The impacts of tourism on small island states

Abstract

This study assesses the impacts of tourism on 136 countries using three indicators respectively relating to the economic, the environmental and the social impacts. The impacts on small island states are then compared with those on other states. The economic impact is measured as tourism expenditure over GDP, the environmental impact is measured as tourist inflow over land area and the social impact is measured as a ratio of visitors to the local population. Furthermore, the study evaluates whether governance, measured by the Worldwide Governance Indicators (2013), has an effect on such impacts. The multiple regression method is used for this purpose. The results indicate that small island states tend to be impacted by tourism, economically, environmentally and socially to a higher extent than other countries. One implication of this study is that although tourism is an important source of revenue for small islands, this industry has very high social and environmental impacts. As McElroy and de Albuquerque (1998, 2000) suggest, tourism endangers the environment at large with constant infrastructure development. Tourism may also have high social negative impacts relating, amongst others, to overcrowding, traffic congestions and increased demand on health services (St Bernard, 2002). The main conclusion of this dissertation is that small island states are advantaged because they generate income and employment and foreign exchange from tourism, but this may come at a high environmental and social price.