Tourism Planning & Development

Oceans of Opportunity: Navigating a New Course for Coastal Tourism Planning and Development in Africa and Beyond

Rationale and Context
Although Africa comprises 38 coastal nations and possesses extensive marine biodiversity,
coastal tourism in the region remains markedly underrepresented in global research.
Baltranaitė et al. (2025) find that discourse is dominated by studies on Europe, Asia, and
North America, leaving African coastal communities among the least represented globally.
The prevalence of global academic scholarship and discourse is conditioned by the
availability and access to resources. Nevertheless, this gap is not merely empirical; it is deeply
political and historical. The legacy of colonial policies remains a fundamental point of
reference for understanding how tourism is managed today, often reproducing top-down
governance, spatial exclusion, and the marginalisation of traditional livelihoods (Sène-Harper
& Séye, 2019; Mbatha, 2022). While recognising these inherited legacies is essential for an
honest appraisal of the sector, there is an urgent need to translate this awareness into action.
Tourism policy, planning, and development must move beyond critiquing inherited
frameworks to co-creating regenerative models that centre vernacular knowledge and
localised spatial politics. This Special Issue seeks to provide the theoretical and practical tools
needed to chart a new, inclusive course for coastal tourism across Africa and the broader
Global South.
Since the concept of the "Blue Economy" was introduced at the UN Rio+20 Conference in
2012, it has increasingly shaped regional priorities and governance frameworks (Rethinking
Blue Cost Action CA22122, n.d.). Yet processes of adaptation and implementation remain
underexamined across sectors, including tourism (OECD, 2025). This tension is most evident
in Africa's coastal regions, where tourism significantly shapes marine economies, governance,
and spatial politics. While this Special Issue discusses "blue economy" strategies as a policy
context, it is organised primarily around coastal tourism planning and development.

Coastal Tourism, Conservation, and Spatial Justice
As scenic landscapes are curated to attract tourists, scientific management often yields to the
political economy of beauty. Urry (1992) describes three modes of state-led environmental
conservation: aesthetic, scientific, and cultural. In practice, aesthetic conservation often
dominates in coastal tourism regions, where governments prioritise preserving land–sea
relationships that sustain tourism appeal. In many cases, tourism itself drives what is
protected, with coastal protection shaped by the scenic values that support tourism
development while sidelining non-tourism livelihoods. Conservation decisions typically
emerge from negotiations among state agencies, experts, and environmental considerations,
with coastal communities often only marginally involved. Meanwhile, less visually attractive
coastal areas frequently receive little attention unless they are identified for future tourism
development (Djordjevski, 2021). Observed across the Global South and the Mediterranean,
this pattern frequently privileges tourist interests over ecological and social sustainability,
manifesting itself as ocean grabbing, economic leakage, and heightened climate vulnerability.
Addressing these challenges requires closer attention to contemporary tourism planning and
governance frameworks. To illustrate, Page et al. (2014) found that tourists in The Gambia,
Zanzibar (and the Dominican Republic), underestimate their water use and favour financial
offsets over personal restraint, while remaining largely unaffected by water restrictions that
communities bear. The study concludes that education and offsets alone are insufficient;
destination management requires structural, supply-side reforms that internalise tourism's
water impacts and prioritise residents' rights amid escalating climate pressures. This Special
Issue invites contributions that examine how tourism planning and policy can address such
spatial injustices through actionable, context-sensitive governance models that centre
community participation, equitable resource distribution, and regenerative development.

