Power and Politics: Sustainability in Islands?

Although sustainable tourism is a widely adopted notion for achieving a more balanced environmental, social and economic form of tourism, few examples or case studies of successful implementation exist. This purpose of this book was to examine if sustainable tourism policy is being achieved in practice and if not, what the reasons were for failure. Comparing two Mediterranean islands: Calviá(Mallorca, Spain) and Malta, case study research was undertaken to determine barriers as well as mitigation strategies for successful policy implementation. These destinations were the focus of this study as both destinations implemented a sustainable tourism policy, offer similar product/distribution systems, have comparable development patterns and have faced a loss of tourists and increased competition. This research concluded that although tourism has been recognised as a major economic contributor to economies and is also a strong tool in the social and infrastructural development of a destination, it is often not considered within the political contexts in which tourism operates, nor in the power struggles that play a critical role in hindering effective sustainable tourism policies.