Dive tourism, communities and small islands: lessons from Malaysia and Indonesia

Abstract

Coastal tourism is growing rapidly across South-East Asia, especially in small islands. Islands and coastal areas face significant issues of how to manage the rapid growth of tourism whilst retaining economic benefits for the local host community. First, the paper sets the context and charts the scale and significance of international dive tourism, especially in less developed countries. The paper draws upon extensive fieldwork in small island destinations in Malaysia and Indonesia and explores how to research this area and the particular practicalities of fieldwork. Next the paper analyses the main socio-economic impacts of dive tourism drawing upon findings published in Haddock-Fraser and Hampton (2012); Daldeniz and Hampton (2013) and Hamzah and Hampton (2013) before introducing new analysis that is 'work in progress.' Finally, the paper concludes by considering lessons for other destinations in South-East Asia learning from success, and helping avoid mistakes being repeated