SEAMA2024
　Islands Tourism & Hospitality Management

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2023 is recognized as the first year for tourism recovery after the long-running closures stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Islands, to a large degree, bore the brunt of the downturn in tourism, and those that maintained a heavy dependency on tourism, were most impacted. For example, the Okinawa Islands, part of the Ryukyu Islands group was especially isolated during the pandemic, and for an extended period afterwards, as the Japanese government maintained a strict hold on border closures, extending this far longer than most countries in the region, with the exception of China.

The reappearance of tourists to these islands have returned the islands to some amount of normalcy as compromised livelihoods have now reached a welcomed steady state. The return of tourists has also given islands the same vibrancy as they had before the pandemic, and the economic implications has given islanders a new lease on life, beyond the precriousness that loomed large not too long ago.

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The so-called new normal and what that would look like is also something that has preoccupied administrators of islands, and where tourism is prominent, just how this will transform islands as destinations and places to live, is an ongoing deliberation. For example, the influx of digital nomads to islands across the globe, while welcomed early on, is increasingly becoming problematic as their presence has introduced unintended and adverse consequences for island residents.

In particular, this conference wishes to home in on the myriad ways that islander wellbeing and human flourishing are being transformed, and how tourism and the wider visitor economy can be harnessed to ensure that islander wellbeing and flourishing concerns can be prioritised. Some of the questions posed include (but not exclusive):

• How has the hospitality that people visiting islands look for and expect changed?

• Have the lives of islanders changed and what specific ways is this manifest and characterised?

• Are islands now more able to withstand external shocks that udnerline their vulenrability to change?

• Have wellbeing and human flourishing concerns on islands changed after the pandemic experience?

• Have inbound and outbound migration patterns changed since the pandemic?

• Has there been an evident change in the social and economic backdrop of islands?

Before the pandemic, problems of overtourism were being reported as popular tourist destinations around the world were inundated with tourists – these include Bali, Boracay, Mallorca and Ibiza, amng others. Indeed, the large number of tourists visiting islands underpins the economic development of islands, however, the trade-off often includes adverse social and environmental costs. Herein lies the paradox of islands that rely largely on tourism for their economic independence. How to balance the economic development of islands, while protetcing the wellbeing of islanders and allowing them to flourish, will help the realization of happiness on islands.