Tourism Development in Anguilla

Anguilla is a Caribbean island microstate that has undergone dramatic tourism growth, passing through the early stages of Butler's tourist cycle model to the ‘development’ stage. This pattern is related to deliberate government policy and planning decisions, including a policy of not having a limit to tourism growth. The resulting economic dependence on tourism has led to positive economic benefits (e.g., high GDP per capita, low unemployment, and significant local involvement in the industry). Significant further growth in tourism, however, could lead to considerable environmental stress in both biophysical (e.g., water, sewage, electricity) and social (e.g., expatriate labour, foreign ownership) terms. In order to avoid such problems associated with a path toward mass tourism even on a small scale, the government should adjust its tourism policy and planning to create a ‘consolidation’ stage that would prepare this fragile island system for a ‘stabilization’ stage of little or modest growth.