Coastal community voices: strategic planning for sustainable destination development in a small cold-water archipelago.

Roitershtein, Alona; Ironside, Rachael

Abstract

Orkney Islands is a popular cold-water archipelago destination for cruise tourism and other marine and coastal tourism activities, where visitor economy plays a key part in the economic development of the islands. However, Orkney's coastal communities are facing many sustainability challenges, directly related to tourism activities, as well as impacted by wider processes in the region and beyond. Therefore, tourism decision-makers are tasked with addressing the sustainability needs of communities in the archipelago, in their efforts to implement a transition towards sustainable future of Orkney as a destination. In the tourism sector, the framework for this transition is the Orkney Tourism Strategy. The aim of this paper is to explore the sustainability needs of Orkney, as defined by members of its local communities in the context of tourism development, to consider how these needs may influence successful tourism strategy development. Employing a qualitative multi-method case study methodology, this study identifies the importance and relevance of sense of place in determining the sustainability needs of communities. It is argued that tourism development initiatives, especially in small coastal communities, will benefit from an analysis of layers of context to produce meaningful tourism strategies.

Citation

ROITERSHTEIN, A. and IRONSIDE, R. [2025]. Coastal community voices: strategic planning for sustainable destination development in a small cold-water archipelago. Scandinavian journal of hospitality and tourism [online], Latest Articles. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/15022250.2025.2499266

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 24, 2025
• Online Publication Date: May 6, 2025
• Deposit Date: Apr 28, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 28, 2025
• Journal: Scandinavian journal of hospitality and tourism
• Print ISSN: 1502-2250
• Electronic ISSN: 1502-2269
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15022250.2025.2499266
• Keywords: Tourism; Island tourism; Coastal tourism; Sustainable tourism; Orkney; Scotland
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2807183