The Last Resort                        Aug 2022 Click square for index August is a holiday month and in today’s world holidays can make us think of a beach resort. Has it always been so? Is it for rich Westerners? Where? What is the effect on the local population and on the planet? Sarah Stodola wrote about this in The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit and Peril at the Beach, Harper Collins, 2022. The book is a mixture of stories of the author’s trips to famous resorts, a history of resorts, an account of ecological problems of resorts and an account of the climate challenge which threatens many beach resorts and to which the problems of resorts contribute. Prologue introduces the coveted 82F, breeze, palm trees, sun-dappled shade, lounge chairs, pina coladas and lapping waves. Mentioning that now brings envy but loving a beach is not an innate human characteristic. The sea and beach attracted little interest before the 18th century when aristocrats drank the water and bathed in the sea for their health. Now, two centuries later, the beach resort is a huge global industry with negative impacts on the environment and the climate crisis. The author’s recent travels to beaches were taken with her surfer boyfriend. She published travel journalism and that created a desire to do a critical overview. The sun and a swim are good, but the sanitised bubbles of resorts can be more disquieting than relaxing. Locals can be seriously affected by the arrival of beach tourism and remote villages utterly changed. Resorts may fight to preserve their bit of eroding shoreline but their behaviour makes an unsustainable carbon footprint. The book aims for a critical look at the resort industry. Visiting the locations means the authors adds to that carbon footprint. The Last Resort implies an end to beach resort vacations – as happened at Baiae, the ancient oceanside escape of Roman elite. But the final demise might not be in our lifetimes. Chapter 1 I’m Never coming Home: Thailand and England. In 2009 the author found Railay, a small peninsula in Thailand’s Andaman Sea. Thailand is good for first Asia trips and for solo women. Access requires a half hour on a wooden long-tail boat. Railay East is for transportation, but the magnificent Railay West beach has white sand flanked by limestone cliffs. The major Rayavadee Resort is an easy walk from the best beach: Phra Nang. The author enjoyed a morning swim and an evening swim in waters that are bioluminescent past dusk. She went on to the eastern islands, enjoyed a snorkeling trip ending on an empty sandbar. Here she was emersed in the glorious sunset. Then giant bats rose in hundreds from a nearby larger island. Think of the power of the word “beach” to evoke “happy place” or “contentment” going far beyond a beach. Author Zadie Smith has said she cannot “find her beach” at an actual beach, but Stodola claims she found her beach in Railay. It became her yardstick. People have seen the sea in various ways. The classical period knew nothing about an attraction of the sea. The Bible saw waters as representing chaos or as an agent of destruction, as in the Noah’s Ark tale. Europeans became more confident as they travelled the sea.  Daniel Defoe’s 1719 extremely popular Robinson Crusoe has a shipwrecked sailor survive for years on an island, and he enjoys a happy ending. The sea was part of the Romantic Era’s search for the sublime in nature. Art makes the sea a place for contemplation or self-improvement. Today’s view of ocean is different but movies like Jaws show a residual fear. The 2000 film The Beach sees the beach as a utopia that becomes a nightmare. But tales are no match for the real devastation the ocean can bring: the tsunami; sunny day flooding; and sea level rise. We find “our beach” only when the ocean is friendly. The infinity pool overlooking the beach is better. One observes nature from a safe distance. Mimicking nature seems to be the concept of the resort. Paradise is not nature. It is nature conquered. The sea remains inscrutable, infinity. We haven’t conquered the sea. The resort has its own story. It began with English upper classes. They had spa towns as early as 1500. Spa trips were so successful that a doctor visited a mineral spring at Scarborough UK and promoted it. Scarborough became a seaside resort, with the ocean incidental. Then the doctor promoted the nearby ocean as a feature of the spa. It took hold. A visitor to Brighthelmstone, now Brighton UK since about the 17th century, described a resort routine. There was a morning sea bathe, fish buying, viewing the remains of Saxon camps, counting the ships and the boats trawling. A book advertised the medicinal value of bathing, drinking and washing eyes in seawater, and people began taking to the beaches for their health. Initially hotels put a priority on creating a closed atmosphere for polite society, but as the infinity of the sea took hold, hotels reoriented to face the sea. The beach settled into the ideal – giving rise to novels like Death in Venice. Paradise has a varied story. It was a garden to the Persians and a Garden of Eden to the Christians. There was no beach or sea. The sea came in the 20th century. Now it is far away in another country, with white sand and turquoise water. Visitors have to feel alone and that it is theirs – perfect for the newly married. There are fine beaches like Octopus in Fiji’s Yasawa Islands with steps to the sand, sea and a coral reef. And there’s Railay in Thailand. Like paradise, all are hard to get to. When one arrives, paradise should recall a simpler life without rush-hour traffic. But for locals of such a “paradise”, the infant mortality rate or suppression of women’s rights or widespread starvation during drought is unchanged. Paradise is only paradise for those with insurance that includes medevac. In childhood a beach and ocean can be a mythical world where movie actors emerge as mermaids. For young adults, a Northern winter may encourage some to head south to Miami Beach. On a beach people send photos or take selfies, read books, tan (against medical advice) and get hungry or bored. Dreams of paradise hit reality. The breeze is a cold wind and there are clouds. That reality is fast forgotten on return home and a global industry rolls on with the romanticized version of the beach intact. Chapter 2 Where all Passions Combine: Monte Carlo, the Jersey Shore and Cap d’Antibes. In the mid 19th century the tiny principality of Monte Carlo was close to broke. The American Princess Caroline, wife of Prince Florestan of Monaco, figured a way out. She copied the German spa town of Bad Homberg – extravagant welcoming bands with money maker gambling tables. Gambling was illegal around Monaco. Florestan legalized it. Mediterranean towns used their weather to develop a wellness industry for northern Europe. Monaco copied that too with a bathing facility. It struggled until 1863 when the impresario from Bad Homberg took over the managing. A grand hotel went in next to the Casino, a second level at the bathing house added another hotel. Roads and harbour were improved. Advertising was increased, and in 1864 a train stop at Monte Carlo was added on the line from Paris to Nice. Some 30,000 people at the resort became 170,000 people and 345,000 visited the casino. The New York Times wrote about Monte Carlo. It provided a template for the French Riviera – a place for high living and a “sunny place for shady people”. Meanwhile the sea level was rising from the coal use and the CO2 production. Before Monte Carlo there was the Grand Tour for the elite classes, travel to spas and health resorts. Now came the hedonistic beach resort. In Monaco today mortals watch the deluxe cars arrive, the rich entering the hotel, and those sitting glowing in wealth at the Café de Paris. The original beach is now a marina for yachts. The “cures” have gone. A tiny artificial sand beach is for pleasure. Countries try to copy this. Atlantic City turned to gambling in the 1970s, combining it with seaside activities. Monaco abolished income tax to lure the super-rich and so did Cayman Islands, Mauritius, Bermuda, Bahamas and the state of Florida. While the British seaside resorts were domestic, the new resorts are international, with Convention Centres from Miami Beach to Cannes. The Jersey Shore. In the early 19th century, citizens of New York and Philadelphia sweltered in the summer heat, whereas Cape May enjoyed sea breezes where the Atlantic met the Delaware Bay. Rooming houses there offered an escape from the heat. After 1812 came the Atlantic Hotel, then the Big House offered boarding for 100 people. Its luxury increased after the ferry started running from Philadelphia in 1825. In 1853 the hotel became Congress Hall with a capacity for 800. Other hotels followed, like the Mount Vernon with a capacity of 3,500. The beach, breeze, comfort and culture became a desirable summer resort. Further up the shore beach houses were built at what would become Long Branch at the end of the 18th century. A ferry from Manhattan begun in 1828 allowed city dwellers to take some rest on the 5 miles of beach there. The health resort gave way to a livelier setting and bigger hotels when the 1870 Thoroughbred Racetrack arrived. Up the coast Bostonians established boarding houses for cooling on Nahant Island. The Nahant Hotel opened in 1823 for 600 guests. It burned in 1861, but by then a beach resort culture had grown along the New England coast, with hotels for every type except for people of colour. Blacks established their own resorts in the next century, especially in the south because land was not easily available to blacks in the north. Cape May today has quaintness from the collection of Victorian style houses with colourful trim, picket fences and front porches – a legacy of the rebuilding of the town following a fire. Then came the town’s loss of favour since 1950. Congress Hall is still there. Long Branch declined in the 1920s after its racetrack closed. The northern end of the town (of Cape May?) has an oceanfront park named after the 7 US presidents who have summered there. (Must be a long name!!) Ocean City has beaches, beach houses, boardwalks and amusement parks. The sheer number of towns with summer house blocks along the coast is impressive. The casinos rise above Atlantic City but the sand dunes placed in 2004 to protect the boardwalk from storms block the view of the ocean, separating the town from the ocean. Cape D’Antibes. The Hotel du Cap Eden Roc is at the tip of Cap d’Antibes between Nice and Cannes on the French Riviera. The hotel is 200 yds from the shore – the 19th century distance. The sun beats down with no awning. Here a few rich Americans brought the Jersey Shore summer version of a holiday to Europe and remade the health resorts of the Mediterranean. In 1922 the wealthy American Murphys came here after Paris. The cape was deserted because Europeans came in winter and left when it got hotter. The Murphys purchased a villa there and persuaded the owner to keep the hotel open past May 1st for them while their villa was being renovated. Later, the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald joined them and also bought a place. They cleared the tiny La Garoupe beach of seaweed. Picasso and the Countess of Beaumont were featured staying there, in Kodak camera pictures infused with an Alice in Wonderland quality. The activities likely promoted the French Riviera as the place for people with whimsy. A few Riviera resorts did have summer seasons for those trading stifling city heat at home for sea breezes, but these retained the health and good behaviour notion. With leisure and suntans the La Garoupe Beach seemed a place for frivolity – with USA cues. Today, La Garoupe is as small as ever and boldly covered with lounge chairs and tables from beach clubs and restaurants. There is little exposed sand. French Riviera beaches are rocky or tiny or both, or manufactured. Despite this, the Riviera is where today’s beach resort became an international phenomenon. It evolved as it went from England to France to America and back to France again. Beaches for health and