The purpose of this study was to compare islands and regular countries to determine if islands depend more on tourism in their economies than regular countries. In fact, it is possible that islands depend too much on tourism. A literature review covers the various areas of research regarding island tourism, including economic impact, sustainability, forecasting, and destination management. Data from the World Bank Group was used to form a panel of 140 countries for the period 1995 through 2006. Islands and regular countries were compared on economic factors such as GDP per capita, travel receipts, and travel receipts as a percentage of exports. The results indicate that islands have a lower level of travel receipts than regular countries, but travel receipts represent a higher percentage of exports for islands
