1st Edition
Routledge Handbook on Tourism and Small Island States in the Pacific
This timely handbook critically examines the development and role of tourism in small Pacific Island states located across Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. The volume presents an expansive evaluation of current issues, challenges and potentialities for the 13 self-governing states.
Interdisciplinary in coverage and borne of a varied and international authorship, this handbook incorporates 27 specifically commissioned and original contributions. Structured into four thematic sections and embellished with insightful tables and illustrations throughout, the overarching ethos of this volume is to contribute to framing the role of tourism, tourism development and the tourism industry within the context of self-governing Pacific Island states faced with the challenge of pursuing an independent path of development. In doing so, the work highlights and deciphers various tourism development perplexities in the Pacific, examining closely the intersecting sociocultural, geopolitical, environmental, organizational, operational and strategic challenges. This volume, thus, discusses a range of issues: facilitators and inhibitors of tourism growth and development; climate change, ecological concerns, and eco-tourism; non-tourism and undertourism; crisis management and the COVID-19 virus; transportation and tourism infrastructural concerns; tourism policy and planning (including tourism governance); sectoral links between tourism; food and agriculture; gender and micro-entrepreneurship; community management and participation; cultural and natural heritage sites; and the handicraft industry. The work pays critical attention to the various trajectories of sustainable tourism and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the many challenges and concerns raised, the book implicates the importance of good governance, progressive post-COVID-19 recovery strategies and directives, and creative and imaginative options in the successful development, re-development and advancement of tourism.
As a definitive reference resource for this subject area, this handbook will be of great interest to students, researchers and academics within tourism, development studies, geography, Pacific studies, sustainability and environmental studies.
PART I: Tourism and small island states in the Pacific: Conceptual overview and regional context
1 Introduction: Understanding small island states and tourism in the Pacific
Marcus L. Stephenson
2 Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals in Small Island States in the Pacific
Emma Hughes
3 Tourism and the new regional governance of ‘Pacific large ocean states’: From governance and development to metagovernance and resilience
C. Michael Hall and Alberto Amore
4 Tourism mobility and transport: Issues and developments in Pacific Island states
Dallen J. Timothy
5 Tourism and the Pacific Island economies: Outcomes and implications
Stephen Pratt and Marika Kuilamu
6 The COVID-19 pandemic and the South Pacific: Evaluating crisis-related tourism recovery strategies
Evelyn G.Y. Loh, Jefferson Patovaki, and Navneet Nimesh Kumar
7 Mass Tourism in Small Pacific Island States: A Critical Review of Tourism Development in the Pre-COVID era
David Harrison
8 Deciphering tourism’s auspicious and inauspicious relationships with food and agriculture in Pacific Island states: Identifying problems and solutions
Daniel Ka Leong Chong and Marcus L. Stephenson
PART II: Tourism and island states in Melanesia
9 Australian travel writing and notions of savagery in Melanesia
Nicholas Halter
10 Tourism development in the Solomon Islands: Identifying the concerns and challenges
Farah Atiqah Mohamad Noor, Jefferson Patovaki, and Marcus L. Stephenson
11 Tourism policy and planning in Fiji: A critique
Apisalome Movono and Marcus L. Stephenson
12 Gender empowerment in tourism development: Female bungalow hosts in Vanuatu
Nicole Orsua, Joseph M. Cheer, and Madelene Blaer
13 Tourism, micro-entrepreneurship, and handicrafts in the Solomon Islands
Alexander Trupp
14 Community management of cultural tourism at a World Heritage Site: Intersections of the ‘local’ and ‘global’ at Chief Roi Mata’s Domain, Vanuatu
Adam M. Trau and Chris Ballard
15 An assessment of the social media marketing performance of Fiji’s hotel industry before and during COVID-19
Karishma Sharma and Alexander Trupp
16 Opportunities and challenges of ecotourism development in Fiji: Evidence from an eco-resort and a marine park Marica Mafi-Stephens, Marika Kuilamu, and Alexander Trupp
PART III: Tourism and island states in Micronesia
17 Tourism development in the Marshall Islands: Examining the challenges and opportunities
Ai Ling Tan and Vijaya Malar Arumugam
18 Deciphering the environmental challenges and advancements of tourism development in Palau
Anuradha Vyas and Marcus L. Stephenson
19 Utilizing Sustainable Development Goals to guide thematic tourism development in Kiribati
Evanthie Michalena, Jeremy M. Hills, and Jale Samuwai
20 Deciphering Nauru as a non-tourism destination: Current challenges and potentialities
Nazia Ali and Marcus L. Stephenson
21 Understanding tourism development in the Federated States of Micronesia: Reshaping sustainable ways forward for a post-pandemic future
Marcus L. Stephenson, Alexander Trupp, and Chetan Shah
PART IV: Tourism and island states in Polynesia
22 Sustainable tourism planning in Samoa: Identifying the challenges and opportunities
Brent Lovelock, Lenara Tuipoloa-Utuva and Anna Carr
23 Tourism in the Kingdom of Tonga: Challenges, solutions and research
Jenny Cave and Rosemarie Fili Grover
24 Yoga tourism and sustainable development in Niue post-COVID: Investigating the potential for sport tourism and wellness experiences
Nazia Ali
25 Tourism development in the Cook Islands: Deconstructing the impacts and identifying a sustainable framework
Kamelia Chaichi and Mei Kei Leong
26 Tuvalu: A paradise rarely visited
Bruce Prideaux and Alexander Trupp
Conclusion
27 Future research trajectories: Pacific Island tourism
Marcus L. Stephenson and Dallen J. Timothy
Biography
Marcus L. Stephenson is Professor of Tourism and Hospitality Management, and Dean of the School of Hospitality at Service Management at Sunway University (Malaysia). Prior to this appointment in October 2017, he was Professor and Head of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji). He is the co-author of Tourism and Citizenship: Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities in the Global Order (2014, Routledge) and co-editor of International Tourism Development and the Gulf Cooperation Council States: Challenges and Opportunities (2017, Routledge). He has conducted tourism research in the Caribbean, Middle East, Pacific Island states, and the United Kingdom and has published extensively on the sociology of tourism.