convalescence are no more. The focus is leisure time. It can reshape an economy and catalyse globalisation. But ocean waters keep inching up the beach. Chapter 3, Among the Very Tall. Waikiki. A clogged freeway leads from the airport to Waikiki on Oahu Island, Hawaii. Its looming concrete and brick buildings give no sign of an ocean. The original Royal Hawaiian Hotel has maintained its original grounds since it opened in 1927 - its stucco façade against the blue of the sky, white sands and long slope to the bay. The hotel tower and other hotel shore towers provide most of the Hawaii island’s 27,000 hotel rooms of its $18 billion tourism industry. The Royal, with the Sheraton and Hilton Hawaiian Village, is on the front line against rising seas. The beach is perpetually disappearing, but was artificial in the first place. In some areas the beach has gone – there is a sea wall. Before the 19th century Waikiki was a barrier island with wetlands separating it from mainland Oahu. Hawaiian royals and nobles celebrated its climate, excellent swimming, and waves for surfing with boards or canoes. In the 19th century adventurers came from the US with the first steamships. By 1866 a regular service between Honolulu and San Francisco had begun. Its mid-Pacific location made Hawaii a stopover for ships between America and Asia. A sugar industry became the main economic driver. The Americans toppled the monarchy in 1893 and the New York Times reported that the deposed Queen lived in a little place called Waikiki. The islands became US territory in 1900. Local businessmen planned tourism. The shipping line opened the first resort and the Royal Haitian Hotel. The beautiful grounds with green grass, palms and tropical foliage is only spoiled now by the other high rise hotels crowding the distant view. The 19th century invented the beach resort but the cultural phenomenon arrived in the 20th. A resort gave beach vacationers a taste of the exotic and a new way to experience leisure time that was an escape from the banalities of real life back home. Resorts were massive with hundreds of rooms and spaces for social events. Movie stars stayed. A new decadence brough hula shows, “beach boys” and “mahalo”, especially after WWII with a newly booming economy and paid vacation time for workers. When the Royal Haitian Hotel opened, the beach had suffered over-development. Big buildings close to the water interrupt the natural flow of sand so it washes away. In 1928 the beach disappointed those who expected the glamour poets had given the spot. It was a white crescent hardly a mile across and suffocated by the buildings of private owners. Walls or groins were needed to hold the sand. While that worked on one side of the groin, all sand left the other side. And groins crumbled. Natural coastal erosion does not take away beaches – it just moves them. In Waikiki the usual beach managers – governments, hotels, engineers – were complemented by surfers. Locals were surfing the waves before Americans discovered the place. Surfers became pioneers of beach tourism.  They explored unnoticed coastlines in search of their ideal “break”. Then they set up camp. The locals would offer services and leak the word about the place. This continues from Mexico to Indonesia. Waikiki still boasts the original wave breaks. Surfers are their guardians and act as a local political force opposing beach nourishment out of concern that additional sand will change the characteristics of the breaking waves. Also, the sand around Waikiki is unusual and there is not a lot of it. Surfers forced a reduction in the restoration of the Royal Hawaiian groin. From a tour boat at sea the high-rise skyline looks like a real city dwarfing the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. One can dine on a terrace watching happy beach goers in the perfect climate. No wonder Hawaiian royals chose to spend leisure time here. Initially, a stay at the Royal made it super-exclusive – pearls, diamonds, dances. That has changed. The global middle class of 3 billion is majority Asian and Indian. In 2017, a third of visitors to Hawaii came from outside the US, with 17% from Japan. The owners of the Royal Hawaiian and other large hotels are now Japanese companies. Sea level rise is underway as predicted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The rise is different in different locations and Waikiki will get more than the average rise. The risk of flooding from rain is also great. That explains why Hawaii was the first US state to write the Paris Agreement into law when Trump withdrew the US from the accord. Unless one pays, there is no escape from smothering crowds and the pressure to spend. It is tempting to say Waikiki is past peak tourism – but the full hotel rooms tell another story. It’s hard to believe the old pictures: two resorts, single family homes on Waikiki beach and untouched land beyond. Chapter 4. Into Far-Flung Places. Fiji. A fantastic beach on the southern coast of Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu, was where the Clark family started Fiji’s first beach hotel in 1949, now the long decayed Korolevu Beach Hotel. The family came from Britain when Fiji became a colony. At first they farmed, but shifted from agriculture to build a beach resort. At the time, tourism didn’t include beaches. The Union Steamship company built the Grand Pacific Hotel in the capitol, Suva. Cruise ships came into port by the 1930s. The later Korolevu Beach Hotel built by the Clarks featured bungalows or “bures” as well as a common building with bar and restaurant. In the ‘50s this represented Fiji’s future economy, a global wave of tourism to exotic locales in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Korolevu opened its own airstrip linking to the island’s main airports. Commercial overseas airline flights developed in the late 50s. Workers had paid holiday and unemployment was low. The arrival of air conditioning and medical developments for malaria and a vaccine for yellow fever made the tropics more attractive. Island nations turned to tourism. The Hotel Bora Bora opened on Bora Bora Island in 1961. Originally conceived of for places without grand beaches, overwater bungalows opened in Tahiti in the 60s. The Maldives, with 1,200 islands, opened its first resort in 1972. Tourism is now a huge global industry. In 1950 a global total of 25 million international arrivals at far flung beach resorts were recorded. By 2019 the number was 1.5 billion. The industry provides 1 in 10 jobs worldwide and 10% of GDP. The Korolevu was at the front of this exploding industry – boasting a global reputation amongst the jet set at its peak in the 1970s. It was the first to feature individual bungalows and made them look like a native village. The Clark family visited Waikiki and noticed hula dancers. They added displays of local Fiji war dances and fire walkers. Many beach resort gimmicks originated in Hawaii, like the cocktail umbrella and surfboard. But the Korolevu Beach Hotel closed in 1983 and the older Clarks were buried on a buff at the end of its bay. Traces of the resort remain in the tropical brush. The development of Waikiki was followed in Fiji. Unfortunately, some of the artificial changes were too, on Denarau Island, off the west coast of Viti Levu where Fiji tourism is now anchored. Upon arrival one receives a shell necklace and later there are indigenous dances but in costumes of synthetic material. The resort is built on swampy mangrove land. There is no beach. The mouth of the Nadi river keeps the seawater constantly muddy. A single road and gatehouse keep the people of Fiji out. No one who works there lives there. After the 1987 military coup, a Japanese investor bought the island with its two resorts and began a big expansion – hauling earth from a nearby mountain to fill the mangrove swamp and raise the elevation. An 18-hole golf course, a port and marina with a shopping area were added. Five hotels, many condos and individual villas were added. Now almost all tourist boats leave from Denarau. The feel is that of a planned community like Las Vegas. There is now a patch of sand with a tell-tale loose rock seawall holding it in place. The beach resorts are the only places with traditional thatched houses. The people of Fiji live in concrete homes. Fiji has been redefined by the resorts. Vatuolalai and the Naviti Resort Down the road from Korolevu is a more recent Finian resort in the standard format – golf course, big pool etc. Members of Vatuollai village further down the road own the land on which the resort is built. The relationship goes back to the early 70’s. Before the resort, Vatuollai was two indigenous clans coexisting as equals. One owned the oceanfront land with a thriving reef. It was used for fishing and for the crabs that fed from life on the reef. The other owned the land directly inland that was farmed for crops like taro and coconut. Hills and streams behind provided other needs. To the east was the ancestral beach for spirituality and leisure. Flora and fauna here served as totems. The beach was a turtle nesting ground, and the golden plover there was a totem bird. The two clans worked together as one community towards common ends. The Korolevu was a rare example of freehold land. Developers signed a 99-year lease for the waterfront land and paid rental. Both clans got preferential employment at the new resort. The Polynesian chestnut, a totem tree, was cleared for site preparation. A seawall was built. Grass was planted. A beach resort opened in 1973. Turtle nesting became rare. Fiddler crabs that attracted the Golden Plover disappeared. Land changes caused silt at the mouth of the Nahala river and that prevented the totem trevally fish from swimming upstream to spawn. With rains, the silt spread into the bay and blocked the sunlight needed by the reef. The seawall caused the sand to creep away. That, as usual, created two sandbars off shore that grew into islands. The resort built a wall around one and planted grass and trees on both of them. Lounge chairs are on grass behind the sea wall because the sand is in short supply. One wonders why families would come from Australian beaches. Fiji is not cheap. But there is the resort pool crowded with Australian families. Meanwhile, the village changed. Before, the tribes were working together for the betterment of the community. After, each family was working for its own interests. The women worked at the resort and lost their women’s time together collecting up the river. Skills were lost. Initially the villagers supplied lobsters to the resort. By 1990 the fishing had dried up. Runoff from the resort and its golf course fertilized ocean algae that killed off some of the reef, diminishing seafood. By the late 80s a village generation had grown up next to the resort that did not miss the totems like the older generations. In 1993 a cyclone hit this coast, drowning livestock and crops. The foods traditionally relied upon had not been prepared and the villagers had to seek government handouts. In 1996 the resort built a concrete walkway to one of the new islands. It inhibited natural tidal flows, damaged the remaining reef and drove fish populations further out to sea. Traditional fishing techniques were no longer viable. In 1998, the villagers were watching the last turtle nesting. A dam built on the river to supply the resort with water led to the near disappearance of the once-abundant freshwater prawns. The younger villagers stopped learning their traditional dances. Other dances popular with tourists are now passed down for entertainment. Now 92% of the villagers are involved in tourism. They get their rent for the land and they get paid for work at $90 a week. This is above minimum wage. Diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems have skyrocketed. Happily, there is now fairly advanced healthcare. Villages run modest businesses for tourists. Some villagers go to school in the capital. One or two graduated from university. But they are no longer self-sufficient – even for doing their own weddings! Chapter 5. New Frontiers Precarious Business. Nicaragua and Senegal. The