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Tourism, Environmental Stewardship, and Community Engagement on Andros Island, Bahamas

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Tourism, Environmental Stewardship, and Community Engagement on Andros Island, Bahamas Tourism, Environmental Stewardship, and Community Engagement on Andros Island, Bahamas By Emily C. Melvin Advisor: Dr. Lisa M. Campbell, Ph.D Master’s Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Environmental Management degree in the Nicholas School of the Environment of Duke University April 22, 2020 Table of Contents I. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 II. Tourism as a Development Strategy ........................................................................ 2 A. The Economic Importance of Tourism in the Caribbean ............................................ 2 B. The Costs of Mass Enclave Tourism ........................................................................... 3 C. Ecotourism and Community-Based Ecotourism as Alternatives to Mass Tourism .... 4 III. Case Background: Andros Island and the Small Hope Bay Foundation ................... 5 A. History of Tourism in the Bahamas ............................................................................ 5 B. Andros Island .............................................................................................................. 7 IV. Study Objectives and Research Questions ............................................................... 8 A. Motivations of Tourists to Small Hope Bay Lodge .................................................... 9 B. Barriers to Engagement in the Dive Industry ............................................................ 10 V. Research Methodology ......................................................................................... 11 A. Interviews of Tourists................................................................................................ 11 B. Interviews of Dive Operators and Dive Professionals .............................................. 12 VI. Understanding and Mobilizing the Values of Tourists ........................................... 13 A. Results of Tourist Interviews .................................................................................... 13 1. Tourists’ Views Regarding the Environment ........................................................ 14 2. Tourists’ Views Regarding Community Involvement .......................................... 19 B. Discussion ................................................................................................................. 21 1. Environmental Quality and Impact ....................................................................... 22 2. Community Involvement ....................................................................................... 23 3. Potential Benefits to the Foundation ..................................................................... 23 4. Limitations ............................................................................................................. 24 5. Future Work .......................................................................................................... 25 VII. Barriers to Community Engagement in the Dive Industry ..................................... 26 A. Results of Dive Professional Interviews ................................................................... 26 B. Discussion ................................................................................................................. 28 VIII. Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 29 Executive Summary Tourism has long been the mainstay of the Bahamian economy, accounting for 40-60% of the country’s GDP and employing half of its population. Much of the focus of tourism development in the Bahamas has been on large enclave resorts that alter the natural environment to create a manufactured tropical sanctuary. Historically, Black Bahamians were disadvantaged in these development projects and excluded from tourist destinations in furtherance of “enclave” tourism that separated tourists from the local community. As a result of heavy foreign ownership in this type of tourism, much of the revenue from tourism in the Bahamas is lost to other country’s economies. In recent years, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism has begun an effort to advertise the unique benefits of the diverse islands throughout the Bahamas. The Bahamian government is also seeking to increase capacity for more locally controlled tourism operations, in an effort to help local communities retain the economic benefits of tourism. This has seen success in the bonefishing industry, where all guides are local and many control their own operations. However, SCUBA diving operators continue to hire predominantly foreign staff, faced with difficulty in finding qualified Bahamian instructors. The Small Hope Bay Foundation is a new non-profit organization located on Andros Island in the Bahamas, with a mission of creating capacity for an economically and environmentally sustainable Andros. The Foundation seeks to develop programming that will benefit the environment and increase local capacity to work in the dive industry. This report seeks to help the Foundation tailor its fundraising and programming to further its mission by asking: (1) How can the Foundation and the tourism industry on Andros Island mobilize the perceptions and values of tourists to improve the impacts of tourism on the local economy and the environment?; and (2) What barriers to community engagement in the dive industry must be overcome to maximize the potential social and environmental benefits of tourism development? After introducing the Foundation and the Project in Part I, Part II of the report provides an overview of tourism as a development strategy. The report describes the costs of mass enclave tourism and the emergent alternatives, such as ecotourism and community-based ecotourism, that have recently grown in popularity. In Part III, the report describes the specific case background, beginning with a brief overview of tourism in the Bahamas. Part III goes on to describe tourism on Andros Island, and the formation and work of the Small Hope Bay Foundation. Part IV builds on this discussion by detailing the study objectives and research questions that were the focus of this Project and describing how these objectives were designed to further the mission of the Foundation. Part V then describes the research methodology for both interviews of tourists, which took place during the summer of 2019, and interviews of dive professionals, which took place from July 2019 through February 2020. Part VI reports and interprets the results of the tourist interviews to assist the Foundation in understanding and mobilizing the values of dive tourists. The data demonstrate that tourists place functional, emotional, and epistemic value on both the quality of the natural environment and the environmental impacts of a tourism operation. Further, tourists place functional, emotional, epistemic, and social values on interacting with local community members and the positive effects that a tourism venture has on the local communities. These results suggest that catering to tourists’ expectations does not require a highly modified, manufactured version of paradise, or providing an enclave where local people are excluded or portrayed in stereotypical fashion. Instead, tourists to Small Hope Bay value unique, natural environments, and efforts to protect them. The data further suggest that interactions with the local community can enhance rather than detract from the tourists’ experience, providing support for forms of tourism that engage and empower the local community. The report provides the Foundation with recommendations for designing and marketing programming that appeals to these specific types of values. These programs alone, however, are unlikely to address the lack of capacity in the dive industry. In Part VII, the report describes the barriers to community engagement in the dive industry, focusing on interviews with dive professionals. These data demonstrate the challenges in employing more local Bahamians in the dive industry throughout the Bahamas, with institutional barriers limiting capacity. This suggests that to increase capacity in the dive industry, the Foundation may need to influence broader institutional change. The report notes, however, that there may be some tension between overcoming these institutional barriers and the Foundation’s goals of environmental sustainability. Thus, deciding which institutional changes to support will require a careful identification of objectives and evaluation of trade-offs. In making these decisions, the report recommends that the Foundation engage the local community and ensure that all decisions are made collaboratively with a broad range of stakeholders. In doing so, the Foundation has the opportunity to develop programming that preserves the environment and improves community engagement, while at the same time appealing to tourists. By working with the community to develop environmental sustainability and community training programs that appeal to tourists, the Foundation can work toward supporting a successful community-based ecotourism model. I. Introduction The Small Hope Bay Foundation is a new non-profit organization with a mission to create capacity for an economically and environmentally sustainable Andros. Andros Island is one of the “Out Islands” of the Bahamas popular among tourists for activities such as fishing, diving, snorkeling, and birdwatching. The Foundation
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