Journal of Tourism & Hospitality
Open Access

The Flux and Flow of Small Island Tourism in a Post-Pandemic Economy

Ryan R. Peterson^{* *}Correspondence: Ryan R. Peterson, Department of Aviation Tourism and Hospitality Management, AAFT University of Media and Arts, Raipur, India, Email:

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Over the past decade, and certainly in recent years, the global tourism and travel industry has had to contend with a series of unprecedented Social, Political, Economic, Ecological, and Digital (‘SPEED’) developments. While separately these trends are long-standing challenges across small islands, the confluence and concentration of these post-pandemic currents are having a fundamental impact on the flux and flow of small island tourism ecosystems.

The systemic nature of ‘SPEED’ amplifies the flux of tourism ecosystems, thereby emphasizing the interconnectedness and interlinkages within tourism ecosystems. It keenly discriminates, oftentimes disrupting, the dynamic interplay between market and institutional forces that shape the vitality and vibrancy of small island tourism ecosystems. As maturing small island tourism destinations confront these systemic ‘rip currents’, they evolve through different spheres, oftentimes experienced as temporal states of disconnect, as well as the drive to reconnect.

Unlike the push forces that shaped much of the specialization of small island tourism ecosystems, today’s tourism is fashioned largely by forces of demand, divergence, and depth. While specialized tourism ecosystems may have been beneficial in the early embryonic stages of evolution, it turns out to conspire against the resilience and flux of tourism ecosystems due to systemic inertia and the lack of capabilities to co-adapt in an integrated and transformative fashion to the post-pandemic rapids. Ironically, pursuing past growth policies for sustaining tourism increasingly diminish the vitality and value of small island tourism ecosystems, particularly as they expend the very nature of their island ecosystem.

More importantly, beyond demand, today’s travelers are significantly divergent from previous generations, as they seek new experiences to venture, rather than commodities to visit. Although perhaps subtle, and oftentimes disregarded, the divergence from ‘visiting’ towards ‘venturing’ testifies to a clear and present value shift in experiential travel, in which deep engagement takes center stage. Tourism engagement emphasizes the emotional qualities of personal values and the meaning for travel.

In addition to the flux of tourism ecosystems, this value shift underscores the increasing and profound presence of flow in small island tourism ecosystems. This flow describes the emotions of personal involvement, feelings of novelty and pleasure, authentic immersion in time and (social) space, with a keen sense of comfort and control, be it physical, emotional, or financial. With a new generation of digitally-affluent travelers seeking authentic experiences, it is no surprise that small island tourism destinations are facing boundary-shifting disruptions, including the disintermediation of traditional accommodations, the disenchantment with costs and crowding, and the desire for deep engagement and experiential intimacy.

If once upon a time it was enough to simply count the heads-inbeds, in today’s dynamic tourism ecosystems, small island tourism destinations seek to not only count, but also more importantly, connect and engage travelers not from the head, but from the heart. Unlike traditional tourism growth, over the past decade, experiences and values have become the new mantra of experiential tourism. Small island tourism societies are increasingly diving deeper into satisfying these intricate demands and cater to the experiential needs of a new generation of travelers. Whether scenic or social, creative, or culturally, the new traveler is keen on emerging in unique authenticity.

As small island tourism societies venture deeper into these unfolding post-pandemic realities, they face considerable uncertainty, volatility, and ambiguity, which will require nothing less than an equally tectonic shift in not only sustaining tourism, but more importantly, transforming future tourism ecosystems. Rather than simply bounce back onto an existing, beaten path, tourism ecosystems are co-adapting and bouncing forward in new pathways. Moreover, as affluence begets authenticity, so does authenticity command agility on the part of tourism ecosystems. In effect, small island tourism societies are experiencing the pressures to re-experiment and re-invent tourism, without relying on, and resorting to past policies and practices.

The quest at hand is not merely a balancing of existing and future social, economic, and ecological stakes, but more importantly, how small island tourism societies transcend these traditional boundaries and transactional tradeoffs, in order to transform tourism ecosystems in an inclusive and innovative fashion. Hence, the acclaimed trinity of economic, social, and ecological developments is transitory, if tourism governance and transformative leadership are not considered integrally and intrinsically. Without shared values, ethics, and integrity, sustainable small island tourism remains flawed in conceptualization, futile in execution, and fleeting in sustainability. In a culture of crusading disciplines, drowned in disjointed policies and drifting politics, creative deconstruction and transformative leadership of small island tourism is thus not only necessary it is imperative for shared prosperity and resiliency in a post-pandemic economy.