Sustainable tourism, Technology and Internet 4.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Small Island Developing States

Abstract

The Tourism and the hospitality industries are among the most thrived industries worldwide. With several innovative practices including advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), businesses have witnessed changes both in their strategic approaches and their methods in doing business. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) known to be reputed tourism destinations, have encountered extraordinary accomplishment in promoting their tourism industry, with a global record of 44 million tourists visiting island states in 2019 to experience their rich biodiversity and magnificent ecosystems. From the advent of Industry 4.0 countries, developing countries, may develop strategies to leapfrog their underdeveloped industrial development and speed up the process of economic modernization while maintaining socio-environmental sustainability. Experts agree the long-term viability of operations management is a must and island states surely need to adopt sustainable and durable tourism practices. The introduction of Industry 4.0 emerging technologies can lead to sustainable growth of such circular economy. Many of the ongoing vulnerabilities of SIDS such as natural resource protection, managing pollution and biodiversity loss, over-exploitation of resources has seen a proper management thanks to the attributes and contributions of Internet 4.0. The motive of this work is to attempt to analyze the integration of IoT in SIDS and investigate on the hurdles that businesses have faced when adopting new technological options. Objectively through a critical review of available literature, this work attempts to highlight the contributions of Internet 4.0 towards achieving socio-environmental sustainability of small island developing countries to ensure their longevity.