Case 2: Tourism Policy

Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados
Milena Goossen (83001) Sarah Niedzwietzki (79644) Anna Lena Vertein (83298) Group: TDM2 N Tutor: Marijke Boven

Table of Contents

Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................2 Introduction..................................................................................................................................3 Summary of the article................................................................................................................4 Discussion of the policies...........................................................................................................6 Is the article prescriptive or descriptive?.................................................................................6 What are the policies developed, described or evaluated?....................................................6 Opinion about these policies.......................................................................................................8 Concepts/theories.....................................................................................................................10 Conclusion................................................................................................................................12 Appendix...................................................................................................................................14 Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados...............................................................................................................................14 References................................................................................................................................15

Introduction

Life didn`t begin in Barbados. It was just perfected here (Barbados Tourism Authority, 2010). This report is based on the article Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados. The purpose of the report is to introduce policies concerning the Barbados Island, to compare them to theories in order to outline the similarities and connection. Therefore, it was necessary to find an article which deals with the topic tourism policy, discuss the content of it with special focus on the mentioned policies which will be related to the literature. First of all, the chosen article Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados will be summarized to get a better overview about its content. The next point is a discussion of the policies mentioned in the article. Therefore, it will be explained if the article is written in a prescriptive or descriptive way, followed by mentioning the policies that are named in the article including a short description of them. Furthermore, an own opinion about the policies of all three group members will be given and supported by relevant arguments. In addition, the policies will be connected to the provided literature and corresponding lecture, as well as the theories are going to be connected to the theories. Finally, a conclusion will be drawn that summarizes the most important points and outlines the priorities of the policies mentioned in the article and the concepts and theories of the literature.

Summary of the article

The article Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados was written by Nicole Belle and Bill Bramwell, published in the Journal of Travel Research in the year 2005. The article analyses the different views of policy makers and tourism managers on the possible impacts of climate change on the tourism industry of the island Barbados. Furthermore, it deals with the possible reactions and preferred policies by those two parties. First of all, the authors describe the general problems of climate change in small island developing states which can have an impact on the economic activity. The warnings about potential effects, like a rise of the frequency of extreme climatic phenomena, a rise of temperature and the sea level, by scientific communities are already so important that they demand a coordination of international actions by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Even almost everybody will suffer under these and other consequences of the climate change, the small island states might be most seriously affected. They are highly vulnerable, especially their long beaches, but also their economy, as there is no alternative to the high importance of tourism, and they have a low adaptive capacity to the consequences. The next paragraph deals with the policy responses to climate change. It is important not to simply accept a problem but to try to reduce the impacts that could follow. Scientists are uncertain about the future climate changes and their impacts; it is not easy to predict them what is not positive for the authority of science. This leads to the problem that individuals and public policies do not see the climate change or corresponding costs as a priority. The individual responses depends on own interests and beliefs as well as they are impacted by media. To react successfully on climate change, the integration of knowledge and the many different actors being affected is needed. Motives, behavior and values of them need to be understood. There are many different opinions about what causes the climate change but it is important to care about the environment to protect resources. This is, nevertheless, still a big problem for underdeveloped countries because they are more interested to first of all fulfill their own basic needs. After having explained the problem in general the article focuses on the tourism development in Barbados as an example for small island tourism. The national economy of Barbados is highly depended on tourism. Many environmental and social problems came up due to the fact that there was not used a strong tourism planning framework when the development of 4

