Sustainable tourism development on Curacao - the implementation challenge

In 1997, a comprehensive policy program for sustainable tourism was adopted by the Netherlands Antilles government. This paper is empirically-oriented and analyses the implementation of two measures of this policy on one of the five islands, Curacao, for the period 1998-2005. It investigates the implementation initiatives by various stakeholders, and the factors that affected the attitudes of the actors expected to implement the measures. Environmental NGOs have been key drivers for the voluntary implementation initiatives, together with the federal environmental agency. However, their success in stimulating environmentally-responsible operations by tourism companies was limited. The paper underpins several lessons for the design and implementation of sustainable tourism initiatives that are especially relevant for developing countries.