talk was that Nicaragua would be like Costa Rica but 10 years later. Costa Rica had grown very popular. Nicaragua had little development. Yet Costa Rica has had a democracy for the latter half of the 20th century with tourism taking off in the 1980s. Nicaragua only recently attained a modicum of political stability. Yet it boasts endless beaches, a swell for surfers, a friendly climate and a lot more for the dollar. By 2013 it seemed things were taking off. The founding of Maderas Village Resort in 2011 played a role in that. Nicaragua had had the Somoza dictatorship of 1937. The Sandinistas seized power in 1979. Then there was a kind of civil war with guerilla groups, contras. The Sandinistas created the first beach resort - Montelimar, about an hour by car from Managua. In 1990, Ortega and the Sandinistas lost the election, ending the war with the contras and leaving Nicaragua in poor economic shape. In 1997 an attempt was made to promote tourism, but it was a difficult. The group buying the land to make Maderas Village had to sue for a road and face local demands for protection payments. The group followed government guidelines like sustainable materials and an eco-septic system. They attracted people ready to pay, hired a lot of staff and opened Christmas 2011. Other resorts were not far behind and small hotels were arriving. But Maderas Village attracted “cool kids” and its yoga studio attracted urbanites. In 2015 it added a recording studio. Then the general world view became less positive. The author visited San Juan del Sur – her first time in Nicaragua – for New Year’s Eve in 2017. The Playa Hermosa, a shorefront eco-lodge out of town, was enchanting but without a ceiling fan was stifling. Maderas Village minimized frustrations by well-paid staff willing to go the extra mile. Tourism increased to 12.7% of the economy in 2018. Ortega had regained the presidency in 2006. His authoritarianism was tolerated as social programs grew 2013-2017, but the economy was propped up by aid from Venezuela that disappeared. The Nicaraguan economy fell, pensions were cut, taxes raised, protests brutally cracked down on. In 2019, Maderas Village was closed by political instability. High end tourists were gone. Then came Covid19 lockdowns. Maderas was rented to a circus school which became trapped there. The damage was done. Tourism is vulnerable when things get hairy in the country. After terrorist attacks on Tunisia’s coast, tourism plummeted.  The Dominican Republic had the same experience from a mysterious sickness at resorts in 2019. Mexico and Greece experienced the same things from cartel violence and debt crises. Regaining the confidence of foreigners is hard. Even a Maderas Village believer in Nicaragua moved to Panama. Senegal Senegal is a 7 hour flight from JFK airport New York, boasts 330 miles of Atlantic coastline, a 5-star resort, and wants to boost tourism. Beaches are plentiful, many are beautiful and some come with good surfing. The country wants tourists, but they haven’t come. It has a stable political environment where elections lead to transfers of power. But a government needs infrastructure and communications for a tourism industry to grow. A Club Med development from the 70’s is still there. The beach is attractive, the pool empty and dusty and far from Sheraton status. Immediately after independence hotels arrived in Dakar, Hotel Nigar arrived near the great surf waves around Nigor Beach. Club Med came near Dakar and then opened another Club Med southern resort in Casamance. Things peaked in the 1980s, making Senegal second to Kenya for tourists in Africa. A separatist movement in Casamance around 1982 deterred tourists, but Saly, south of Dakar, was designated as a beach vacation alternative. Saly remains the primary beach vacation zone. Lack of government support, planning and regulation trickled down affecting beaches and hotels. Luxury properties became worn out. There is a new airport, and transport to the Saly beach area is 45 min. Stodola found the Le Lamantin to be clean, well landscaped, with excellent food and daily raking of the beach. The pool was good and the thatched roof over the reception was fresh. One could stroll along the beach, even if other hotels were not doing as well. When the new president in 2012 put a priority on tourism, the Saly beaches were in decline and that meant the fishermen couldn’t fish. A plan emerged in 2014 with policies favouring investors and visitors – like visas on arrival. A 2017 World Bank loan led to a 2018 – 2021 project to improve the beaches with breakwaters that are good for swimmers and fishermen’s boats. Senegal aims for high end cultural and eco-tourism in which beach resorts are one part of a wider whole. Training for tourism jobs is important. Such jobs call for language, service and technological skills. And Senegal needs to market itself, as the 2014 plan acknowledges. The plan also wants digitization of a huge range of things to allow modern tools like credit cards. At present, payment in cash is required. Travel in the country is costly and there are no app-based services like Uber for travellers. Hiring a car plus driver is the only comfortable way to get around. That flight from New York to Dakar is double the cost of the same distance flight from New York to Paris, and the Senegal government has $139 in taxes compared to the French $67.50. A study showed that aviation policy liberalization would decrease fares to African countries 25-30% while traffic would increase 80%. A café owner at Malika Surf Camp tells of problems starting her café. Nobody can tell you what you have to do and they tell you to come tomorrow which means you have to pay but you can smile and wait – and it took 6 months. And there were views about a woman running a business. She also said finding surf instructors for the job was difficult because good English or French is necessary. Despite difficulties, this surf camp shows what one small business can do. It brought money and business to the area. There are now women selling fish and rice from tables, and a restaurant and another surf school and electricity have come. Yet the opportunity for beach tourism has been missed by a city surrounded on 3 sides by the Atlantic. Unwise development and overdevelopment have caused erosion. Nonetheless some opportunities remain. Nigor Island is a charming and beachy escape from the city. And the beach at Malika Surf Camp is sound. Dakar is a fashionable cosmopolitan city so that one can imagine something like a Miami beach vacation here. And north and south of Dakar opportunities for beach tourism abound. Air Senegal started flights from New York to Dakar and roads in Senegal have been improving. Club Med opened in Casamance in 2010, and in 2016 France lifted its advisory against travel there. Around Saly Club Med is building a resort and the Spanish RIU is building new hotel rooms on Pointe Sarene. Maybe the new focus will create something more permanent. Chapter 6. Paradise Lost (to Overdevelopment). Tulum, Ibiza, and Cancun. Tulum, in Mexico, consists of flimsy thatched buildings blending with the jungle. The exchange rate is bad, the ATMs give only US dollars, there are no hair-dryers, the toilets can’t handle paper. The costs are high, so $500 a night does not guarantee non-brackish water or air-conditioning. The beach is breathtaking and there’s yoga and vegan food. This is an “eco-resort” using diesel generators for power with waste seeping into Yucatan’s underground river system and fresh water supply. This is a Western culture blending hippie, hipster, yogi and foodie and people willing to spend on that. Butler in 1980 published an article about tourist area cycle evolution that fits the development at Tulum. 1. Exploration - a few visitors for natural beauty or cultural interest, no facilities and no easy transport. Visitors link to the local culture. 2. Involvement: locals offer services and accommodation for travellers. Visitors and locals interact. 3. Development: marketing and advertising becomes common, local involvement drops, some local facilities disappear, larger and elaborate and up-to-date facilities appear (the Hilton). Visitors skew to honeymooners and families. 4. Consolidation: visitor numbers surpass the local population, tourism drives the local economy, beginnings of local restlessness, and repeat visitors remember a better place. 5. Stagnation - maximum visitor numbers with environmental, social and economic problems now present, “the area will have a well-established image but will no longer be in fashion”. 6. Decline: competition from newer areas, locals participating in what’s left and tourists consider it for short easy trips. For some areas “rejuvenation” can begin at some point, usually with a major pivot – like spa towns in the European Alps that turned to skiers. Today, Tulum is at “Consolidation” or stage 4. There are well over 100 hotels on the beach, mostly owned by foreigners. A land ownership issue has kept away big chains. Regarding problems, the eco-friendly image is at risk without a good sewer system and places to dispose of the waste. Some hotels have creative wetlands – but these require a lot of care. What ends up in the underground rivers gets diluted and distributed instead of concentrated and contained. Wastewater encourages Sargassum water weed that ends up on beaches. Roadside culinary and cocktail places dominate the road walk hiding the beach. There are no sidewalks. After dark there are no street lights because there is no electric grid power. Wristbands and Clublands arrived north of here. Playa del Carmen Tulum is a notch further along the development cycle. A wall of resorts lines the beach. Workmen work to clear sargassum weed. Sandbags hold the beach and sunbathers block access to swim. North of this is Cancun – with all-inclusive resorts, wristbands and clubs in the hotel zone built on a barrier island. The all-inclusive began in the 1930s UK when Billy Butlin opened a holiday camp on the coast 3 hrs from London. It had standardised offerings. Meals, activities and amenities were all included in a weekly rate. It was a success, so after WWII Butlin expanded to 10 camps. In a 1950 sequel, Gerard Blitz opened a budget tent village on Mallorca, an island in the Mediterranean, with shared bathroom facilities and meals together. This led to Club Med that opened at Salerno, Italy in 1954. It consisted of “villages” of grass huts instead of tents. By 1974 it was considered a haven of informality and escape for the young at heart. It subsequently moved to families and became synonymous with the all-inclusive resort. Despite visions of bad buffets, poor rooms and wristbands for the duration, by 1922 about 25% of warm weather vacations went to all-inclusive resorts (30% went to cruises). Between 2014 and 2019 major hotel chains introduced all-inclusive brands. Ibiza Meanwhile, on Mallorca, a new kind of beach vacationer goes for “party beach” resorts. The resort as nightclub makes the beach the recovery zone for hang-overs. Ibiza has brought nightclub space since the 80’s. It has shifted from clubs, DJs, drugs and foam parties into a new genre - the spray party. Es Paradis in San Antonio opens at 12 am so 1 am arrival is acceptable. The clientele boasts muscles, fake eyelashes and young, hard-drinking unruly tourists. The atmosphere is “northern British drinking”. There are English pubs, waitresses and signage. As mega clubs go, Es Paradis is fairly pleasant, but a world unto itself. Near 2 am, staff appear with giant paint guns which they unleash on the dance floor. (How will clubbers get this out of their clothes and how will the club clean up?) The paint glows under the black lights. The dancing can be pleasant! People come for this. They aren’t coming for the beautiful beaches out of town. And the model has emerged in other locations like Goa and Thailand. However, now the Ibiza clubs are losing business to the desert city of Las Vegas and not to a new shinier beach location! Starting in 1950s Florida, US college students started another type of beach party. An annual swim meet became a raucous week-long party as