The resort lies on the fringes of one of the world’s largest barrier reefs. Powered by solar energy, in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, there are no air conditioners or pools. Most food is grown in its gardens or fished from the sea, and all the employees are hired from local villages. This is Nukubati on the north coast of Fiji’s Vanua Levu island and at the forefront of a growing movement to change Pacific tourism.
“Our aim is really to improve our environment rather than extract from it,” says Nukubati’s director, Jenny Leewai Bourke. Nukubati is a member of Duavata, a collective of Fijian tourism businesses who say their industry should enhance the environment and cultural heritage. But the issue is complicated.
Pacific island countries – among the most vulnerable in the world to the climate crisis – are wrestling with how to balance the environmental and cultural impact of tourism with economic need. There is no enforceable, region-wide agreement on sustainable practices, just a patchwork of guidelines and initiatives. Tourism, the backbone of many island economies, has begun to rebound from devastation levelled by the Covid pandemic. The influx of visitors has prompted calls for change.
“We must demand a rebellion against business as usual,” the former director of tourism for Vanuatu Jerry Spooner says of mass tourism. “It is imperative that we consider how our travel impacts destinations and Indigenous communities.”
Across the region, new tourism models are emerging. Vanuatu and Cook Islands are promoting “regenerative” tourism while French Polynesia pushes a “slow’’ tourism model. Bora Bora, an island within the French territory, has put limits on arrivals to preserve its way of life. Palau, an archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, asks visitors to sign a pledge to act in an ecologically responsible way.
Yet experts say a lack of monitoring to track impact, weak governance and limited resources hold Pacific tourism back from making environmental progress. They call for soft measures – voluntary pledges or certification schemes – to be backed by legislation.
In a five-part series, the Guardian examines the challenge facing Pacific island nations in balancing the economic dependence on tourism with its environmental impact – where this has led to devastation, where new models are working and how tourists can make a difference.
Regulation lacks force
Throughout the Pacific, there is a web of laws, regulations and strategies that touch on sustainable tourism practices.
Many governments have sustainable tourism strategies and environmental legislation. The Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), the region’s leading industry group with 21 member countries, has developed a sustainable tourism framework and destination standards. They contain wide-ranging guidelines from reducing plastic and energy use to protecting culture. Sustainability certification schemes at a national and global level are also in place.
But in practice most of the frameworks and guidelines are not enforceable or widely monitored. Joseph Cheer, a professor of sustainable tourism and heritage at Western Sydney University in Australia, says frameworks set up “aspiration parameters” for the industry and compliance is voluntary.
“This is one of the biggest challenges in the Pacific,” Cheer says. “Whether a business decides to adhere to them is entirely up to them. There is no compulsion or penalty if you don’t follow them.”
While he cautions against generalising about the region, Cheer says there is a lack of data collected on sustainability measures and a poor track record on governance in the Pacific.
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council is a prominent organisation that sets standards and facilitates certification for destinations and businesses around the world – Singapore, Järvsö in Sweden and the Australian ski resort of Thredbo are among the places that have secured certification. No destinations in the Pacific have been certified, though some have adopted its standards.
One of those is Fiji, the most-visited country in the Pacific with more than 636,000 arrivals in 2022. It adopted GSTC standards as nationwide guidelines this year. Fiji Tourism’s chief executive, Brent Hill, acknowledges they are being rolled out slowly and remain optional. The sector contributes nearly 40% of Fiji’s GDP and the government is developing a national sustainable tourism framework, which will include similar opt-in standards.
Vanuatu, which before the Covid pandemic saw tourism contribute roughly 36% of GDP, was among the first Pacific nations to adopt an official sustainable tourism strategy. The country, along with the Cook Islands, provides optional eco and sustainable tourism certifications for businesses. Vanuatu hopes to secure GSTC certification and wants 60% of tourism businesses certified by local authorities by 2025.
