Follow this page for updated infromation regarding PT-CAP activities.

• News: 'Kick off' workshop in Suva
• News: Top line policy analysis
• News: Selection of 3 destination case studies
• Publications and Reporting

News: 'Kick off' workshop in Suva

Participants of the kick-off workshop (left to right: David Harrison, Rex Horoi, Terry De Lacy, Min Jiang, Dale Dominey-Howes, Steve Noakes)

On 24-25 June 2009, PT – CAP partners and stakeholders have had a kick-off workshop for the AusAID research project in Marine Studies Conference Room, Lower Laucala Campus of USP, Suva, Fiji Islands.

Chaired by Professor DeLacy, the workshop overviewed the project background including the tourism sector and climate change in South Pacific as well as potential vulnerability/resilience frameworks, reviewed the research goals, theoretical approach, methods and activities, partnerships and communications, case study locations, and practical and academic outputs.

It has been decided that by conducting a policy analysis (tourism, environment, climate change, disaster management) of 10 Pacific Island countries and detailed case studies in 3 destinations, the project will examine specific impacts of climate change to the tourism sector in the region and develop strategies and policies to enhance the resilience of tourism destination to the threats from future climate change.

News: Top line policy analysis

The first step of research activities concerning PT - CAP is a policy analysis in Pacific Island countries. At the kick-off workshop, participants discussed the scope of policy analysis based on the briefing paper on policy analysis prepared by Dr. Emma Wong (lecturer, Faculty of Business and Law, VU).

It has been agreed that the policy analysis exercise has the following objectives (Emma Wong, briefing paper on policy analysis for the kick-off workshop):

• To create an inventory of existing policies that are pertinent to climate change adaptation of the South Pacific tourism sector.
• To examine the policy-making environment by analysing
  • The power and interest dynamics among government agencies involved in environmentally sustainable tourism development, and
  • How some non-tourism-specific policies and their outcomes influence environmentally sustainable tourism development.
  Such policy-making environment provides the context for future policy recommendations.
• To examine the existing policy-making mechanisms which would inform how future policy recommendations can be implemented.
• To identify policy gaps, i.e. adaptation issues that are yet to be addressed, by studying how existing policies contribute to (or hinder) climate change adaptation of the tourism sector.
• To provide input into the evaluation of adaptive capacity of the tourism sector in individual countries, which will be conducted at a later stage in the project.

It has been decided that the existing tourism and environmental policies of South Pacific Island countries need to be examined in order to make future policy recommendations. The types of policy or policy area to be analysed include:

• Climate change policies
• Environmental policies
• Tourism policies
• Disaster management policies

Various criteria have been developed to select individual South Pacific Island countries for policy analysis:

• Language (English or French)
• The importance of tourism (GDP percentage, visitor arrivals, future investment and potential etc)
• IPCC projections (projected climate change by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
• Accessibility of data including policy and Pals (access to industrial partners, core partner priorities)
• Value and vulnerability of ecosystems
• Engagement with local partners and governments
• Cost of travel and accommodation
• Safety
• Political importance (profile, media attention and potential)
• Research visa’s and other research approvals
• AusAID priorities
• Availability of development tourism strategy
• History/experience of previous hazards/events

Mr. Rex Horoi (executive director of FSPI) brought his strong expertise in local communities of South Pacific into the selection process. By addressing against the abovementioned criteria and communicating with local stakeholders, 10 out of 17 South Pacific Island countries have been tentatively selected for the top-line policy analysis:

• Fiji Islands
• Kiribati
• Nauru
• Palau
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Tonga
• Tuvalu
• Vanuatu

News: Selection of 3 destination case studies

Participants discussing the selection of case study destinations (left to right, Terry De Lacy, Rex Horoi, Steve Noakes, Dale Dominey-Howes)

3 destination case studies have been further selected to develop a vulnerability/resilience framework suitable for the tourism sector to adapt to the risks from climate change. Samoa, Vanuatu, and Fiji’s Western Island Group have been initially selected for detailed case studies which might involve different levels of research such as national policies, destination strategies, and enterprise operations.

It should be noted that this is early stages of the project, and both selections will be tested and may very well be modified by communicating with stakeholders. Mr. Tony Everitt expressed his different opinion on the selection of policy analysis countries in terms of languages. He argued that Tahiti does have lots of information accessible in English although it is a French speaking country. Prof. David Harrison also recommended Denarau as a possible case study destination in Fiji rather than the Fiji’s Western Island Group by arguing that Denarau is compact, relatively accessible, clearly based on large-scale tourism, with a variety of hotels and apartment complexes, and with a very specific set of landowners; is an integrated resort development different from most other resort areas in the regions; confronts risks from climate change particularly sea level rise.

Publications and reporting

As this project continues, information will be posted to this page relating to:

• Steering committee reports
• Annual reports
• Publications