tourism started. One example is the development of hotels near the sandy beaches, which is the main attraction. A first report on the impacts of greenhouse effects on Barbados was published in 2001 and highlights the three main consequences sea level rise, rise of air and sea temperature and changes in weather patterns. The research done by the authors to find out about the views on climate change impacts and possible policies is based on interviews and questionnaires addressed to policy makers and tourism industry managers. Furthermore, reports and studies by the Barbados government and a Caribbean organization have been taken into account. The results show that climate change is already taking place and the impacts whether positive or negative will affect the local tourism industry. It is compared to other affecting issues already very important. There will be high risks and impacts for the industry most of them connected to the marine environment especially the beach through alteration, erosion and inundation and the nearby coastal land which could get lost and end in a damage of the present tourism facilities. Moreover, an intensity of hurricanes could become a problem. Follow up challenges could be for example troubles with a sufficient fresh water supply as salt-water could get into the groundwater or wells and it is known that tourists consume a lot of it. A damage of the vulnerable island reefs could result in a further damage of the beach as well as a loss of tourists interested in diving. The milder winter in Europe and America could also hold back tourists as they do not see the need to escape anymore. To summaries, the responses of policy makers and tourism industry managers it can be said that their answers concerning the climate change impacts have been quite similar with only some slight differences. Next step was to find out about the different views on policy responses for the climate change. Required actions are to raise the awareness about the impacts by starting educational campaigns as well as to devise and apply appropriate policies. Moreover, a suggestion is to place new tourism facilities outside of the vulnerable coastal area. To get a future perspective, a diversification of product offerings seems to be necessary. To get more public awareness it is proposed to formulate policies which can also help to get the required political support. In addition it is advised to use strategies and policies to adjust and reduce impacts. Those could mean to build accommodation above flood levels and seawalls as protection. In particular it is necessary to give the beach more space to move naturally. Finally it needs to be said that next to the sustainable use of the coast line it is very important that the needs of all members of the society need to be taken into account as well as all of them should be open to some compromises.

Discussion of the policies

Is the article prescriptive or descriptive?
Before stating whether the article is mainly prescriptive or descriptive, firstly the two terms should be defined. According to the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary (2010), prescriptive is defined as, saying exactly what must happen, especially by giving an instruction or making a rule, while descriptive definition is, describing something, especially in a detailed, interesting way( Advanced Learners Dictionary, 2010). Further, in regard to an area of a study, it indicates the subject rather than developing theories about it. The article mainly seems to be descriptive as the authors describe how the situation on the small island Barbados is in regard to its development and climate change including its impacts on the tourism industry. Additionally, the research methods include the interviews and questionnaires as well as the policy makers` and industry managers perspectives concerning their opinion of the impacts/ policy responses for climate change are explained very detailed. For instance, it is stated who exactly belongs to the surveyed policy makers and industry managers, their view on the likelihood of the six discussed impacts and the explanation of the policy makers` and tourism industry managers views on the appropriateness of different policy responses. The tables which can be found in the article serve to provide an overview (see p. 36, 37 and 38) reflecting the given answers. In the whole article it is not stated exactly what must happen in regard to the policies as the policies are rather suggestions than compulsory.

What are the policies developed, described or evaluated?

The policies that are named in the article in connection with managing climate change, are the five following: 1. Mitigation strategies 2. Adaption strategies 3. Collaborative work across sectors 4. Policy formulation 5. Increase public awareness. 6

The first strategy involves strategies to lessen the severity of the impacts while the second one refers to adjusting to the impacts. The fact that the adaptation strategies related to the issue of rising sea levels are likely to be of a huge significance as the majority of the tourism provision is predominately to be found at the coast, these strategies will be examined more detailed. The policy makers suggested for instance, the diversification of the tourism product in Barbados in order to remove the dominance of tropical beach tourism and as a result reinvent it to establish a softer form of tourism. The diversification also entails the development of the natural, historic and cultural attractions to strengthen the tourism industry. Possible adaptation strategies in the Caribbean involve three options in connection with accommodation, protection and a planned retreat. The accommodation option involves that new buildings could be built on pilings above flood level and the protection option that seawalls are built to protect natural areas. The planned retreat indicates the optimal way to conserve the beaches which are exposed to hurricanes by allowing them (the hurricanes) more space to move naturally. This given space provides a safe distance which refers to the so called coastal development setback. Till now, the setback has been 30 meters from the high tide mark what is considered to be too low so it has to be extended. It could contribute, for instance, to the reduction of beach erosions by allowing the beach zone to expand. Moreover, the assistance of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) can serve as a plan for adaptation. This Integrated Costal Management approach taken in Barbados is managed by the following legislative acts: the Town and Country Planning Act, The Marina Pollution Control Act and the Costal Zone Management Act of 1998. According to the policy makers and tourism industry managers, increasing public awareness of the climate issues including educational campaigns is considered as one of the most crucial policy response to the impacts of climate change in Barbados. It can be said that it is advisable for Barbados, to work in the future on the development of policies, not only in regard to the climate change but also for a general positive tourism development, and if possible implement them to prevent or temper the impacts of climate change in order to conserve Barbados as an attractive tourism destination.

