Blue Tourism in Islands and Small Tourism-Dependent Coastal States: Tools and Recovery Strategies

This report on Marine spatial planning (MSP) offers coastal countries a tool to address current challenges. MSP provides spatial mapping of BES and the threats they face, bringing together diverse users in a participatory, holistic approach that promotes the mainstreaming of BES into goals for other economic sectors. It allows for trade-offs between different oceanic sectors to help build a more sustainable approach for the use of common resources.

This report presents an overview of climate-informed marine spatial planning (MSP), a participatory process that considers current and future climate risks and opportunities during design, planning, and implementation. Climate considerations in MSP harness the economic opportunities of the decarbonization pathway, while responding to the growing challenges of climate change through adaptive and integrated ocean management.

The aim of this World Bank report is to provide insights regarding the types of interventions governments have already implemented and policy considerations for supporting the recovery and resilience of the tourism sector going forward, particularly in light of structural demand and supply-side transformations precipitated or accelerated by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The report studies the challenges for recovery faced by governments and the sector from the context of preexisting market and government failures that have been exacerbated by the crisis, as well as those emerging from the pandemic. The report includes several key findings and recommendations.