Planning for the future: mapping anticipated environmental and social impacts in a nascent tourism destination

Aswani, Shankar;Diedrich, Amy;Currier, Kitty

Abstract

Tourism is a significant driver of social and ecological change in developing countries, particularly in small-island states, which are susceptible to tourism impacts due to their particular social and environmental characteristics. In this article we present a participatory mapping approach to obtaining spatially explicit local perceptions of future environmental and social change resulting from tourism development, as well as addressing the different community conflicts that may arise through the introduction of tourism in the future in a Solomon Islands community. The results show that spatial conflicts within a community over territory and associated resources are likely to occur when designing natural resource management and tourism development plans. This knowledge can help us increase the future sustainability of tourism in nascent small-islands destinations, particularly in vulnerable regions such as Roviana, which have experienced very little tourism development and will likely experience more in the near future.

Journal

Society and Natural Resources

Publication Name

N/A

Volume

ISBN/ISSN

1521-0723

Edition

N/A

Issue

Pages Count

Location

N/A

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publisher Url

N/A

Publisher Location

N/A

Publish Date

N/A

Url

N/A

Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.1080/08941920.2015.1020582