Opinion about these policies

Own opinion student one: All the policies mentioned in the article and explained before are very important for Barbados and necessary to deal with the impacts of climate change in my opinion. Generally I think it is not possible for a small island like Barbados to do a lot against the climate change itself but still there are many measures that can and should be taken to reduce its impacts and hence resulting problems. I think formulating policies to protect the environment is most important especially to use Integrated Coastal Management. The most sufficient example in the text is to protect hotels and other tourist facilities against sea level rising and storms by placing them away from the coast. This would also help the beaches to have natural space to move so they do not get destroyed. The beach is the main tourist attraction of Barbados so it is absolutely necessary to protect it even if it means to build the facilities away and accept therefore longer distances. Another attraction for tourists is the coral reef. If Barbados does not protect these natural resources by policies it could happen that they lose many important customers. This would be a big problem because they do not have any other resources they could build on which means the whole economy is dependent on tourism and therefore the protection of the environment by policies. The problem is that the locals do not all see these connections yet and do not sense it as a priority. Therefore the increase of public awareness mentioned before needs to be implemented as soon as possible I think. This entails especially education so people know what is going on and why it is important to react as well as telling them what they can do themselves in specific. As soon as there is awareness about the possible impacts among all the stakeholders it will be much easier to fight together against the problems that could come up soon. Own opinion student two: In my opinion the discussed policies are all very important to manage the climate changes impacts on Barbados. Especially, the adaptation strategies in regard to the rising sea level are vital to prevent the destruction of locations and accommodations near the coast. If they are ruined, a significant part of the tourism provision would be lacking and result a considerable loss of money would follow. In regard to environmental aspects, without costal development setbacks, beach erosions would lead to the loss of land and destroy not only Barbados beaches but also the existence of the whole island. All this indicates the necessity of using Integrated Coastal Management.

Policies should be formulated and implemented as soon as possible. To my mind, to increase public awareness of the climate change and its impacts surely plays a major role in the whole process of developing policies. Through public awareness, all stakeholders should be alert how important this issue really is and that everybody should be aware of it and fight against it. For me it is obscure that still so many people working in the tourism sector as well as in other industry sectors do overlook or ignore the climate change issue as measures to cope with it probably increase the costs and lead to the decline of profit. Own opinion student three: In my point of view, the approach of the five policies is a good start to make people aware of the climate change and to prepare the stakeholder for upcoming changes by introducing a diversification plan of the tourism product. I embrace the survey instruments used to determine the opinion of the stakeholders, because it gives a detailed overview of the current awareness of climate change and the priorities of policies. I also welcome the improvement points through education of locals about the climate change and involvement of all stakeholders to decide on an official policy. However, since the financial opportunities are limited, the government and private sectors should rather look for foreign investors in order to realize their ideas. Since the island wants to implement a scientific research in fields such as climatology, oceanography and geomorphology in order to preview the climate change, a lot of experts need to be employed and a lot of equipment needs to be provided, which costs a lot of money. The political commitment to the Maldive Islands and the spectacular underwater policy agreement shown on TV for the whole world is a good example how to attract foreign investors in order to protect the environment and to develop tourism in a sustainable way.

