Introduction

Abstract

As in the companion volume of this book, which deals with the more theoretical aspects of sustainable tourism, contributors to this volume of case studies are from a variety of disciplines. Geographers and anthropologists, sociologists and economists, as well as teachers of tourism studies and (in one case) a government official, have brought their distinctive insights and methods to bear in the study of tourism in thirteen island societies and one mainland territory. Although all but one of these territories are islands, the term can mislead. There are vast differences between independent Sri Lanka, for instance, as described by Saleem, with more than sixteen million people, an area of 65,6102 kilometres and a per capita income of less than $500 (US), and the French islands of Guadeloupe, which are classified by the W orId Bank as having a per capita income in excess of $10,000 (US) (IBRD, 1993: 304). And Sri Lanka seems relatively prosperous when compared to the islands of Zanzibar which, as Sulaiman notes in this volume, have a per capita income of about $100 (US). Indeed, the Central American territory of Belize, discussed by Cater, might be considered sufficiently historically and culturally isolated from its Spanish-speaking neighbours to be awarded honorary 'island'status.