Search the SPREP Catalogue

COVID-19 brought an abrupt end to buoyant cruise ship tourism, and the closure of national borders led to the demise of island tourism. Typically, in Vanuatu and Samoa, resorts, restaurants, and other components of the formal and informal sectors closed down. Much employment was lost (especially of women), creating development problems at every level, alongside a reversion to self-reliance, raising questions over the future of tourism industries and national and island economies.

From around the time of independence, mostly in the 1970s, the coastal zones of most Pacific states have experienced changes in land use, from being primarily agricultural to becoming increasingly urban and tourism orientated. This ‘coastal squeeze’ has led to a concentration of infrastructure and wealth in low lying coastal areas, prone to multiple natural hazards, the impacts of which are exacerbated by climate change.

PACC reports

Reports from the PACC project

Technical report