GDP and monetary contributions from tourism can be used to alleviate important issues such as lack of infrastructure, low employment rates or poverty by contributing resources to fostering opportunities for the local communities.

In this week’s blog, I’ll unpack how tourism, when managed sustainably, can contribute to building a society that is engaged with sustainable tourism.

Did you know that the Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region on earth? Out of the top 25 countries that have more than 25% tourism contribution to GDP, 15 are located in the Caribbean. The Caribbean Sea is home to around ten percent of the world’s coral reefs, including the largest coral system in the Northern Hemisphere and the highest concentration of marine species in the Atlantic Ocean. With these factors taken into consideration, you can understand why the environment is so important for a thriving tourism sector.

Look out Bali, Lombok, the popular tourist destination’s neighboring island, is slated to become Asia’s new tourism hotspot. The new Indonesian-Government mandated “Mandalika Project” will aim at building tourism infrastructure and bringing development to the island, but at what cost? This two-part blog series will look into how tourism has already changed the face of Indonesia as well as what can be expected in terms of future changes to the economic and community aspects of Lombok.

Around the world tourism figures have been on the rise due to unprecedented global mobility, which has allowed for travelers to explore prized tourist destinations such as Croatia. Yet, does it come at a cost and if so, who will be the ones responsible to regulate tourism development?

This week’s blog post will reflect on the positive and negative aspects that tourism has brought to Croatia concluding with an analysis on the ways that Government officials, stakeholders and local communities can keep tourism growth and development in line with local and environmental regulations especially on island destinations and the coastline.