Climate change adaptation in the Pacific Island tourism sector: analysing the policy environment in Vanuatu

Abstract

Tourism is a growing economic sector in the South Pacific providing the region with great potential for economic development. Vanuatu and its neighbouring Small Island Developing States and Territories experience a high vulnerability to climate change impacts. The tourism sector in Vanuatu is particularly vulnerable, and it needs to develop and implement effective adaptation strategies to reduce climate change risks. Policies play an important role by providing the platform on which adaptation can occur and resilience be built. This study examines the policy environment in Vanuatu for its conduciveness to climate change adaptation. It identifies the types of adaptation processes (explicit or implicit) and types of adaptation measures (technical, business management, behavioural, policy, and research and education) and critically analyses the current tourism-related policies for their effectiveness in assisting the sector to address climate change. It is found that the majority of policies identified deal with climate change through implicit adaptation processes and mainly through the use of policy and research and education measures. The authors argue that in order to strengthen the resilience of the tourism industry, the Government of Vanuatu needs to develop and implement explicit climate change adaptation policies for the tourism sector.

Keywords:

• tourism
• climate change
• adaptation
• adaptive capacity
• policies
• Vanuatu

Acknowledgement

This research was funded by an AusAID Australian Development Research Award, ADRA0800029.

Notes

In this paper, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's definition of climate change is being used. Thus, climate change refers to ‘any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity’ (IPCC, 2007a, p. 2).

IPCC's (2007a) description of likelihood – very high confidence means at least 9 out of 10 chances of being correct.

The National Statistics Office undertook a visitor survey in 2004 with 5000 surveys completed. Out of these, 4982 forms were usable for analysis and the report was divided into three areas: visitor profile, travel behaviour, and visitor expenditure (VNSO, 2007).