Concepts/theories
Having a look on the study objectives for Barbados (Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados, 2005), five steps of the policy making process can be distinguished: 1. Examination of the potential impact of climate change 2. Study about the views of stakeholders working in the public and private sector 3. Assessment of the opinions of these two groups 4. Preferences of these groups for different policy responses 5. Suggestions for future research directions In regard to the first step, the negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of climate change such as the sea-level rise, erosion of beaches and salt water intrusion in ground water pipes are determined through investigations. Overall, these threats point out the main problem statement: Which policies need to be implemented to reduce the potential damages of climate change? Since the general motive of implementing a policy is clear, the opinions of stakeholders concerning climate change need to be considered in order to formulate a official policy statement (Figure 2: Policy formulation). In order to get all stakeholder of the island involved, both policy makers in government and tourism industry managers are interviewed and given a questionnaire. In total 14 policy makers and 50 tourism industry managers from various tourism sectors are surveyed with several identical questions and others unique to their situation. The quite equal involvement of public and private sectors represents the social-democratic ideology of Barbados, which is an effective way to involve all interests and to form a policy. As can be seen in Figure 1, the representatives of the government as well as interest groups influence the policy, which is again a product of their connection and compromise between objectives, goals, vision, mission, values, philosophy and tradition. After the outcomes of both views on the likelihood of climate change impacts are listed (see table 1 & 2 in the article), a first analysis can take place in order to limit the policy opportunities. In the second chapter, five different policies were named. Here the opinions of stakeholders are requested again (see table 3 & 4 in the article). After undertaking the research, an analysis of the policies can be made (Figure 2: Policy analysis). The most important policy on which both parties mainly agreed on, is an increase of public awareness. Especially the government has a strong interest to encourage actions for tourism and has a direct impact on the economy due to their presence in the public sector (Barbados- Politics, government and taxation, 2009). This leads to a closer look at the role of 10

the state with regard to tourism. According to Veal, eight types of market failure can be considered to the tourism sector. Especially the point about merit goods is reflected in the article. Those goods can be services that need time, experience and even education in order to come to appreciate them (Module book Destination Marketing Management, reader, 2009/2010). Written in the conclusion of the article, the stakeholder evaluate the policy making process (Figure 2: Policy monitoring and evaluation) and look for improvements of their system. Here the state can get involved and implement education campaigns or in this case to encourage a joint learning between all tourism segments. Moreover, to cover most interests efficiently, all stakeholders should be informed and involved in a decision discussion for an official policy. On this way, it can be made sure that all people have the right to codecide. All in all, a trustworthy relationship between researcher and people being studied can induce to better results of the survey. Since this article is only based on the theory of policy making, the practical implementation is still unknown. This might be a hint that the reality of policy making needs a couple of startups and improvements until it will be finally realized.

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Conclusion
After summarizing the article, Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados, discussing the policies, expressing our opinion about them and connecting them to the literature and lecture, it can be said that the article is mainly written in a descriptive manner as it explains a wide range of issues very detailed. Further, in the article five possible policies are mentioned including mitigation strategies, adaption strategies, collaborative work across sectors, policy formulation and increase of public awareness. Referring to the opinions of the policies mentioned in the article, the group consistently agreed on the importance of these approaches to handle the climate change and its impacts. Special emphasize was given to the protection of the coral reefs, the education of locals in the tourism sector about the climate change and further attraction of foreign investors. At last, the content of the article was connected to figures and theories which can be found in the module book. It became clear that a policy making process consists of several steps including a detailed research, an analysis of the outcomes and a evaluation of the system to approach a official policy statement. Moreover, it is recognizable that both in the theory and in the article, the involvement of the government and the interest groups are important in order to implement an effective policy plan. Overall, it can be said that policies are essential to support sustainable tourism actions and the cooperation of all stakeholders are necessary in order to achieve their goals.

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Appendix
Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados

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References
Barbados Tourism Authorities (2010). Long Live Life. Retrieved at February 17, 2010, from http://www.visitbarbados.org/long-live-life.aspx Belle, N. & Bramwell, B. (2005). Climate Change and Small Island Tourism: Policy Maker and Industry Perspectives in Barbados. Sagepub.com Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. (2010). Definition. Retrieved February 14, 2010, from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=62560&dict=CALD&topic=givingorders-and-commands Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary. (2010). Definition. Retrieved February 14, 2010, from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=21027&dict=CALD&topic=defining-andexplaining Encyclopedia of the Nations. (2010). Barbados - Politics, government, and taxation, Retrieved February 17, 2010, from http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Barbados-POLITICSGOVERNMENT-AND-TAXATION.html

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