Dr Mark Hampton, who leads the Centre for Tourism in Islands and Coastal Areas (CENTICA) at Kent Business School, was an invited speaker at a World Bank/Commonwealth Secretariat Expert Meeting on Small States in Malta on 17-18 November.
This international meeting was organised to examine the growth and development options available to small states around the world. It focused on the latest research and new key issues facing small states in times of economic turbulence. Dr Hampton was asked by the organisers to present a paper from his research on tourism in islands and small states.
He said: “it was a great honour to be invited by the World Bank and Commonwealth Secretariat to speak and participate in this expert meeting. Small states face many economic challenges, but tourism has the potential to create significant local jobs and contribute to their economies. But the challenge for policy-makers is how to capture, and then retain, more of the tourist spend in the island or small state economy”.