middle-class students came of age at “Spring Break” in Fort Lauderdale. By the 80s the “meet” centred on Daytona. By the late 1990s it had shifted to South Padre Island Texas and even Cancun. A significant focus is drinking. Like the Ibiza club, this is a sub-genre of the beach vacation. Cancun Cancun is a planned resort built on an unpopulated island that Mexico willed into a resort in 1970. The Yucatan Peninsula has ideal climate, relatively infrequent hurricanes and nearby labour. It was a poor region that could use an economic lift. The resorts were built in parallel with a mainland town for 10,000 workers with hospitals and schools included. A major airport was built. Today, the resort for 2.5 million gets double that and the mainland town houses 800,000. From its early days Cancun was overdeveloped, with 46 all-inclusive resorts listed on Expedia and multiple mega-nightclubs. These are all linked by a four-lane highway. There is the usual strip of retail and drinking establishments. Families dominate the all-inclusive resorts. Cancun is at the stagnation phase. Seawalls and the walls to hold in swimming pools have messed up the beach so that at high tide is only about 5 ft wide. Sargassum clogs the sand. Less known, the other victim of climate change is the offshore Mesoamerican Reef, the world’s second largest barrier reef. And hurricanes are becoming more common here. Chapter 7. A Global Juggernaut: Vietnam and Portugal. Oceanfront My An near Da Nang Vietnam sprung up to cater to foreigners in the last 5 years. Construction is on-going. With good wifi, My An hopes to attract people to work there for weeks or months. The beach runs 18 miles south to World Heritage site Hoi An. Resorts string along the 6-lane highway at this centre of Vietnamese tourism development. Foreigners come from new global middle class centres. High end resorts include Shilla Monogram, owned by South Koreans. The Crown Plaza and casino caters to Chinese. Other parts of the world have found the beaches. The Chinese middle class now numbers 700 million people who are curious about the world beyond their borders. In 1997 Chinese could travel abroad in controlled tour groups, by 2000 the middle class got paid time off for certain national holidays like Chinese New Year and National Day. In 2009 China dropped its tightest restrictions and other countries began easing visa requirements. By 2018, 150 million Chinese travelled abroad. And by 2019 they spent $255 billion on overseas travel. Their share of global tourism is projected to reach 30% by 2028. This gives them the power to remake the global tourism industry. India’s middle class is hot on the heels of China’s. And other countries are adding to the global middle class. As of 2016 3.2 billion humans had disposable income with which they could choose to travel. More humans are in the middle class than outside it. By 2030, this will have peaked. However, the portion of tourism that goes to the 7,000 beach resorts is not known. It is known that beachfronts average 129 rooms – bigger than the 92 for average hotels – so they employ more workers and have larger carbon footprints. Yet a search on Bookings for Florida found 419 beachfront and 712 beach access hotels, for Spain 285 and 596, for Thailand 778 beachfront and 1,254 beach access, totalling 2,500 for just 3 destinations. In 1986, post-war Vietnam adopted the Doi Moi program aimed at moving to a market economy and liberalising international trade. By the mid 1990s poverty was down and the US had lifted its trade embargo. The progress led to beginning a tourism market with the first resort for foreigners in 1995. By 2008 4 million foreigners visited. In 2015 the country of 10 million allowed foreign ownership of property “sending Vietnam off to the races”. By 2019 tourism accounted for 9% of Vietnam’s GDP. The most visitors come from China, about 4 million in 2017. This made it the 4th most visited destination for Chinese after Thailand, Japan and South Korea. Many of the Da Nang resorts would fit in in Cancun or Waikiki. And there are Condos and timeshares mixed in with the hotels. The government has been slow to mitigate threats to the 2,000-mile coastline that includes this beach. The threats are from developments and climate change. Near Hoi An, sandbags sit where beaches once hugged the coast. Seawalls have gone up haphazardly and unattractively. The dams on the Bon River hurt sand deposits that replenish the beach. So does illegal offshore sand mining. These have been compounded by worsening typhoons. The seminal luxury beach resort on the Central Vietnam coast, the Four Seasons Resort Hoi An, known as Nam Hai, is behind a forbidding perimeter wall. Inside, the grounds are lush and landscaped so as to look endless. The empty beach stretches into the distance. Most guests prefer the spectacular pool, but it can be hard to snag a chair. The Nam Hai was developed by Indochina Capital. It hired Singapore-based General Hotel Management Ltd. to manage it. This company has experience attracting guests from rich countries. The resort was made for Americans and built by Vietnamese. It is currently owned by entities in Singapore and Dubai and run by a company owned by an American billionaire and a Saudi prince. For a high-end resort this is fairly typical. Presently, most developers along the beach in Da Nang are domestic, but foreign investment is growing. Vietnamese companies dictate the direction of Da Nang beach tourism market. However, Nam Hai profits go back to the elite of urban centres of the country, bypassing the local community around the resort. As the industry shifts towards foreign entities, more money leaves the country entirely as “leakage”. Already Vietnam loses 27 cents on the dollar, better than the 47 cent Southeast Asia average, but still ¼ of the tourism revenue leaves the country. Much of that goes to international management companies. Until recently, even the management companies at Da Nang resorts were domestic. That is changing. The Four Season and Inter-Continental are joined by Pullman, Hyatt and Wyndham. All have management companies that charge steep fees. Often fees go on a base of gross revenues, not profits. So if Marriott opens in Vietnam, it is getting high fees even if the resort is not profitable and a chunk of money leaves Vietnam for Maryland, the headquarters. The agreements also pay incentive fees which pay a percentage of revenues when a certain level of profit is reached. In the Four Seasons case, those fees would go to the American billionaire and the Saudi prince. Chinese businesses like Huazhu Group are moving into the hotel industry with properties under Joya, Orange and Hanting brands. Initially in China, now expanding internationally and moving upscale, they have more than 5,000 hotels. (The world’s biggest hotel management company, Marriott, operates just over 6,500 hotels.) Since 2015 the Chinese company Fosun International has owned Club Med and Chinese are its 2nd biggest market after the French. For Vietnamese around Da Nang, getting a stake in their own beach tourism industry is a challenge. Locals don’t have strong ownership rights. Developers can make deals with local governments to get land cheaply and cut local independent tourism businesses out – like the owner of the Backpackers Hostel. At the same time, employment opportunities have helped people like the local who is now the manager of the Four Seasons. Millions of Chinese will expect their preferences catered to. Surveys suggest a priority on higher quality products and services like hotel luxury and cleanliness. These are preferences that have little to do with beaches. Thailand’s move to accommodate the Chinese includes cleanliness and Chinese immigration lanes at major airports. Thailand  is their most popular destination. Younger Chinese are now tending to go to less expensive and less commercialized places, and to go independently. The large groups of Chinese tourists were caused by early government control and few English speakers. Now there are Mandarin speaking staff, slippers in the rooms, hot water for tea and Chinese channels on the TV. Also, Chinese place more priority on sunshade rather than loungers in the sun. The Villa Laura in Estoril, Portugal was hit like all international tourism by the Covid pandemic of 2020. A free flow of people and currencies are needed for beach tourism and the country economies depending on it to flourish. Countries lost 15% (Mexico) to 50% (Maldives) of their GDP. Portugal enjoys 500 miles of Atlantic coastline. Villa Laura needs international travellers in order to be successful. In colonial days of the 16th and 17th centuries Portugal was one of the richest countries. A dictatorship of the 1920s led to Portugal’s having the lowest per capita income in Europe by 1974. During neutrality in WWII, European royals found refuge in Estoril, leaving a graciousness to the area of the hilltop Villa Laura that is also not far from the Estoril casino. It is a remnant of an era when tourism was for the rich. Beach tourism began in the 1960s with government encouragement. More recently, after the financial crisis of 2008, Portugal encouraged tourism, low-cost air carriers, foreign investment and overseas marketing. There is a surf break off Nazare. There is a direct Beijing - Lisbon flight. As of 2019, 20% of jobs in Portugal came from tourism. Covid hit badly. Portugal is now looking to diversify the economy and the tourism component within it, including promoting domestic tourism. And the drop in tourism added to challenges from climate change. Portugal is heating faster than the world average. In addition to rising seas, droughts and wet periods are becoming more extreme. The tourist season may split into two: a spring and early fall season. Golf courses and beaches will be less popular and the south too hot. Climate change is expected to promote internal and international migration and sentiments against international migration are growing. A country’s citizens may be encouraged to travel to places like Vietnam or Portugal when their currency is strong, but stay home when it is weak. Portugal has seen a rise of right-wing populism. Brexit has a cascading effect. The UK was Portugal’s largest source of tourists outside Spain. Portugal rightly noted that beach tourism and globalism is a tricky way to build up a GDP. Chapter 8. The Long Haul to the High End: Sumba (Indonesia) The beaches most sought after in an area are hardest to get to, and the clientele become bankers or honeymooners. The author writes of a private butler and guide at the Nihi Sumba Resort on Sumba, a remote island of 750,000 in the Lesser Sundas of Indonesia. Everything is masterful, vetted and special -- the world’s best. There are shoreline views from a mellow hilltop and sand to be the first to walk on in the morning. Bali has millions of tourists and some bargain prices. Nihi Sumba is accessed via Bali, but all but the excessively rich have been filtered out. In the Bali airport VIP lounge, a friendly person with forms for advance check in meets guests. The person will escort the guest to the gate. When the plane lands, another friendly young person is at the baggage claim. The resort has sent two cars to the airport, one to whisk the guest away to the resort, the other to bring the luggage. On the 90-minute drive, children run out to wave at the resort Jeep. The butler is waiting on arrival and there is immediate follow up on any casual mention of a guest’s interest such as a walk to see turtle hatchlings released. The cheap 2-storey villas are $2,200 per night. This includes meals and tax, but not drinks or activities, a main floor outdoor living room and an upstairs bedroom with deck, and fine mosquito netting. The yard is beautifully landscaped. The butler checks in on WhatsApp for activity plans such as horse riding. The guests come from around the world. Australia, USA, Hong Kong are represented on the author’s trip. The managing director explains how the resort runs on an island with few resources. Guests are demanding. There are typically 70-80 at a given time and 380 employees. The kitchen produces some 1,000 