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The Towards a Future Tourism Strategy: Economic Recovery Tool for a Sustainable World Beyond the Pandemic meeting aimed to gather experts and actors of the sector to discuss strategies, collaborations and priorities on the vision of Tourism of the Future. The session engaged city governments and stakeholders to collectively discuss recovery focusing as much on social cohesion as economic recovery.  The main objective of the meeting concerned the implementation of sustainable practices to ensure that recovery is done with the good of the planet in mind.

The objectives of the “Ecoblue tourism” project are to increase entrepreneurship opportunities in blue ecotourism in coastal countries through an innovative training methodology (within the framework of EntreComp) to improve the entrepreneurial skills of long-term unemployed youngsters who wish to develop their own ideas and businesses in this sector.

A description of sustainable tourism in the context of the blue economy as part of the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals book series (ENUNSDG) in the Life Below Water section.

This study examines the implications of rising sea level on coastal tourism in Cape Town, South Africa. Making use of mean sea level data from permanent sea level markers, remote sensing and field observations, supported by key informant interviews, the study found that coastal tourism is under threat from rising sea level as well as other extreme weather events such as the increased storm intensity trigger massive waves and tides that result in storm surges, which overtop and encroach into the land surface area.

Using a case study of Olbia, a port of call on the island of Sardinia (Italy), this article shows the relation between cruise activity and urban regeneration process, namely the effects on city planning after the arrival of this type of tourism in port cities.

Tourism development has been promoted as an alternative livelihood to reduce the dependence of small island communities on declining marine resources. It is often central to emerging agendas around marine planning and the blue economy. However, relatively little is known about how communities perceive tourism development as an alternative and potentially sustainable livelihood in their area and its implications. This qualitative study tracks a governance system in transition and analyzes the factors perceived by stakeholders to be driving and hindering the adoption of tourism-based livelihoods on small islands in UNESCO’s Taka Bonerate Kepulauan Selayar Biosphere Reserve (Indonesia). The findings indicate that, despite a series of tourism-enhancing investments and initiatives and the positive attitudes of local communities towards it, tourism is not a direct route towards sustainability for small island communities. The benefits of tourism are perceived to be unequally distributed. The lack of education and skills limits participation in new job opportunities, and the incentives to continue destructive fishing inhibits livelihood transition to tourism. The article concludes that tourism cannot be assumed to generate simultaneous benefits for conservation and development without more equitable benefit sharing, the meeting of basic needs in communities, and addressing the drivers of unsustainable livelihoods.

This peer-reviewed article presents the bioluminescent “Blue tears” of Pingtan Islands, Fujian Province of China, as a focal point to analyze the interactions of local government and tourists and the responses of the tourism sector in co-creating Pingtan as a tourism destination.

This study aims to analyze communities’ perceptions of sustainable tourism and blue carbon ecosystem services by comparing household survey results between urban (Coron) and rural (Busuanga) communities in Busuanga Island, Philippines. Specifically, this work aims to determine residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts at the personal and community levels, to examine whether socio-demographic profiles, ecological consciousness, awareness of programs for sustainable tourism, and ecological protection drive these perceptions, and to compare these results in urban and rural settings.

UNWTO, the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA) and OECD have joined efforts to contribute to the "UNWTO Inclusive Recovery Guide – Sociocultural Impacts of Covid-19, Issue 4: Indigenous Communities", the fourth set of guidelines relating to the sociocultural impacts of COVID-19 on tourism. This set of guidelines has been developed by the UNWTO Ethics, Culture and Social Responsibility Department, in collaboration with Indigenous leaders, while also benefitting from inputs provided by OECD. The recommendations suggest specific solutions for the socio-economic empowerment of Indigenous Peoples through tourism.

This study examines the determinants of blue economy activities, namely tourism and fisheries, in 19 Asia-Pacific Island countries for the period 1996 to 2016. Using a panel data model, we find that the size of the blue economy positively depends on gross fixed capital formation and access to electricity. We also find that the size of the blue economy responds positively to sustainable ocean management policies. Hence, our findings support the need for, and the effectiveness of, sustainable ocean governance policies in the Asia-Pacific Island countries to further strengthen the growth of these countries.