism specialization. Moreover, the findings indicate that overtourism is driven by both global and domestic policy factors and generates significant economic volatility, social inequality and ecological stress. The paper discusses the tourism policy implications of the evolving economic disconnectedness, environmental decay and social tensions in SITEs in the Caribbean.

Policy recommendations are presented for transitioning toward a more inclusive development and strengthening the resilience of small island tourism development in the Caribbean.

This paper aims to provide a comparative analysis of sustainable tourism development across the Anglophone Caribbean region from the post-independence period of 1962 to the 2020s. The perspective explores the implications of insularity, tourism investment and the pace of technology adoption on the potential realisation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the islands of Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean States.

The viewpoint uses secondary data from grey literature such as government policy documents, academic literature, newspapers and consultancy reports to explore the central themes and provide a conceptual framework for the paper.

The findings reveal that Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are nearer to the light-green single-sector approach to sustainable tourism development. The overarching findings reveal that the region’s heavy focus on economic priorities results in less attention to competitiveness challenges such as environmental management, social equity and technological innovations.

The research presents a comprehensive overview of the tourism development trajectory of other tourism-dependent island-states. The research offers lessons and cross-learning opportunities that may be useful to decision-makers within SIDS. The main limitation is that the findings may only be transferable and generalised to the extent that other jurisdictions bear similar macroeconomic governance structures and cultural characteristics to Caribbean SIDS.

This paper provides a meaningful discussion and contributes to the body of knowledge on the history of Caribbean tourism development, the challenges and future potential of sustainability and lends itself to opportunities for future research in the Caribbean and other SIDS.

The study outlines the social implications for inclusive, responsible and sustainable tourism that can potentially take Caribbean SIDS from slow growth to efficiency in developing the tourism product, including the technological environment. This can reduce inequalities, contribute to socio-economic development and improve the region’s human capital.

This paper provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of Caribbean tourism development specific to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean States. No previous work has been done to compare tourism development within this grouping. Hence, this paper is essential in informing decision-makers and providing the foundation for continuing research in this area.

这篇观点性论文对英语加勒比地区从1962年独立后到本世纪20年代的可持续旅游发展进行了比较分析。该研究前瞻性探讨了牙买加、巴巴多斯、特立尼达和多巴哥以及东加勒比国家的保守性、旅游投资和技术采用速度对潜在实现可持续发展目标的启示。

该研究利用灰色文献中的二手数据, 如政府政策文件、学术文献、报纸和咨询报告, 进行中心主题探索, 并为论文提供概念性框架。

研究结果显示, 加勒比小岛屿发展中国家(SIDS)更接近于以轻绿的单一部门方式实现可持续旅游发展。总体研究结果显示, 该地区过于关注经济优先事项, 导致对环境管理、社会公平和技术创新等竞争力挑战的关注较少。

本研究全面展现了一些依赖旅游发展的岛屿国家的旅游发展路径概览。这项研究为小岛屿发展中国家的决策者提供了可能有用的经验和交叉学习机会。本文研究局限在于, 只有在与加勒比小岛屿发展中国家类似的宏观经济管理结构和文化特征的行政区, 研究结果才可能转移和推广。

这篇论文提供了有意义的讨论, 有助于认知加勒比旅游发展史、可持续发展的挑战和未来潜力, 并为加勒比和其他小岛屿发展中国家的未来研究提供了机会。

该研究概述了包容性、负责任和可持续的旅游发展的社会启示, 这些启示可能使加勒比小岛屿发展中国家从缓慢发展转变为开发旅游产品(包括技术环境)的效率。这有助于减少不平等现象, 促进社会经济发展, 并改善该地区的人力资本。

本文提供了加勒比旅游发展的综合比较分析, 具体到牙买加、特立尼达和多巴哥、巴巴多斯和东加勒比国家。此前没有研究对这些国家的旅游业发展进行比较。因此, 这篇论文为决策者提供必要信息和为这一领域的继续研究建立了基础。

Este trabajo ofrece un análisis comparativo del desarrollo del turismo sostenible en toda la región del Caribe anglófono desde el período posterior a la independencia de 1962 hasta la década de 2020. Se explora las implicaciones de la insularidad, la inversión turística y el ritmo de adopción de la tecnología en la posible realización de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) en las islas de Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad y Tobago y los Estados del Caribe Oriental.

El análisis se basa en datos secundarios bibliográficos a partir de documentos de política gubernamental, literatura académica, periódicos e informes de consultoría para explorar los temas centrales y proporcionar un marco conceptual en este documento.

