The Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) announces the publication of two volumes entitled Coastal Tourism, Sustainability, and Climate Change in the Caribbean. Volume I is focused on Hotels and Beaches and Volume II on Supporting Activities: Golf, Sustainable Food Sourcing, and Airlines & Airports.
The volumes contain essays and case studies by 33 different experts that look at how various tourism sectors both contribute to and are impacted by climate change. The twin volumes also highlight innovative tourism businesses that are providing solutions to addressing climate change.
While the Caribbean contributes to less than one percent of global carbon emissions, its beaches and hotels are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts . . .
Two additional companion volumes on marine tourism will be published shortly. These four volumes grew out of the 2015 Think Tank on Climate Change and Coastal & Marine Tourism, which CREST and the Grupo Puntacana Foundation hosted in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
About the Volumes
Volume I
The Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world, and its tourism attractions and infrastructure and three-quarters of its people are concentrated along its coastlines. While the Caribbean contributes to less than one percent of global carbon emissions, its beaches and hotels are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts, including increasingly fierce and frequent hurricanes, sea-level rise, and loss of coral and mangroves. This book details many techniques for mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts and demonstrates how socially and environmentally responsible companies are proving resilient to coping with climate change.
Volume II
The second volume on coastal tourism and climate change in the Caribbean examines three key supporting sectors: golf, local agriculture and cuisine, and aviation. Today, climate change is propelling accelerated reforms to these three sectors. Initiatives to link local agriculture to tourism are enriching visitor experiences and revitalizing local crops and cuisine, while reducing the carbon impacts—the food print—from agricultural import.
Similarly, golf certification programs are providing templates for constructing and operating courses with smaller carbon footprints. In aviation, as well, virtually all international airlines are testing non-fossil fuel alternatives, and a nascent but growing green airport movement is reducing aviation’s carbon footprint and improving its resilience. As the volume concludes, coastal tourism in the Caribbean is today addressing two intertwined concerns and opportunities: “the impacts of climate change and imperative of responsible tourism.”
These volumes are edited by Martha Honey, PhD, co-founder and executive director of the Center for Responsible Travel. She is a leading expert in the field of ecotourism and sustainable tourism and has written, lectured, and conducted field projects in some 40 countries around the world. The volume’s assistant editor is Samantha Hogenson, who is CREST’s managing director and holds a master of tourism administration from The George Washington University.
The volumes are co-published by CREST and Business Expert Press (BEP) in BEP’s new Travel and Hospitality Management Collection. Business Expert Press produces curriculum-oriented, digital and hard-copy books for advanced business students, written by academic thought leaders who translate real-world business experience into course readings and reference materials for students expected to tackle management and leadership challenges during their professional careers. Focusing on practical application and knowledge sharing, these books are also appropriate for coastal tourism practitioners, policy developers, and academics.
To Order
Hard Copy and eBooks are available for $34.95 and $19.95, respectively, through Business Expert Press.