There are many islands that project themselves globally as tourist destinations and are mostly known as such. This projection is often independent of that of the continent to which they are usually symbolically linked, or of their particular administrative condition (i.e. whether or not they are island states). Thus, those who visit Hawaii do not do so as a stopover on their route through the United States, and the insular character of Malta or Cyprus certainly overlooks their statehood. Although there are specific studies on tourism on so-called “cold” islands, the critical bibliography on island tourism mostly refers to small islands in warm environments (warm water islands) that can be promoted as sun and beach destinations.
This identification has not prevented critical reflection on the existence of a specificity in the characterisation of tourism in island environments. For some authors, this seems more influenced by the island myth than by the possibility of isolating specific features of the tourism that develops in island environments in comparison with other localities. R. Sharpley (2012), for example, questions whether islands are popular destinations because of their geographical condition or because the services they offer are more frequent on islands. According to this author, the processes that affect tourism in island contexts – connectivity, migration, contact with other realities – are not specific and suggest that the tourist singularity of islands would be more metaphorical than unreal.
Other authors, however, turn to the socio-environmental factors of tourism areas to identify the particularities that should be considered in the analysis of their development. These have to do, mostly, with two fundamental factors. The first would be the vulnerability, especially of ecosystems, limited in their own geographical delimitation and which, in view of the increase in population and services that tourism entails, could result in an overexploitation of natural resources (McLeod; Dodds and Butler, 2021; Hall 2015; Oreja 2008). Therefore, there is an extensive critical bibliography that tries to identify resilience or optimisation formulas that could guarantee more sustainable tourism operations. D.B. Weaver (2017) identifies a “virtuous periphery syndrome” resulting from both necessity and legacy, which transforms small islands into places of resilience and innovation. Second, especially on small islands with no industrial development prior to tourism operations, tourism has replaced an agricultural or subsistence economy that is difficult to maintain in the age of globalisation. Weaver considers tourism a suitable formula for economic development, where the apparently negative features of island contexts would be transformed into positive ones by the tourism industry. This monoculture, however, is often considered a form of dependency that may even be reminiscent of imperialism and that makes island economies and populations dependent on factors that their inhabitants and their governments cannot control. That´s what happened, for example, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the need that was raised to establish action plans in the face of climate change that would heavily threaten island enclaves. Not all inhabitants, notes Buhalis (1999), share in the wealth associated with tourism development; on the contrary, most locals are involved only in secondary, low-skilled and low-paid jobs. Even more so when the capital is accumulated by the large corporations and leisure multinationals. Finally, it should be considered that Baum (1996) and Baldacchino (2013) refer to another relevant factor in the specificity of island enclaves as tourist destinations and which relates to a certain perception of wholeness that would allow to have the perception of being visiting “a” reality. Thus, for example, it seems more feasible to visit Madagascar than France or Thailand, despite being smaller in area. In fact, this same feeling favours the creation of tourist “brands” more easily than in continental destinations, where, however, it also occurs.
References:
Baldacchino, G., 2013. Island tourism. In: Holden, A., Fennell, D. (Eds.), A Handbook of Tourism and the Environment. Routledge,. London, pp. 200–208.
Baum, T. G. 1996. “The Fascination of Islands: The Tourist Perspective”, D. G. Lockhart i D.Drakakis-Smith, eds. Island Tourism: Problems and Perspectives. Londres: Pinter, 21-35.
Buhalis, Dimitrios (1999). “Tourism on the Greek Islands: Issues of Peripherality, Competitiveness and Development”, International Journal of Tourism Research, 1(5). 341-358.
Hall, M. C. (2012). “Island, islandness, vulnerability and resilience”. Tourism Recreation Research, 37(2), 177-181.
McLeod, Michelle; Dodds, Rachel i Richard Butler (2021). “Introduction to special issue on island tourism resilience”, Tourism Geographies, 23(3), 361-370.
Oreja Rodríguez, J. R. Et al (2008). “The sustainability of island destinations: Tourism area life cycle and teleological perspectives. The case of Tenerife”. Tourism Management, 29(1). 53-64.
Sharpley, R. 2012. “Island tourism or tourism on islands?”, Tourism Recreation Research, 37(2), 167-172.
Weaver, D. B. 2017. “Core-periphery relationships and the sustainability paradox of small island tourism”. Tourism Recreation Research, 42(1), 11-21.