Tourism Development, Governance and Sustainability in The Bahamas

This book focuses on the complex issues of tourism development, governance and sustainability in the long-standing popular island destination, The Bahamas, where tourism remains one of the primary fiscal industries. The book achieves this by looking at the impacts of mass tourism development from social, economic and environmental perspectives; panarchy and resilience; assessing sustainability; moving towards a blue economy; impacts of climate change and innovative alternative tourism offerings to ensure sustainable tourism - a welcomed but challenging essential contemporary focus of the tourism industry. It further looks at how development, governance and sustainability come together in the aftermath of a recent natural disaster, hurricane Dorian, which proved to be a strong catalyst for action, innovation and change in The Bahamas. Given the complexity of these key concepts and The Bahamas as an established popular tourism destination archipelago which relies so heavily on the industry, this book offers significant insight for other tourism regions and will therefore be essential reading for upper-level students and academics in the field of Tourism research.

Sophia Rolle is Graduate Programmes Coordinator and Senior Lecturer of Tourism Management in the Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management, Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies. Jessica Minnis is a Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of The Bahamas. Ian Bethell-Bennett is an Associate Professor and former Dean of Liberal and Fine Arts at the University of The Bahamas.

Part I Development: 1. Identities in Flux: Psychological acculturation and developing tourism in The Bahamas 2. The impact of tourism development on small island communities in The Bahamas: The case of Abaco, Bimini and Exuma 3. Living on Islands: Tourism & Quality of Life on the Islands of Abaco, Bimini and Exuma, The Bahamas a case study 4. Vacation Rental Markets in The Bahamas 5. Case Study on a Bahamian Carnival.  6. Junkanoo Carnival, Bahamas as a Strategy for Tourism Development. Part II Governance 7. Tourism Governance, Panarchy and Resilience in The Bahamas 8. Atlantis - A Case Study in the Experience Economy 9. The Economics of Smiling: A History of the Bahamian courtesy campaign 1955-1970 Part III Sustainable Development 10. Assessing Sustainability in Small Island Developing States: A comparative analysis of sustainability assessment tools and their applicability to Small Island Developing States 11. Toward A Blue Economy: Ragged Island - a case for sustainable development for the islands of The Bahamas 12. Climate Change, Tourism and Sustainable Development in The Bahamas 13. Marijuana Agro -Tourism Habitat Part IV: Development, Governance, Sustainability: A Look at Hurricanes. 14. Sustaining tourism after a hurricane.  15. Hurricane Dorian: A case for building comprehensive climate change resilience frameworks for Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean.  Part V: Conclusion.  16. Towards an understanding of the tourism experience