Climate change adaptation for tourism in the Pacific: analysing the policy environment in Fiji

Tourism is the largest export sector and a major employer for most Pacific\ud Island countries including Fiji. Pacific tourism is highly vulnerable to\ud climate change impacts due to its close connections to the environment and\ud climate itself. This paper evaluates the conduciveness of Fiji’s policy\ud environment for tourism adaptation to climate change by analysing how its\ud policies (both explicit and implicit) in climate change, tourism,\ud environmental and disaster management address tourism adaptation types\ud (technical, business management, behavioural, policy, and research and\ud education) as well as characteristics of Small Island Developing States\ud (SIDS) that make them especially vulnerable to climate change. The paper\ud concludes that Fiji does provide a reasonably conducive policy\ud environment for its tourism to adapt but some important adaptation issues\ud still remain as policy gaps. Based on these identified policy gaps, the paper makes a number of recommendations for Fiji to further develop its tourism\ud adaptation policies and strategies