Tourism and Regional Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 168

islands contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, with
islands contributing to their own demise as sea levels are rising and extreme
weather events more frequent (Carlsen & Butler, 2011; see Chapter 11).
Within the theme of this chapter, one could examine the Caribbean, for
example, as a region of islands which relies heavily on tourism. Alliances
between nations in the Caribbean include CARICOM (Caribbean Commu-
nity), the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) with its common
currency (the East Caribbean Dollar) and the pan-Caribbean ACS (Asso-
ciation of Caribbean States) (Wilson, 1996). The Caribbean Tourism Organi-
sation represents 30 countries and its focus is on leading sustainable tourism
(CTO, 2014). Wilkinson's (1987: 142) investigations in the Caribbean found
that although tourism is a major export earner, a large part of the expendi-
ture leaves the economy 'through international airlines, and major hotel
chains, and purchases of foreign food'. Gmelch (2012) notes the importance
tourism plays in the economies of the Caribbean; however, the loans that
some Caribbean governments have had to take to develop and maintain tour-
ism infrastructure have been costly and the creation of all-inclusive package
holidays has been devastating for local businesses dependent on tourism cli-
entele. Widfelt (1996) has raised other potential problems for island nations.
The intensive use of coastal zones with the construction of harbours, mari-
nas, hotels and airports has had severe effects on the environment while, at
the same time, Caribbean farming and fishing have been marginalised. Rural
encroachment can also occur as tourism develops. The economic benefits of
tourism in the Caribbean have also been called into question. To build and
maintain expanded infrastructure requires a great deal of capital and a high
proportion of tourism dollars tend to flow out of the region in various forms,
including profits, payments for imports and other services (Widfelt, 1996).
Within the Caribbean, there has also been a dramatic increase in the number
of passengers taking cruises. However, as Bresson and Logossah (2011) point
out, there seems to be a crowding-out effect of cruise tourism on stay-over
tourism. As a result, they recommend that Caribbean authorities that have
traditionally believed the two types of tourism were complementary need to
revise their strategies.
Regional development can also be examined within the context of a single
island. Nuryanti (1998) examined tourism and regional imbalances on the
island of Java, Indonesia. She indicated that the success of tourism generating
regional development depends on the interaction of the level of provincial
specification or differentiation in terms of socio-cultural and economic struc-
tures, tourist density, accessibility and characteristics of tourism develop-
ment. A region with a high level of specification or differentiation can absorb
tourism impacts in a positive way as the region has the internal capacity to:

• integrate and create the linkages;

• adapt its organisational structure;