Serving sustainable island tourism : hot or cold?

My thanks to Lino Briguglio for inviting me to the sustainable island tourism conference held in Malta in May 2006, to Jerome McElroy for generous research support (including the compilation of Table 1), and to Graham M.S. Dann for critical comments on an earlier draft.Not sun, sea, sand but ice, isolation, indigenous people: the critical exploration of extreme tourism in cold water locations has barely started. Yet, the practices of the industry and ensuing reflections already provide insights towards a more sustainable form of island tourism, dramatically different from what is experienced on the warm, tropical and exotic island stereotype. This paper critically reviews some of the salient contrasts between the 'hot' and 'cold' versions of island tourism, concluding that, from a sustainability perspective, cold water islands are really 'cool' - but perhaps for reasons that can be copied by warm water destinations.peer-reviewe