meals per day. Some food is sourced locally, tomatoes, fruit, chicken, eggs and fish. But Nihi Sumba doesn’t work without Bali as a resource. Bali supplies international foods, e.g. for cauliflower risotto. The resort doesn’t like the idea of the eco-resort, but it has made strides towards sustainability. It has its own water-bottling plant desalinating water on the property and putting it in reusable glass bottles. It is linked to the island’s power grid for most of its total electric supply. The government laid fibre optic cable that now provides a “green” internet. But the big problem remains. Guests come from afar. Long-haul flights cause more environmental damage than anything resorts do on the ground. This was an issue at the 2019 Asia Pacific Sustainable Tourism Conference in Thailand. Travelling releases carbon emissions and the industry needs sustainable modes of transportation. For Nihi Sumba, the round-trip flight from Los Angeles produces 5 metric tons of CO2 per passenger. The average American produces 16.5 tons of CO2 per year; the average Indonesian, 2.2. Travel accounts for about ¾ of tourism’s carbon emissions. Guests can offset their carbon emissions, but the problem belongs to the airlines. So far there is only biofuel and greater fuel efficiency. Some biofuels are better than others. Perhaps using resorts nearer to home would help! It's hard to image how the founders of the resort got here without the easy flights to the island. The couple from Seattle had a set of criteria, Nihi Sumba Resort’s location met the criteria, and they moved there in 1988. Their resort was formally opened in 2000 – about the time the island airport opened. It had its first season in 2005. In 2012 the owners sold to Chris Burch, ex-husband of fashion designer Tory Burch, and hotelier James McBride who upgraded the villas, enhanced amenities and implemented new offerings. The very rich here are not French Riviera rich. Here they take cues from start-up founders, not oligarchs. Clothing is simple. Everyone looking younger than they are. Despite that, it is a young crowd for such a pricey resort. There is sunset horse riding on the beach. There is a country hike to a spa.  In front of the hotel he surf has a break that is private. An outing of 6 from the resort goes to a local English school, answers questions then breaks into small groups for English exercises with the class of some 200. It is a program run by the Sumba Foundation which one of the founders and a guest got started. The idea was to give some of the profits to the community, but now guests are just invited to contribute to the Foundation. Many do. The Foundation runs projects including a malaria project that gives nets and treatment at 4 health clinics. There is provision of 3 lunches a week at 11 primary schools and there are well and water stations. Although Indonesia has initiatives to lift people out of poverty, Sumba remains one of the poorest areas. The Sumba Foundation has made a contribution. It is a model for what high end tourism can do in developing countries. Nihi Suma is the biggest taxpayer on the island. The almost 400 working for Nihi Suma have gone from $25 a month before the resort to some $500 a month now. Resorts like Nihi Suma have helped a move towards ultra-luxury resorts in low-income countries. It gives greater revenues with lower footprint. One problem is the finite number of wealthy guests! Not every location can expect to attract them. Independently-run resorts like this one tend to closer relationships with local communities than corporate-run resorts. Chapter 9. Beyond the Sea: Barbados and St. Kitts. Cobblers Cove, Barbados, is a central part of the industry powering the economy, dominating life and shaping the island’s personality. There is a romanticised Englishness in the colours, styles and afternoon tea. Villas on the water have their own property wall. During the 1990s sugar became less lucrative for Barbados as guaranteed pricing was removed and mega producers like Brazil moved in. After WWII the focus shifted to beach tourism and visitors took off. Barbados, now populated almost entirely by descendants of slaves, adapted early to being in the most tourism-dependent region of the world, allowing a newly independent country to remain one of the wealthiest islands of the Caribbean. It now finds itself on the forefront of economic, social and environmental realities for a country, once beach tourism becomes too big to fail. The industry accounts for 30% of the economy and 37% of the jobs. The shore road has the calm Caribbean waters just yards away, hidden by, on one side, villas and low-slung hotels that block any view; on the other side brightly coloured bungalows dominate. An uninhabited Barbados was settled by the English in the early 17th century. They cleared forest and planted tobacco, cotton and indigo. Landowners brought prisoners and indentured servants for labour. After turning to sugar crops in the 1650s they began importing slaves from West Africa, and plantation owners grew hugely wealthy while the rest suffered poverty and repression. There were 20,000 whites and 39,000 enslaved Africans in 1680 and the land owners comprised 1% of that white population. This did not change until 1834 when slavery was abolished. In general, the Caribbean was seen by Americans and Europeans as unhealthy before the 20th century. Inland hills were preferred and the shores were seen as particularly unhealthy. With its coastal breezes, Barbados was an exception, and as one of the richest Caribbean colonies, it had amenities to please an elite. The breezes are a bit fiercer on the Eastern side, but the air is seldom still and it is pleasant. After slavery, Blacks had little chance of improving their lot. Wealth was determined by the land ownership in the hands of the few plantation owners. Only in the 20th century were there changes. Jobs outside like building the Panama Canal allowed some money to be earned to make land ownership possible. An examination of views on tourism of Barbados citizens working in tourism was taken by an academic in 2003. Tourism was seen as a positive for the country at best and a necessary evil at worst. Concerns included the lack of access to their own beaches, the amount of land taken up by big golf courses and the taking of land where Blacks used to live for hotels, pushing Blacks inland. Even though tourist industry workers largely enjoyed their jobs, there was little opportunity for advancement. People planned to stay in those jobs until they could move to something more lucrative. An exception was a person who had reached the highest position at a major beach resort – a general manager. His job paid well. Despite that success, he didn’t see Barbados as doing enough to promote Black employees in a country where 90% of the population is Black. There is a shortage of qualified people in some areas, but in others like finance, owners favour hiring foreigners. Not enough is being done to encourage hiring locals. After 40 or 50 years, more local chefs should be executive chefs. It seems guests want local food, but the mostly British owners say guests don’t want local cuisine 7 days a week, and they bring in British and French chefs. Another comment was that people working in hotels are underpaid --especially given the profits that are being made. Many employees had experienced a racist guest, but added that mostly racism didn’t factor into their work environment. Someone felt the race issue was bigger in the USA. Another felt a double standard at high end resorts that would not bother about a white hobo, but would question a Black in a suit. Twenty years after the study there are changes and a Black female Bajan general manager for Cobblers Cove. The change is linked to resorts that have publicly made hiring Bajans a priority. But at lower levels concern with wage levels remains. So many aspire to starting their own business. The domination of white ownership of land and access to capital remains an issue, but the entrepreneurial spirit is “palpable” for smaller businesses like bars, restaurants and water activities. Locals mainly enjoy interacting with tourists and meeting people from other parts of the world. A minority--20%--are felt to give a condescending line, but not a racist one. Beaches by law are public, and hotels seem to restrict public access to beaches, but the locals feel they can get onto the beaches and do not feel unwelcome there. Still a Bajan managed to get ownership of an overgrown lot near a popular surf spot and made it into a public space providing sea views and sea access – it was a lot easier than using the treacherous stone public pathway. The result is in striking contrast to most places along shore roads which offer no sea view. Very few coastal properties are in local hands now. The Bajan wanted to give back a sea view to locals and visitors.  Spending time at a Barbados resort does not feel like a democratizing experience. Exclusive hotels have an Englishness and predominantly white foreign clientele that makes an uneasy contrast with slavery and colonialism. But tourism isn’t seen as neocolonialism given this is one of the few usable natural resources for income that pays for the roads and schools. And indeed tourism has funded a lot of infrastructure and social safety nets that Barbadians enjoy – the schools provide 99% literacy and University tuition is free for all those who qualify. There is unemployment insurance. A debate recurs about diversification of the economy. There are ongoing programs to manage the coastlines. Now the breakwaters, groins and walls are part of the landscape. Happily, Barbados is outside the core hurricane belt, but sadly it suffers some damage in the age of climate change – coral reef damage from boat collision and cruise ship discharges as well as from warmer waters. Barbados is the first stop for sargassum blooms coming from the Brazilian coast. Tourists’ excessive water consumption has caused scarcity of the drinkable tap water for locals. And there was a 2018 sewage leak leading to cancelled trips and closed businesses. Using sun and wind for energy could allow 100% energy self-sufficiency within a decade or so. Barbados might even become an exporter, which would diversify the economy somewhat. But as for tourism, the Bajans will say it just is. St Kitts This small Caribbean island is 15 miles south of St Martin in the Lesser Antilles chain. Some 35 years ago the southern end was largely empty, undeveloped and dry so that it was unsuitable for sugar. It is possible to drive to the top of Timothy Hill and view the Atlantic crashing on one side of the island and the Caribbean lapping the other. Beyond the last hill are beaches and the little island of Nevis. Now there is the massive Christopher Harbour development with its mega yacht marina, Park Hyatt resort, exclusive Pavilion Beach Club and an array of luxury homes and sites. A golf course is in the works. Tourism here is new. A dedicated cruise ship terminal opened in 1998. On Nevis, a Four Seasons opened in 1991. One can swim with locals, who are mainly Black, in front of the Timothy Beach Resort, the only locally owned resort on the island. They are dealing with erosion so there is no beach and the shore is held by boulders. This is a low-middle income island. Elsewhere practices seem to bar locals from tourist beaches and swimming. Across from the Resort is the Strip – a row of beach bars and food places. Here every type of person on the island mixes. Integration with locals is a distinctive delight of St Kitts. Tourists can feel they have gone somewhere. The government is aware it can do differently, learning from others. St Martin allowed mass tourism and ran into environmental and cultural challenges. Anguilla leaned into inaccessibility, opted out of the cruise ship circuit and has ended up with mainly luxury resorts and uncrowded beaches. St Kitts likes the Anguilla model – no mass tourism and no overdevelopment. Tourism has grown steadily and it has been good for local businesses like the Spice Mill that caters to both locals and tourists. The high end is helped by the Harbour Marina. A yacht captain for high-end sailors settled in St Kitts because of the non-segregation, and notes that yachts have much but lack a beach. Passengers come ashore for that – then they spend some. Things like fresh flowers can be in demand! The cruise ships do make a nod towards that mass tourism without requiring hotel beds. One snag from the high-end approach came when the Park Hyatt ultra-luxury resort provided the required beach access, but it was unmarked, difficult to find, near resort security guards and far from public parking. This happens at the beach by the Pavilion Beach Club. Part of that is from the loose “letter of the law”. Ultra-luxury resorts consume more resources than lower end accommodations, sometimes leaving locals with less for themselves. That can be an issue for water on St Kitts. Similarly, power can go off for locals on very hot days with demand from resort air conditioning.  