Coastal Tourism, Climate Change, and Sustainability

"Coastal Tourism, Climate Change, and Sustainability" delves into the intricate relationship between climate change and the vital sectors of fisheries and aquaculture in the Caribbean. With an average of 50 million tourists annually, the Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world. Most tourist infrastructure, including 2,600 hotels, and nearly three-quarters of the population are concentrated along the coast. Despite contributing less than 1% to global climate change, Caribbean island nations face increasingly violent hurricanes, rising sea levels, higher temperatures, and the loss of corals and mangroves.

Many stakeholders, including holidaymakers, homeowners, governments, tourism developers, and operators, are not fully aware of climate change's reality. The essays and case studies in this anthology highlight two key truths: many environmental problems pre-existed climate change but are exacerbated by it, and many climate change mitigation and adaptation technologies are part of the sustainable tourism toolkit refined in recent decades.

The book emphasizes that businesses and coastal destinations adopting socially and environmentally sustainable practices-such as coastal setbacks, soft engineering, renewable energy, water recycling and reduction, and "green" construction-can be more resilient to climate change. Tourism master planning and construction today require new standards incorporating protection against current risks and climate change through intelligent planning, sustainable design, and responsible construction.

Focusing on beaches and hotels, this book and its accompanying volumes are designed for use by university courses (both graduate and undergraduate), tourism companies, practitioners and associations, governments, international financial and development agencies, and concerned travelers.