Aishath Shakeela

The tourism disaster vulnerability framework: an application to tourism in small island destinations

Islands are known to be vulnerable to natural hazards, resulting in substantial risks for their tourism industries. To facilitate the systematic analysis of the underlying vulnerability drivers, a tourism disaster vulnerability framework was developed. The conceptual model then guided qualitative empirical research in three regions: the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. The results from 73 interviews highlight common, as well as idiosyncratic, factors that shape the islands’ hazardscapes and vulnerabilities. Key vulnerabilities included social, economic, political, and environmental dimensions. Probably, the most critical vulnerability driver is the lack of private sector investment in disaster risk reduction. This is interrelated with deficient planning processes, on-going demand for coastal products, lack of political will, and poor environmental conditions. Notwithstanding many barriers, some businesses and organisations engage proactively in addressing disaster risk. The paper’s empirical evidence supports the validity of the framework, and suggestions for further research are made.

Responding to Climate Change: Australian Tourism Industry Perspectives on Current Challenges and Future Directions

Like other destinations in the Asia Pacific region, Australias tourism industry is vulnerable to the impacts and implications of climate change. The countrys reliance on its natural “product”, which is potentially under threat, coupled with the potential for changing consumer demand patterns, particularly in long-haul markets, should be concerning for the tourism industry. Yet, the tourism industry has been criticised for its short-term, profit orientation and lack of action regarding climate change [Hall, C.M., & Higham, J. (Eds.) (2005). Tourism, recreation and climate change. Clevedon: Channel View Publications; Jenkins, K., & Nicholls, S. (2010). The impacts of climate variability and potential climate change on tourism business in Torbay, England and implications for adaptation. Tourism Analysis, 15(1), 17–30; Viner, D. (2006). Tourism and its interactions with climate change. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 14(4), 317–415]. However, little empirical research has investigated the tourism industrys perspectives regarding climate change, neither the relative importance of climate change vis-a-vis other challenges facing the sector nor the strategies and actions required by the tourism industry to facilitate adaptation and mitigation strategies. It is against this background that a qualitative study was undertaken with expert representatives from both the public and private sectors of Australias tourism industry to explore the industrys perspectives on current challenges and future directions with regards to climate change. The findings show that while the industry is aware of the importance of climate change, it is not seen as a pressing issue, particularly in light of the global economic crisis, and there has been little action by the industry in response to climate change. Respondents noted that the tourism industry is largely relying on, and waiting for, government intervention and leadership for the sector with regards to climate change.

Understanding tourism leaders’ perceptions of risks from climate change: an assessment of policy-making processes in the Maldives using the social amplification of risk framework (SARF)

Coastal tourism destinations are highly vulnerable to climate change risks, including sea-level rise, inundation, and extreme weather events. While such risks pose major challenges to the sustainability of these destinations, they have been insufficiently examined in tourism research. This study uses the social amplification of risk framework as a basis for understanding how climate change risks are perceived and what processes lead to an amplification or attenuation of risk perceptions at management and governance levels. In the context of the extremely low-lying Maldives, 12 leading tourism stakeholders, including representatives of government, industry, and NGOs, were interviewed to gather empirical data on risk perceptions. Results indicate that, while climate change risks are amplified for international audiences, several factors lead to an attenuation of risks for domestic audiences. As a result, local tourism stakeholders are not immediately concerned, and adaptation measures are woefully inadequate to cope with future climate risks. Detailed reference is made to the policy inertia found, the conflicts inherent in playing down risk in order to attract jobs, profitable tourism investment and tourists, and the equally pressing need to stress risks in order to attract expertise and funds to enable adaptation policies to be designed and funded.

Human Resource Issues in a Small Island Setting The Case of the Maldivian Tourism Industry

Abstract This paper analyses the development of the tourism industry in the small island nation of the Republic of Maldives, highlighting the role of expatriate and local employment within the Maldivian tourism industry. It is argued that in order for tourism to be sustainable, the prevailing focus on tourism development needs to be changed with more prominence given to human resource development—the core of the tourism industry.

The Role of Employment in the Sustainable Development Paradigm—The Local Tourism Labor Market in Small Island Developing States

Due to the numerous developmental constraints faced by many Small Island Developing States, these governments have promoted tourism in policy agendas on the grounds that it will enhance the lives of local people through the creation of employment and subsequent increase in income level. Using the case of the Maldives, this research explored the extent to which local employment is integrated in the sustainable development paradigm. The research indicates that the Maldivian tourism industry will be impacted upon by a myriad of social, human resource, economic, institutional and religious factors which affect the attraction and retention of local people in tourism employment.