Still, Stephen Pratt, the department chair of tourism, events and attractions at the University of Central Florida, says across the Pacific there has been “very little regulation or self-regulation from the private sector” on sustainable tourism. That’s largely due to governments lacking resources, the “tyranny of distance” and the difficulty of monitoring remote places.
New tourism models
As standards and “green” certification systems emerge, countries are trying to attract tourists with a focus on the environment and culture.
French Polynesia, a territory that includes Tahiti, markets its more than 100 islands as “slow tourism” destinations. Slow tourism advocates spending longer in a single place, favouring transport such as hiking or cycling. It also promotes cultural experiences, for example, a visit to a taro plantation, where tourists are shown how to harvest and cook the edible root.
Other countries are exploring “regenerative” tourism, which calls for visitors to leave a positive impact. They may help restore a coral reef, stay at locally run guesthouses or eat locally grown food.
“More tourist dollars stay in the country and visitors have more authentic, meaningful experiences,” says Spooner, who now runs the Vanuatu not-for-profit Regenerative Vanua.
He says agri-tourism – where farming is integrated with tourist experiences – turns traditional practices “into a story” and benefits communities.
“Visitors showing excitement in the traditional food experience contributes to the reviving of pride in local food systems and in turn discourages the reliance of unhealthy imported foods that is a major health issue in Pacific Island countries.”
Cook Islands’ five-year tourism strategy, launched in 2022, includes attracting “responsible” travellers by marketing regenerative experiences, as well as a focus on culture and traditions. Visitors are encouraged to eat local instead of imported food at restaurants, and support certified “mana tiaki” (guardianship) businesses. Mana tiaki is a free certification system for businesses that meet sustainability and environmental care standards.
Elsewhere in the region, New Caledonia says sustainability is one of its core tourism values. Samoa’s tourism development plan includes an aim to become a more “resilient, inclusive and green tourism destination”.
Pratt says while the niche tourism segments are important “they are never going to get the volume of tourists – at least as before Covid”.
But Dr Susanne Becken, a professor of sustainable tourism at Griffith University, notes that while small, locally owned businesses may attract fewer visitors than a mass tourism model, “that doesn’t necessarily mean the benefit for local people is lower.”
Becken says voluntary schemes, such as mana tiaki or the Palau pledge are useful but “ideally such soft measures are complemented by legislation and standards, for example on phasing out single use plastic, supported through the Pacific Ocean Litter Project”.
A clearer picture of the impact of tourism would help guide policymaking. Becken says there is a lack of data on the carbon footprint and environmental toll of tourism in the Pacific, though the SPTO is working in this area.
Given their remote locations, reducing the emissions of transport – by air or sea – remains the among Pacific nation’s biggest environmental challenges. Travel and tourism accounts for as much as 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2021 World Travel and Tourism Council report.
The SPTO chief executive, Christopher Cocker, says while the contribution of the Pacific islands to global emissions is insignificant, becoming a “green industry is reliant on the transformation of the transportation sector”.
Tourists driving change
Despite the growing focus on sustainability, the prominent Samoan climate change activist Brianna Fruean says the region needs to “reshape” its relationship with tourism.
“Tourists aren’t just allowed to come to our Pacific Islands and it’s a free for all … we are the guardians of our islands, and when we have you as guests on our islands, you have to be guardians as well, you have to be a good guest.”
Richard Markham, a member of Fiji’s Duavata collective, agrees visitors need to take some responsibility for their impact. Markham says travellers who want a “green holiday” need to do their research.
“Where these are not regulated, responsibility lies with the consumer to identify products that are most sustainable,” he says, while acknowledging “the risk of greenwashing and lack of transparency can make this difficult”.
Markham says tourists should try to “book with businesses that are locally owned and operators who express their concerns through real engagement with local communities and the environment.”
“Visitors can show that they truly care and will not be fooled by ‘green washing’ – and that may encourage the industry to make substantive changes,” he says.
