Island tourism and COVID-19 in Vanuatu and Samoa : an unfolding crisis

Abstract

Most Pacific islands and island states have sought expanded international tourism development. Tourism generates employment, partly through a considerable informal sector, yet local economic linkages are hard to generate on islands. COVID-19 has brought the demise of island tourism, with border closures and the loss of cruise ship tourism, despite its being absent from most islands. The impact of this collapse in the Pacific island states of Vanuatu and Samoa, both with economies heavily dependent on tourism, has involved hotel and resort closures, selective losses of employment and incomes, with women, markets, car hire, taxis and the urban informal sector particularly disadvantaged, despite attempts to generate domestic tourism. That raises complex questions over the duration of the crisis, and over self-reliance, diversification, sustainability, the future of tourism, the potential for a ‘new normal’ and therefore of development in small island states.