The Exploratory Social-Mediatized Gaze Reactions of Virtual Tourists to an Inflammatory YouTube Incident

Social media are revolutionizing the way that destinations are being portrayed and perceived, yet remain underresearched in tourism. Netnographic analysis of 7,187 international comments on a YouTube video depicting an antitourist incident in the Maldives revealed two opposing social representations of the social-mediatized gaze. The first is hegemonic and tolerant, and indicative of resolution-based dialectics. The second is polemical and intolerant, and indicative of conflict-based dialectics, replete with anti-Islamic rhetoric. Social media, because of the interplay of proximity to and distance from the relevant inflammatory visual stimuli, attracts and amplifies the latter social representation and suppresses the former. However, because of viewer attention ephemerality, associated projections of power in the comments may not have a lasting negative impact on the destination.

Women's Participation in Tourism: A Case from the Maldives

Women are key participants in the tourism labor market. Maldivian women are recognized as being among the most emancipated in South Asia and the Islamic world. There is no institutional discrimination along gender lines in access to education, health services, or for jobs in the public sector (The World Bank 2004). However, the proportion of women working in the Maldivian tourism industry is relatively low. This chapter explores one of the key outcomes of a broader study on the participation of locals in the Maldivian tourism industry. The role of government in balancing religion, politics, and economy is considered imperative in positively influencing local tourism labor market participation and employment for women.

Cognitive psychology and tourism research: state of the art

Purpose This review aims to discuss concepts and theories from cognitive psychology, identifies tourism studies applying them and discusses key areas for future research. The paper aims to demonstrate the usefulness of cognitive psychology for understanding why tourists and particularly pleasure travellers demonstrate the behaviour they exhibit. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews 165 papers from the cognitive psychology and literature regarding pleasure travel related to consciousness, mindfulness, flow, retrospection, prospection, attention, schema and memory, feelings and emotions. The papers are chosen to demonstrate the state of the art of the literature and provide guidance on how these concepts are vital for further research. Findings The paper demonstrates that research has favoured a behaviourist rather than cognitive approach to the study of hedonic travel. Cognitive psychology can help to understand the mental processes connecting perception of stimuli with behaviour. Numerous examples are provided: top-down and bottom-up attention processes help to understand advertising effectiveness, theories of consciousness and memory processes help to distinguish between lived and recalled experience, cognitive appraisal theory predicts the emotion elicited based on a small number of appraisal dimensions such as surprise and goals, knowledge of the mental organisation of autobiographical memory and schema support understanding of destination image formation and change and the effect of storytelling on decision-making, reconstructive bias in prospection or retrospection about a holiday inform the study of pleasurable experience. These findings indicate need for further cognitive psychology research in tourism generally and studies of holiday travel experiences. Research limitations/implications This review is limited to cognitive psychology and excludes psychoanalytic studies. Practical implications Cognitive psychology provides insight into key areas of practical importance. In general, the use of a cognitive approach allows further understanding of leisure tourists’ behaviour. The concept of attention is vital to understand destination advertising effectiveness, biases in memory process help to understand visitor satisfaction and experience design and so on. Use of cognitive psychology theory will lead to better practical outcomes for tourists seeking pleasurable experiences and destination managers. Originality value This is the first review that examines the application of concepts from cognitive psychology to the study of leisure tourism in particular. The concepts studied are also applicable to study of travellers generally.

The Maldives: Parallel paths of conventional and alternative tourism

Due to natural resource limitations, island destination planners often direct attention to tourism as an engine for development, with many embracing the industry as an “economic miracle” capitalising on ample endowments of sun, sea and sand (Ioannides 2000; Nowak et al. 2007). This may create hyper-dependency, whereby traditional industries such as shing or agricultural monocultures are replaced by tourism. Government pro-growth proclivities and investment in tourism, however, are based on the assumptions that this sector will mitigate the numerous development constraints they face (Wilkinson 1989). Indeed, tourism in island destinations is usually seen as a convenient and expeditious means for generating employment and foreign exchange earnings.

Tourism education's roles in sustainable tourism development: A case study of SIDS introduction

The tourism industry makes a significant contribution to the development of many Small Island Developing States (SIDS). In spite of this, often in these island states tourism education is neglected in the wider national development plan. This paper presents the key education findings from a broader study on tourism education and local employment as contributors to the sustainable development of the SIDS case of the Maldives. The research findings showed that tourism education was a crucial factor for employability, yet at the same time, tourism education does not meet local employment needs.