News Releases

UWI lecturer co-edits new book on Island Tourism Sustainability and Resiliency

For Release Upon Receipt - March 23, 2022

UWI


The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica W.I. Wednesday, 23 March 2022. — Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management at the Mona School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Dr.  Michelle McLeod is the first editor of a new publication on Tourism, Resilience and Sustainability. The book, titled: ‘Island Tourism Sustainability and Resiliency’ is published by Routledge Taylor and Francis Group and will be available next month. 

It explores the sustainability and resiliency of island tourism within the context of life cycles, system decline and resilience, drawing from multiple examples across the world. It also contains research that contextualises challenges to tourism development in Small Island Developing States (SIDS); addresses key matters to ongoing sustainability and resilience and provides a road map to innovate for transformation within the sector, to build resilience and sustainability. 

A subject matter expert on The UWI COVID-19 Task Force in Tourism, Dr. McLeod’s experience in the tourism industry spans over thirty years as a tourism professional and academic. Her research focus is on tourism in islands. 

Commenting in the publication Dr. McLeod noted: “The book's significance rests in the quality of the research studies included and a perspective about island tourism as a field of study in its own right. Islands are natural tourism destinations and therefore island tourism as a field has to be properly researched and that research effectively disseminated. The book will provide insights to policymakers, planners and managers of island tourism destinations like never before”. 

As island tourism destinations continue on a path of tourism recovery post-pandemic, Dr. McLeod points to the fact that many lessons could be learned, and that the book reveals strategies and practices to assist island destinations in a recovery process. Islands whose economies depend heavily on tourism have been among the hardest hit by the challenging economic circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic; regaining solid performance in the tourism sector has to be supported by sound research and analysis—that this book provides. 

The other co-editors are Professor and Consultant Dr. Rachel Dodds, Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada and Professor Richard Butler, Emeritus Professor in Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.

The chapters in the book were first published in the journal “Tourism Geographies”. 

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A copy of Island Tourism Sustainability and Resiliency edited by Michelle McLeod, Rachel Dodds and Richard Butler can be accessed here.  

About The University of the West Indies

The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region.

From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Open Campus, and 10 global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world.

The UWI has been consistently ranked among the top universities globally by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education (THE). In the latest World University Rankings 2022, released in September 2021, The UWI moved up an impressive 94 places from last year. In the current global field of some 30,000 universities and elite research institutes, The UWI stands among the top 1.5%.

The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists since its debut in the rankings in 2018. In addition to its leading position in the Caribbean, it is also in the top 20 for Latin America and the Caribbean and the top 100 global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old).  The UWI is also featured among the leading universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action.

For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

 

 

 

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