Las conclusiones revelan que los pequeños estados insulares en desarrollo (Caribbean Small Island Developing States, SIDS) están más próximos del enfoque del turismo como único sector económico o sostenibilidad débil para el desarrollo del turismo sostenible. Las conclusiones generales revelan que la fuerte concentración de la región en las prioridades económicas hace que se preste menos atención a los retos de la competitividad, como la gestión medioambiental, la equidad social y las innovaciones tecnológicas.

La investigación presenta una visión global de la trayectoria de desarrollo turístico de otros Estados insulares dependientes del turismo. La investigación ofrece lecciones y oportunidades de aprendizaje que pueden ser útiles para los responsables de la toma de decisiones en los SIDS. La principal limitación es que las conclusiones sólo pueden ser transferibles y generalizadas en la medida en que otras jurisdicciones tengan estructuras de gobernanza macroeconómica y características culturales similares a las de los SIDS del Caribe.

Este documento ofrece un análisis significativo y contribuye al conjunto de conocimientos sobre la historia del desarrollo del turismo en el Caribe, los retos y el potencial futuro de la sostenibilidad, y se presta a oportunidades para futuras investigaciones en el Caribe y otros SIDS.

El estudio esboza las implicaciones sociales del turismo inclusivo, responsable y sostenible que puede llevar a los SIDS del Caribe de un crecimiento lento a la eficiencia en el desarrollo del producto turístico, incluyendo el entorno tecnológico. Esto puede reducir las desigualdades, contribuir al desarrollo socioeconómico y mejorar el capital humano de la región.

Este trabajo proporciona un análisis comparativo exhaustivo del desarrollo del turismo en el Caribe, específico para Jamaica, Trinidad y Tobago, Barbados y los Estados del Caribe Oriental. No se ha realizado ningún trabajo anterior para comparar el desarrollo del turismo dentro de esta agrupación. Por ello, este trabajo es esencial para informar a los responsables de la toma de decisiones y sentar las bases para continuar la investigación en este ámbito.

Based on a panel vector error correction model (PVECM), this study aims to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on tourism development in a selected group of 17 small island economies during 1995-2018. In the long run, a positive and direct relationship was found between foreign investment and tourists’ arrival. Moreover, economic performance and tourists’ income were also found to be key determinants of tourism development. It is further observed that there is bidirectional causality between the two variables. Hence, one can argue that FDI is a key element for tourism development. So, if the countries can attract more FDI and grow economically, these elements will contribute positively to the sector in the future.

This work uses rigorous dynamic time series analysis, namely, a dynamic PVECM, which takes into account dynamism and endogeneity issues in tourism modelling. Furthermore, the PVECM is also appropriately suited for integrating short- and long-run analysis.

The results confirm that FDI has been an important ingredient in the tourism development of the island economies in the long run. Interestingly, a bidirectional causality between FDI and tourism development is validated. Moreover, growth will as well be important. So, if the country can attract more FDI and grow economically, these elements will attract the tourists of the future.

Relatively few studies have rigorously studied the relationships between FDI and tourism development, particularly with respect to developing countries and small island states which rely heavily on tourism as well as FDI. As such existing research has neglected dynamic and reverse causality analysis in their respective FDI-tourism modelling. This study thus attempts to address the above and supplement the literature by investigating the direct and indirect relationship between FDI and tourism development for the case of small island economies over the period 1995-2018. Moreover, the implication of foreign capital inflows on tourism futures will as well be developed.

The purpose of this paper is to verifying the economic resilience of islands and, in particular, the role of the tourism sector in the reaction to the most recent economic crisis. The analysis concerns insular contexts, such as the greater island regions in the Mediterranean basin.

Static and dynamic panel data techniques are used for a sample of 13 island economies over a period of 16 years.

Results show that the growth factors for regional islands are similar to the ones usually considered for other regions, but the tourism-led growth hypothesis is highly supported. Tourism demand more than supply plays a role together with accessibility. The crisis has reduced the importance of tourism supply, while tourism demand and accessibility have remained crucial for growth together with other traditional engines of growth.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, none of the current works has considered territorial determinants and tourism indicators inside the same framework analyzing growth in island economies by considering the changes occurred during the crisis explicitly.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the social development situation in the Pacific Island countries (PICs). It also aims to present the various social and economic policies that are directly linked to improving social indicators.

The paper draws on the theoretical framework provided by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, which defines social policy as involving redistribution, production, reproduction and protection. The paper presents data on these four components.

The paper shows that many PICs have managed to increase some of their social development indicators especially those relating to education. Yet they are also lagging behind on many fronts, such as health, water and sanitation, social protection, and inequality.

Issues of state capacity and governance linked to policy formulation and implementation are not addressed in this paper. More in‐depth and empirical research could be undertaken to investigate the link between economic growth and social development.

This paper has the merit of being able to synthesize social and economic data for the PICs and compare it with other small island economies.