Autor/a

Naomi Álvarez Waló (Universidad de La Laguna)

Coautor/es

Raúl Hernández Martín (SIN ORGANIZACIÓN ASIGNADA)

The prospect of developing an oil drilling industry close to the coast of the Canary Islands has opened a major social debate. On the one hand, the oil industry may generate some positive impacts on income and employment while, on the other hand, this industry may affect the image of such a world leading tourism destination. Moreover, the prospect of an accident is a major concern.

Management and impact of tourism crises and risks is a field of increasing interest in the tourism literature (Ritchie et al., 2014). Indeed, tourism is very sensitive to the impacts of terrorism, natural disasters, contagious diseases, economic recession, etc. (Hall, 2010). Among these risks, oil extraction and transport emerges as an important issue in tourism, particularly after the disaster of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Caribbean (Crotts & Mazanec, 2013). Islands destinations are considered environmentally and socially vulnerable places (Scheyvens & Momsen, 2008), which poses the potential risks related to oil activities in the forefront of the tourism management agenda.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the channels of economic impact of oil spills in island coastal tourism destinations.  We undertake an exhaustive literature review on impacts of oil spills worldwide to provide a taxonomy of oil spills impacts in the particular case of small tourism islands. Main findings indicate that limited accessibility and fragmentation of the territory along with the scarcity of the basic resource endowment - such as potable water - increase the risk faced by this type of destinations.

Crotts, J. C. and Mazanec, J. A. (2013). Diagnosing the impact of an event on hotel demand: The case of the BP oil spill. Tourism Management Perspectives, 8:60-67.

Hall, C. M. (2010). Crisis events in tourism: subjects of crisis in tourism. Current Issues in Tourism, 13(5):401–417.

Ritchie, B. W., Crotts, J. C., Zehrer, A., and Volsky, G. T. (2014). Understanding the effects of a tourism crisis. Journal of Travel Research, 53(1):12–25.

Scheyvens, R., & Momsen, J. (2008). Tourism in small island states: From vulnerability to strengths. Journal of sustainable tourism, 16(5), 491-510.  

Palabras clave: oil spills, risks, island destinations