But the government is trying to make tourism work for the locals. And there are initiatives like heritage projects around the old sugar train and the old Brimstone Hill Fortress, now a World Heritage Site. There is a restored old sugar estate. The government thinks direct local participation is key to success. St Kitts got the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Destination Stewardship Award in 2019 and wants that to be part of the island’s appeal. Attracting people to one’s culture rather than to one’s beach makes locals feel better about tourism. This desire to have locals as stakeholders has prevented any all-inclusive resorts. And the cruise ship port is not sealed off from locals who can eat and drink at the same places as passengers. Locals encountered like cab drivers and a marina manager approve the Christopher Harbour and the tourism development in general on their island. Staff at Christopher Harbour look pretty diverse; the Park Hyatt has created 300 jobs for locals and when it opened it announced a program to train locals for senior positions, but the theory of Tourism treats the hotel as the castle for upper class bourgeoisie. An upper-class resort must distinguish its guests from all other people. So the challenge is    to prevent the sequestering tendencies of luxury from overtaking the island’s inclusivity. Chapter 10. A Tale of Two Islands: Bali and Nias (Indonesia) Both Bali and Nias are islands in the Indian Ocean; tropical climate, dry and rainy season, great surf breaks, beaches abound. They have mountainous interiors with waterfalls and swimming holes, unique culture and architecture. They were part of a Dutch colony. Bali is popular for paradise travel, but the streets are overcrowded, shores and beaches have plastic trash. Nias has lush jungles, little traffic and halting efforts at tourism. Nias is Bali without tourism. Taken together they show the benefits and challenges that come with beach tourism in a developing economy. Going to Nias from relatively close Singapore, what should be a one-and-a-half-hour flight took a day via Medan on Sumatra. After Medan a flight to Gunnungsitoli on Nias. Then a 3 hour drive to Teluk Dalam, and finally to Sorake Bay which is the only place that offered reliable accommodation to travellers outside the main city. The guesthouses or “losmens” are there because the best surfing waves in the world break just offshore. The concrete tin roofed losmens hold 10-25 guests. There is the odd losmen with a thatched roof and wooden facade recalling old time ships. Going along the shore past the losmens of the break, are the remains of a failed Sorake Beach Resort from 1993 built with assurances that an airport would allow visitors from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. There were 73 air-conditioned bungalows, still with furniture. The main building housed a lobby bar. Near the shore was a restaurant terraced on 4 sides. All was centred on a pool. Two years later than the author’s previous visit, Canggu Bali is the island’s village of the moment until some other surpasses it. Then that village’s rice fields will disappear by the day to make way for hotels, their pools, cafes with lattes and poke bowls and bars. Beer is the wisest buy. Now it’s Canggu with suburban sprawl on the beach. Hip tropical travel 2019 is here, with co-work spaces, English as lingua franca and pervasive wifi. This is not the place to escape the stress of home! The 12 miles to the airport take 1½ hrs in a taxi, with cranes and the noise of construction everywhere. The hotel and standardised midsized resort has been open for a year – a dominant pool, adjacent bar and restaurant, single tall concrete building. The beach is fine – but non-surfers may find it inferior to the Jersey Shore. But for a beach destination like Bali the beach is not necessarily the focal point. Low key beach clubs rent chairs and serve beers. More elaborate versions have VIP areas and infinity pools with velvet ropes. The midsize resort pool 5 mins from the beach has loungers and food and drink service to evade the afternoon heat. The map of Canggu is like a finger going inland from the beach. The best restaurants and the social scene are away from the beach. The author can enjoy it in an ambivalent way. The healthy lunch bowls are enjoyable but similar to all the others from places where yoga is popular. A local working a remaining rice field reminds that the things enjoyed are Western and are squeezing out Balinese culture. The taxi driver’s father works a rice field, but the taxi’s better pay. He’s 50/50 on the developments of his home village – it’s too much but it’s good for business. In 1597 the Dutch found a Bali wealthy and militarily strong on the major spice trade route. Unlike other islands, the Hindu population had never converted to Islam. The Dutch focussed on their trading post at Batavia – now Jakarta – on the big adjacent island of Java. They squeezed Bali from the spice trade and Bali turned to a slave trade of its own people in which the Dutch participated. In 1908 the Dutch took full control and in 1914 the Batavia tourist bureau extended its scope to the island and the Dutch steamship line KPM began tourist promotion. The Bali Hotel opened in Denpasar in 1928 and had tours and culture stops around the “enchanted isle”. Artistically bent Westerners settled, painted, wrote, filmed and created the notion of an artistic erotic paradise from a base at inland Ubed. Sanur on a southeastern beach became the outpost on the shore. Bali appeared in the National Geographic in March 1928. In 1936 an American couple built some beachfront huts and opened the Kuta Beach Hotel. The surfing from Hawaii was introduced at Kuta. By 1940 Bali became a stop for wealthy Europeans. The Balinese struggled with the new situation. Local government was reorganized; the grouping of villages for oversight brought confusion and resentment. Some former royals went into exile, others collaborated. Alongside the political shakeup, the Dutch sought to strengthen Balinese culture as they saw it. The Bali loved by tourists is based on this Dutch view. The Nias Heritage Museum in Gunungsitoli founded in the 70s by a German Missionary shows the wealth that flowed through Nias in early times at the expense of human bondage. In 1663 the Dutch East India Company entered an agreement with the Nias chiefs for the sale of slaves and produce and protected anchorage for Dutch ships. Villages were hilltop to see potential enemies approaching. Niassans were known for ferocity. Nias was not a player in the spice trade routes and as the slave trade diminished Nias turned to crops. By the 19th century the outside world had lost interest. Islam did not reach Nias but Christian missionaries did and it is 90% Christian. Here, as in Bali, a minority religion smoothed a path to beach tourism. The Dutch took control in   1906. In 1931 an anthropologist reported on the island for National Geographic. Nias began to make tourism itineraries. A 1935 cruise showed the cultural interest. As in Bali, beaches were not the attraction. Leading to WWII, there were beginnings of tourism but most visitors stepped off cruise ships. In the ‘30s a ring road was built that might have led to hotels. After WWII tourism had ceased. The tensions following Indonesian independence and the beginning of the Cold War led to conflict in the 60s and the replacement of the president by the dictatorial Suharto. Still, an airport from the 30’s became an international airport and it was close to Kuta Beach and Sanur. Bali had become a province in 1958 and so could appeal for central investments and the like. It was close to Java and in 1989 the entire island was connected to the Java electrical grid. The national government opened the Bali Beach Hotel in 1963 and in 1968 asked for assistance form the world Bank to develop tourism on Bali with 2,500 hotel rooms in Nusa Dua and 1600 elsewhere – all by foreign firms. The airport expanded for large jets in 1971 and surfers found the wave at Uluatu. This launched decades of tourism – by 1995 there were 30,000 hotel rooms and 60,000 by 2019, with 6.3 million foreign visitors. Nias was hardly mentioned after WWII until 1970. Niassans continued farming coconuts, rubber and rice. In 1959 there were reports of copra ready for export after the KPM shipping line ceased operations. This suggests people on Nias suffered from lack of infrastructure and access. At independence Nias was attached to North Sumatra and able to appeal to a regional government. In 1975 Australians discovered the break at Sorake Beach – unfortunately near a marsh that was home to mosquitos that led to malaria and the death of one of the discoverers. It was surfed by a New Yorker writer in 1979 and soon became Indonesia’s second great surfing destination. In the 1980s locals filled the marsh, creating land and building losmens on it. They also found surfers were a market for refreshing coconuts. A shift in local social order began. In 2019 local Elvira  daughter of Hash. runs the family’s Hash & Family Surf Camp. Balli’s Kuta has blocks of bars pushing drink specials, restaurants offering pizza burgers, shops offering the same round purses and flip flops – all dense and chaotic. A busy street and a wall away is the beach – wide and pleasant enough with a gentle breeze. The waves are great for those learning to surf. It is possible to forget the over-developed mess behind, but this is more of an urban park than a dream beach. Vacationers at Kuta today want deals or want to party or want to be near to the airport. Most know the fame of Kuta, but not the overdevelopment. Other tourist parts of Bali like Canggu reflect Bali to a degree. The growth of a permanent population for work, 4.2 million by 2014, added to unsustainable numbers of tourists, has raised concerns. An extension of an airport runway affected the flow of sand and an area of Kuta washed away. Developments on land affected the life of the coral near Sanur. Traffic is starting to overwhelm the roads. The Balinese have seen gains in education, income and access to health care. Every village has electricity. However, skilled workers form Java tended to get the best jobs, so revenues from tourism didn’t benefit all on Bali and inequality has begun to rise. In Nias, with the arrival of electricity in the 1990s it seemed tourism might take off in Lagundri Bay. The Sorake Beach Resort opened in 1993 and an international surf contest followed in 1994. But the airport never came, and the shoreline of the bay is no longer beautiful after loss of sand and palms because the sand was used for concrete buildings. The Resort was not a magnet and good waves to surf were found on other islands. The 2004 Christmas earthquake cost the Resort most of its buildings. A March earthquake followed, changing the geography by extending the land, raising the land, and so killing the coral reef and enhancing the wave. Aid came and the modest tourism recovered with a number of comfortable losmens by 2019. There’s wifi and air conditioning in the bedrooms. In Bali today over 4,000 hotels and guest houses have created a confusing urban form of the villages. For example in Canggu roads run perpendicular