Cruise Tourism in St.Lucia; Promoting Locally Owned and Operated Tourism Businesses

Styles, Kristin M

Publication:
Cruise Tourism in St.Lucia; Promoting Locally Owned and Operated Tourism Businesses

dc.contributor.advisor	Peter Kumble
dc.contributor.author	Styles, Kristin M
dc.contributor.department	University of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.contributor.department	Regional Planning
dc.date	2023-09-23T07:18:04.000
dc.date.accessioned	2024-04-26T21:18:39Z
dc.date.available	2012-06-06T00:00:00Z
dc.date.issued	2012-01-01
dc.date.submitted	May
dc.description.abstract	Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a unique set of challenges when it comes to the field of Planning. In 1992, the United Nations Earth Summit brought international attention to SIDS; the combination of geographic isolation, small size, and limited resources were listed as a few of the unique environmental and economic disadvantages facing these islands. The island of St.Lucia, located in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, is classified by the United Nations as one of the vulnerable SIDS in the Caribbean region. Since the 1992 Earth Summit, the literature on planning strategies for SIDS has shifted away from an economic based mass tourism strategies toward a culturally and environmentally focused sustainable tourism strategies; such as eco-tourism and community-based tourism. Mass tourism, through the form of cruise ship tourism, is currently the largest sector of the Caribbean tourism market. Based on the cruise tourism trends over the past 30 years, the Caribbean cruise tourism industry is expected to continue to grow at a rapid pace. The continual growth in this form of mass tourism contradicts the current planning policy trends toward sustainable tourism strategies. In order to better understand ways of connecting cruise tourism to small island sustainable tourism, this thesis examines aspects of the mass cruise tourism-sustainable tourism contradiction. This thesis evaluates the various types of tourism development strategies for SIDS, as well as, examines St.Lucia’s current tourism development policies. Interviews with local onshore business owners were then conducted in order to understand the relationship between local cruise-dependant businesses and the cruise ship industry. Finally, recommendations are given on ways to incorporate cruise tourism into St.Lucia’s existing community-based tourism goals.
dc.description.degree	Master of Regional Planning (M.R.P.)
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.7275/2954756
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/47816
dc.relation.url	https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2006&context=theses&unstamped=1
dc.source.status	published
dc.subject	Tourism Planning
dc.subject	Small Island Developing States
dc.subject	St.Lucia
dc.subject	Cruise Ships
dc.subject	Other International and Area Studies
dc.subject	Urban Studies and Planning
dc.title	Cruise Tourism in St.Lucia; Promoting Locally Owned and Operated Tourism Businesses
dc.type	open
dc.type	article
dc.type	thesis
digcom.contributor.author	isAuthorOfPublication\|email:kstyles@larp.umass.edu\|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst\|Styles, Kristin M
digcom.date.embargo	2012-06-06T00:00:00-07:00
digcom.identifier	theses/884
digcom.identifier.contextkey	2954756
digcom.identifier.submissionpath	theses/884
dspace.entity.type	Publication