Abstract
Although Vanuatu experienced no domestic COVID-19 cases in 2020, preventive border closures resulted in the sudden downturn of Vanuatu’s tourism industry, and the closure of many tourism-oriented businesses. Employment experienced a parallel downturn, in both the formal and informal sectors, despite creative efforts at gaining employment. This necessitated a rapid policy shift by the Government directed towards domestic tourism with some limited success. Longer term redevelopment of tourism focused on COVID-safe business readiness and an emergent theme of greater public-private coalition-building to accelerate national economic recovery efforts, including through a reimagining of the industry to cope with the ‘new normal’.
Keywords
- Vanuatu
- Tourism
- Governance
- Management
- Public-private partnerships
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Naupa, A., Mecartney, S., Pechan, L., Howlett, N. (2021). An Industry in Crisis: How Vanuatu’s Tourism Sector Is Seeking Economic Recovery. In: Campbell, Y., Connell, J. (eds) COVID in the Islands: A comparative perspective on the Caribbean and the Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5285-1_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5285-1_13
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