to the beach without connecting roads across. Shortcut roads to the next village, Seminyak, are single lane, without shoulders and several feet above the rice fields they are crossing. The roads can’t handle the traffic. The landfills can’t handle 1.6 billion tons of trash per year, so that 33,000 tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year. Maintaining the environment of the beaches has become a money pit. So much ground water use for tourist showers, pools and golf courses has lowered the water table and salt water is seeping in. Rice fields go brown. If you don’t secure the environmental quality on the island you can’t secure the economy. At certain times Bali can be unpleasant. Simply getting a taxi can be a challenge. The beaches are often dirty. However, the Balinese have continued to prosper. The poverty rate is below 4%, per capita GDP is over $17,000 US although 85% of the tourism economy is owned by entities outside Bali. Wealthy Javanese often bought and developed properties for international companies to manage. On Nias, everyday local life can be found without trying. Some things like a cock fight can be uncomfortable, or the “dog meat served” sign. Coconuts can still be served from the tree, but bungalows do not line the beach and a single losmen accepts guests. Two government sponsored hotels have begun to go up. The sand is being used for construction. As happened at the beach on the point, the palm trees are falling into the water. One of the best beaches no longer exists at high tide. On Nias progress is fitful. The new hotels are at the expense of the beach in front. In 2016 3,143 foreign tourists came to South Nias, the majority to Sorake Beach. To increase tourism they need to move beyond surfers. And the efforts to become a province will help that. Poverty in South Nias is 16%. GDP per capita is $478 US. This is better than other areas of Nias. For locals, a health clinic has been set up by an Australian doctor who surfs and it serves locals free of charge. Some of the locals are at university or pharmacy school. Because tourism was developed by locals they still inhabit the land on their terms. Meanwhile at Sorake Beach, the abandoned resort has deteriorated more. The resort didn’t work. A few small factors made the difference from Bali. Beach tourism brings quantifiable benefits but hurts communities in other ways. On Nias people struggle for education and health care but their culture is their own. On Bali life is busy and anonymous, but people tend to get the things they need. A group of children follow the author near Sorake Beach. They ask her to take a picture. She does – and the little girl in the centre gives a finger. 11. Ghosts in the Machine: Baiae, Rockaway, and Acapulco. Baiae is almost unknown on a dent of the Bay of Naples where people flock to Pompeii. There is no indication that 2,000 years ago it was the world’s first seaside resort.  Emperors and aristocrats of ancient Rome had their seashore second homes here, with beach parties, music, banquets, wine and orgies. In the volcanic area it had hot water for baths. Some of the best seafood came from fresh and salt water ponds in the villas. The ruins above ground are spectacular, but on account of land tipped down by volcanic activity, more than half the ancient resort is now 15 feet under the sea and must be visited by scuba diving. It features a cobble-stone road and a villa banquet hall with mosaics and statues once owned by Emperor Claudius then Nero. On land, there is an archaeological park at the top of the hill centred by a villa built over 6 terraces with rooms, mosaic floors, frescoes on the walls and gardens. The park is not overcrowded as is Pompeii. The full Baiae site is larger than Pompeii and both are partially excavated. The bay is beautiful, but the town today has a declining population. No modern site can compete with Baiae for creative decadence. To protect the underwater site, large boats are now kept away but there is a small marina that in fact brings a little business to the town. Rockaway, an extensive beach with a varied collection of neighbourhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens New York enjoyed life as a resort from the late 19th century into the mid-20th. Now two surf breaks are bringing new visitors back – surfers and people looking for a quiet residence. A boardwalk runs along 5 ½ miles of beach. The beach neighbourhoods are hugely different – housing projects, streets with lawns, high rises and deserted stretches. There is water on two sides as the large Jamaica Bay curves in on the other side of the beach. By the late 19th century, hotels, many huge and grandiose, dotted the area. In the early 20th century summer bungalows brought working class New Yorkers and there was an amusement park 1902-1985. With hotels came restaurants, rides, theatres, swimming pools, train rides and steamboat piers. By the 50s things were changing. The Edgemere area, home to over 60 hotels in the early 20th century, was razed and left to be reclaimed by nature. The end began in the 1930s when pollution in Jamaica Bay caused hotels facing it to close. By the end of WWII, a total of some 10 hotels remained. But the area became home to working and middle-class residents and it attracted visitors into the early 1950s. Then home swimming pools, plane travel, mass car ownership and paid time off took a toll on visitors. And in the 50’s New York City sought to use the area to place its neediest welfare residents renting old bungalows and publicly funded apartment buildings. Fourteen acres were cleared in 1953 for subsidized housing. Next 3,613 dwellings were replaced with 28 high rise apartment buildings. By 1975 Rockaway had 57% of Queens’ low-income housing. After Hurricane Sandy’s devastation in 2012, there is a concrete boardwalk and a sand dune buffer between residents and the beach, and the Rockaway Hotel has arrived – the first new hotel in almost 100 years. Acapulco boasts an incredibly beautiful bay surrounded by foothills of the Sierra mountains and a movie-star-famed hillside Las Brisas hotel with a view of the bay. But room prices are down since the 1980s. Lawlessness, safety and celebrity-power are preoccupations. There is the elite, guarded Las Brisas neighbourhood of view-blessed villas cascading down the hill at the east end of the bay. Around the bay rows of high-rise hotels and restaurants form the Zona Dorada. In the other direction condos and high end mega resorts stretch along the beach. Opposite Las Brisas is Acapulco Viejo with the original beautiful if small beach crowded with beach umbrellas. Mexican visitors have come to Acapulco as international visitors have moved on. Acapulco had early government help. A fully paved road and flights from Mexico City in the 1930s allowed the first hotels, locals with food kiosks and changing rooms at the Old Town beaches. The early hotels had hilltop views and guests went down to beaches. Government developed Acapulco with roads and subdivisions for second homes of the wealthy. Acapulco substituted for the French Riviera in WWII. Also, locals were dispossessed of waterfront collective farms, creating poverty and hillside slums. The road around the bay opened in 1949. It catalysed overdevelopment. Wonderful old hilltop resort hotels remain, but it’s hard to find Mexican food;  big chains like Walmart and McDonalds rub shoulders. Despite that, the beach itself retains a cordoned off attractiveness. The street lights and sounds stop. A quieter beach life begins. It is hard to define the real Acapulco. It’s not the alarmist comments on safety. The violence is part of it, making it dangerous for people who live there. The violence isn’t limited to rival drug gangs but extends to schemes of extortion reaching restaurant owners and taxi drivers. But Acapulco was declining as a US tourist site before that. And lawlessness goes back to early days when pirates intercepted silver shipments leaving for Asia. Later, the isolated nature of the state made it hard for the federal government to exercise control. Overdevelopment in the 70’s did not stop more development in the 80’s. Yet Acapulco lost ground as Cancun, Cabo and Puerto Vallarta came on stream. By 2006 only 1.5% of Acapulco’s tourists were foreigners and international hotel brands retreated. All this was before the drug violence grew and it’s not just the foreigners. Los Cabos had a higher murder rate yet crowds from the north kept coming. And life isn’t over when Mexican tourists are coming to Acapulco. Chapter 12. Up to Here; Miami Beach Despite its evidently excessive oceanfront development and large crowds Miami Beach can still charm the visitor. There is a particular appeal from the Art Deco style and the broad swimmable beach. There is a night life with glitter and ponytailed bartenders. Media report signs of the climate catastrophe such as wading down a flooded street. And there are hard truths about the sustainability of the place. Millions are now spent to preserve a barrier island that should not be in the beach business. The sand bar’s original job was to protect the mainland settlement from the tumult of the sea. However, at the end of the 19th century the sand bar attracted plantations that failed. In the early 20th century northern developers saw potential for an Atlantic City of the south and built a bridge to the sand bar. Then, there were mangroves. They were removed when a big engineering project dredged the bottom of the bay, dumped the waste of sand and mangrove swamp onto the sand bar and made new land extending the bar. A dyke and piles secured the land. A hurricane in 1926 nearly ruined it, but building went on in the 30s. Art Deco style crossed the Atlantic into the South Beach buildings. Here there is no single monster resort, rather a variety of hotels flow with the city layout and a pedestrian culture. Past 20th street there is overdevelopment as larger hotels follow the property lines of the large estates from early rich owners. Below 14th St. the building height drops and the pastel colours of birthday cakes dominate. Further south is mostly artificial landscape. At 5th St. the footprint widens but remains man-made. This land was built for the sea level at that time, so some already sits below sea level. Even in fine weather there can be flooding. All of Southern Florida is barely above sea level and the bedrock is porous limestone. If the water table rises the water seeps up. When tides are high, Miami floods from the sides and from below. From September to November high tides are now the norm and so is the flooding. The nicest hotels are on higher ground behind the beach, but Miami is home to 90,000 people and many live on the land that receives the worst of the flooding. Here the sea has risen 6” since 1994 -- twice the global average --  and that matters for an island that is only 4 ft above sea level. By 2060 sea levels will reach 21- 54 inches higher. After unsuccessful attempts to reinforce the beach in the mid 50s, 60s, and 70s, a major project 1975 – 80 dredged and dumped sand to install resilient vegetated dunes. There have been ongoing as-needed renourishment projects – like the major 2020 addition of 61,000 tons of new sand and 3 breakwaters near 32nd street. There are things that create a different sense of beach resort. Hotels like the Delano impress with the vastness of their interior and the clever layout by French architect Philippe Stark. The tables and chairs in the infinity pool create the illusion that they are floating. There have been different cycles: hotels to apartments, tourist area to area for criminals. The cycles culminated with a revival of the Art Deco of the area, the images from Miami Vice on TV and the use of Miami for fashion photography. There are some small things that protect the beach. The barrier reef is 2 miles out and the Bahama Banks are 55 miles out in the direction from which waves come, limiting the buildup of wave size somewhat. However, things that protect also mean there are few offshore sand reserves to use to build the beach back up. The world Bank would place Miami high in the world’s coastal areas vulnerable to flood damage but for its political and economic resources as an economic driver for this area of Florida. Climate change is taken seriously here. National experts are working on the water management plan. On the other hand, developers press for larger buildings that will affect the famous skyline. It seems that with good insurance hotels can ride out a hurricane after a year or so, looking for a decade or so to make profits. Yet in the coming decades the sea will rise an average 4 ft and one coastal geographer declared that Miami will disappear. Developing new high rises and new hotels seems folly. Interlude: Return to Railay Ten years after the first visit to Railay Thailand, the author returns in different circumstances. This time she can text home from the hotel. By 11am the beach is crowded for a morning swim. The advertisements of scuba diving are now slick printed ones. There are more bars, restaurants and people. But with sunset, the bats still take to the sky in the distance. A night swim in Railay West comes with a dimmer bioluminescence. The jungle path leads to the cabana of her first visit now abandoned in overgrown brush. The next day an earlier morning swim has one other woman at the shore. The cliffs, the scene and its colours reinforce her fond memory in a glorious swim. Back home, although she still enjoyed being there and swimming there, the best swim was 2009. Chapter 13. A Better Way: Tioman Island (Malaysia) Tioman Island has only two villages with roads to handle cars. Tekek, the main village, is one. Walking along the village of Air Batang’s narrow main street, lined with small family run hotels and the occasional restaurant, one can see the sea and out there are the coral reefs. There are odd dive centres, convenience stores and chicken wire recycling bins. This Island is home to Reef Check Malaysia. Tourism on the island now dominates, following the government designation of a Marine Protected Area and fishing has largely been abandoned. A few high-end resorts in the south are accessible by boat, but most of the 52 square mile island remains the domain of small hotels. It is a backpacker and diver paradise. There are no commercial flights but 80% of the 230,000 tourists come from elsewhere in Malaysia by frequent ferries. The island is also popular with people from Singapore. A local dive shop helped get Reef Check Malaysia registered as a non-profit in the country. Reef Check is a global umbrella organization maintaining a reef-monitoring network of local citizens, precluding the need for stationed scientists. The aim on Tioman was to monitor the reef and do educational programs about the reef in schools. This expanded. Alvin Chelliah grew up close to Kuala Lumpur, volunteered at Reef Check while doing his Masters, and now works full time for Reef Check. He lives on Tioman Island. His work has expanded to identify local threats to the reef and find practical solutions. That moved into the wider ecosystem. Tourism activities became a focus: snorkeling, diving and the hotels. There are successes. Hotel water refill stations replace plastic bottled water. There is first aid and eco-sound training for snorkel guides, an island recycling program for plastic, aluminium and cardboard, a UN Green Fins sustainable certification for dive centres, a Reef Check Malaysia certification for sustainable hotels, and work to enforce laws that stop locals building on the sand. With a local resort owner, he shows a machine that converts glass bottles to sand that can be used with concrete for building. This gets rid of tourist beer bottles and the problem of using beach sand to mix in concrete making. Reef Check Malaysia bought it from New Zealand and is showing local builders how it can be used. A local resort owner uses the machine to turn other resort owners’ bottles into sand that they can take away for building. Rein in Long Haul Flights Airlines produce 2% of all carbon emissions. Despite some improvements the goal must remain sustainable commercial airlines. Without sustainable airlines there can be no sustainable resorts. Resorts could provide discounts for travellers coming on flights of less that 500 miles, or bytrain. The UN Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, CORSIA, is a beginning. In Europe flight taxes are proposed. Austria set a minimum airfare to encourage a shift to trains. France did something similar.  Source Locally and Regionally Resorts tend to import food and drink despite a tend to local. Local sources should be used wherever possible, with Barbados lamb rather than New Zealand lamb in Barbados; and in Fiji, New Zealand wine as part of the travel experience. There can be lineups in Tulum Hartwood for the all-local destination meal with daily changes. Build More Sensibly and Flexibly The building with concrete on beaches, especially high rises must stop – the beach erosion means seawalls or replenishing the beach or abandoning the building. Setting buildings back from the beach, using many small buildings and using materials that will make relocation or repair easy is better. Nicaragua’s guidelines, followed by the then Maderas Village, intend that. Maderas survived two hurricanes with minimal damage. A Different Kind of All Inclusive Exclusivity is intrinsic to the beach resort – they are not intended for locals. Yet there are records of hotels in the former Yugoslavia 1948-80, largely Croatia, that were integrated into the environment and embraced a diverse clientele. This ended when Westerners started arriving and those resorts sit empty. Break the Palm Tree Habit Palm trees are native to India and Malay peninsula. They became fashionable but are a poor choice for shade, land retention and even CO2 uptake. The water uptake is large. Many canopy trees thrive with fewer resources and more protection from the sun. Places in Florida and California require a majority of canopy trees in parking lots. Resorts should follow. Resorts Should Pay For That From Which They Profit In Cannes, the use of beach is tied to lease and regulations and beach maintenance whereas in Miami Beach, Hawaii, Riviera Maya and the Caribbean the government pays for the bulk of beach maintenance and renourishment. Nonetheless, after all the rules and regulations, resorts in Cannes still make a profit. Other suggestions are that resort builders pay a tax on the carbon emissions. Replace the Green Certification Racket The Global Sustainable Tourism Council, GSTC, created by the UN, creates standards for sustainable tourism. It works like LEED but also joins Green Ley and Green Seal in auditing resort operations. All are moneymaking operations. Businesses pay big money for certification and that brings conflicts of interest. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s “Energy Star” is an alternative to “pay to play”. It is free, but it requires that the business get an energy audit by an independent engineer or architect.  This cost is much lower than the other bodies charge. An alternative by government is California and New York is to cap carbon emissions. Empower Local Communities The Tioman Island sand-making machine depended on a local understanding and local needs as well as general environmental needs. That takes a lot of meetings, confidence building and listening. That machine ended up built into the fabric of the community. Locations are different in needs and local communities. Beach Resorts can help, like Nihi Sumba in Indonesia, where understanding local culture and the related philanthropic work has been great for business at the resort. Limit Tourist Numbers The collection of islands off Brazil known as Fernando de Noronha have beach landscapes that rival any other in the world. They remain so because the local government limited tourism to 420 visitors per day (about 100,000 per year) and redirected existing tourism revenues to waste treatment, infrastructure maintenance and conservation. Visitors pay a daily $14 US environmental fee that increases steeply after 10 days plus a one-time park fee of $41 US. This allows standard of living improvement for the 3,000 residents, basic infrastructure, an improved supply chain for food and other products, and conservation. There are no large resorts. Humans are banned on the best beach from 6pm to morning during turtle nesting. There are other examples of limiting numbers in Cinque Terre Italy, the Galapagos Islands, Howe Island Australia. Stop Building Golf Courses A golf course uses hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day, often in places where water supply is a problem. Near beaches the fertilizer runs off into the ocean causing havoc for the eco-system while algae plumes smother coral reefs. The large size is misuse of land near beaches and squeezes out locals. As Earth warms a round of golf will get more uncomfortable and is now a concern in Portugal’s Algarve and Spain’s Costa del Sol. And there are signs golf is on the decline. Deemphasize Beaches Relying on a vulnerable shoreline for tourism can spell economic disaster. St Kitts is emphasizing cultural tourism alongside shoreline tourism. Similarly Portugal focuses on inland destinations. A Solomon Islands spokesperson said tourism must fit around the culture, not vice versa. Diversifying tourism away from the beaches is positive for both the environment and local communities. Disrupt the Tourism Life Cycle When tourism grows to the development stage, locals feel squeezed out, tourists start to remember how much better the place used to be, and signs of environmental degradation appear. Better to freeze things at the earlier Involvement Stage by limiting tourists, or placing zoning restrictions to limit the number of resorts and the number of rooms. Without deliberate limitations, overdevelopment leads to decline. Save the Coral Reefs The Florida Reef off the Keys enjoyed 40% few decades back. Now it is 3-4%. For conservers this is almost too late. Damage comes from acidification, algae growth and rising water temperature. A disease in 2014 and Hurricane Irma in 2017 didn’t help. Researchers are growing the coral in nurseries and transplanting several hundred coral per year onto the reef. It can make a difference. And the researchers are learning more about coral. New hybrids are explored to better resist bleaching or disease. Regrow Mangroves Mangroves were removed from some current beach locations for aesthetic reasons and to provide breezes. However, they provide wonderful protection from storms and erosion. Examining the problems from sea level rise, researchers noted that in Fiji, the two waterfront villages that didn’t clear the mangroves are the ones without erosion or coastal flooding problems. And there are efforts to regrow the mangroves! This requires a re-imagining of the ideal beach. 14. Sands of Time: The Future of the Beach Resort. Attention at one of the world’s first seaside resorts, Brighton, the former Brighthelmstone, has shifted back into a town with its own life. In the 60’s and 70’s English travellers favoured more distant beach destinations. In the old town, the 123 -year-old Palace Pier famous for amusement park rides and its video arcade hosts a few million visitors per year, mainly day trippers. Some mile along the boardwalk the shell of the West Pier stands in front of Regency Square. In 1866 it extended more than 1000ft into the water with its concert hall. Only metal beams from the frame remain. A controversial observation deck was added near its base in 2016. Old hotels brood between the piers -- the Grand Hotel Brighton flanked by others. Looking out from these hotels the horizon is now interrupted by 116 turbines of the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, providing clean electricity for many homes in England, stopping our sense of ocean infinity, and our paradise fantasy when we must harness resources of the world in ways that won’t destroy us. And as the seas rises, beaches and islands will change. And architecture will have to change – perhaps waterfront resort reception will be on the 2nd floor instead of the first? TOP   Click:

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