Reclaiming Coastal Tourism: Community Power vs. Environmental
Degradation and Economic Drain
The rapid growth of coastal tourism presents a crucial paradox: while it significantly drives
economic expansion, current development approaches often pose serious environmental and
socio-economic risks (Baltranaitė et al., 2025; Dimopoulos et al., 2022). From a planning
standpoint, shifting from traditional maritime activities to modern tourism has introduced
structural challenges that threaten sustainable conservation and fair development. This Special
Issue contends that tourism policy must incorporate local knowledge into formal
environmental management and adopt regenerative planning frameworks.
Economic leakage remains a key barrier to equitable tourism development. In Zanzibar, only
16% of resort requirements are sourced locally due to policy gaps in supply chain integration,
inconsistent quality standards, and a lack of institutional trust (Anderson et al., 2013). While
local food supplies offer lower carbon footprints and high nutritional value, they are often
bypassed by international resorts, a trend seen across tourism hubs in North and Southern
Africa (Daly & Gereffy, 2017). These ongoing challenges highlight structural issues in export-focused growth models that emphasise foreign investment over local needs (Afenyo & Amuquandoh, 2014). To address these "leaky" economies, tourism planning should shift
towards supply-side reforms and localised value-chain interventions that benefit residents.
Community-led approaches are increasingly recognised as practical responses to gaps in
coastal tourism planning, especially where top-down development has delivered limited local
benefit-sharing and weak environmental stewardship. In many coastal destinations, tourism
and small-scale sectors, such as fisheries, are closely linked, creating livelihoods but also
competition for space, resources, and infrastructure (Ababouch & Carolu, 2015). In Senegal,
the Océanium–Livelihoods Funds mangrove restoration demonstrates how community
involvement and local ecological knowledge support ecosystem recovery and livelihoods
through employment and revitalised fisheries, agriculture and ecotourism. The project
highlights opportunities and challenges of carbon-financed nature-based solutions
(Livelihoods Funds, 2020). Long-term results often struggle due to difficulties integrating
global finance standards and metrics into local contexts, exposing governance gaps (Zhu et
al., 2025). We seek contributions on sustainable, scalable community-led coastal tourism
governance.
Port cities worldwide face trade-offs in planning among port expansion, waterfront
redevelopment, maritime identity and tourism placemaking. The transformation of Tangier
(Morocco), including the Tangier Med and Tangier Ville port complex, illustrates how
logistics-led investment can reshape a heritage-oriented tourism destination, alter destination
identity, and constrain public coastal access (Al Hachimi et al., 2022). This tension
underscores the need for integrated coastal planning that avoids sectoral silos and prioritises
spatial justice (Wippel, 2024). We invite papers examining planning and governance
instruments for managing port–tourism interfaces across sectors and scales.

Special Issue Objectives
This Special Issue advances scholarship and practice in coastal tourism planning and
development, exploring how coastal destinations can be effectively planned, governed, and
managed to ensure fair local benefits, preserve the environment, and enhance climate
resilience at the land–sea interface. While historical and political-economic legacies provide
important context, the Special Issue foregrounds actionable contributions to tourism planning,
policy design, and implementation. We ask:
How can coastal tourism governance and planning drive regenerative tourism development in
Africa and beyond while improving benefit-sharing, restoring ecosystems, and balancing
competing coastal and marine uses?
While this Special Issue takes Africa as a primary point of departure, we welcome
comparative, cross-regional, and relational (connected-place) research that links African
coastal realities with other contexts across sea basins (e.g., the Atlantic-MediterraneanWestern Indian Ocean) to offer transferable insights globally. We also welcome relational
research designs that explore how coastal tourism is shaped by translocal flows, i.e., visitors,
capital, labour, narratives, and governance ideas connecting African coastal sites with the
Americas, Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean region (e.g., East Africa–Oman linkages; Causevic & Neal, 2019). Work on coastal heritage tourism is
especially welcome where it advances theory and practice on planning, ethics, and partnership
in connected heritage landscapes (e.g., diaspora-led tours linking Amsterdam to Elmina
Castle; Adu-Ampong, 2023). In such contributions, paired or networked cases are integral to
theory-building on relational destination planning, including how value, memory, and
inequalities are produced across interconnected places. Submissions may use diverse methods
and theories but must demonstrate rigour and offer clear implications for tourism planning
and development, including governance reform, destination diversification, and practical tools
that strengthen locally accountable coastal management and sustainable livelihoods.
Topics
In keeping with the aims and scope of Tourism Planning and Development, we welcome
disciplinary and interdisciplinary contributions. Where relevant, submissions may engage
"blue economy" strategies as policy context but should foreground clear implications for
coastal tourism planning and development. Research on tourism policy, planning and
development related to, but not limited to, the following topics is particularly welcome:

Planning and governance
• Coastal tourism planning and development at the land–sea interface
• Planning instruments for coastal tourism (zoning, development controls, permitting,
enforcement, accountability)
• Institutional coordination, planning capacity, and multi-level governance (local–
regional–national)
• Data gaps, indicators, and monitoring systems for coastal destination performance and
carrying capacity
Cross-sector integration and spatial justice
• Cross-sector trade-offs in port and coastal cities (tourism–ports–fisheries–
conservation–urban development)
• Spatial justice in coastal tourism development (land tenure, coastal access,
displacement, and enclosure)
Local development and finance
• Economic leakage, benefit-sharing, and strengthening local value chains
(procurement, SMEs, labour linkages, etc.)
• Investment, public-private partnership, ownership, and concession models (including
FDI) and implications for local livelihoods
• Financial planning for regenerative coastal tourism, i.e. public finance, climate
finance, carbon markets

Environment and climate resilience
• Climate risk, adaptation planning, and resilience for coastal tourism infrastructure,
ecosystems, and livelihoods
• Water security, resource pressures, and demand management in coastal and island
destinations
• Nature-based solutions and coastal ecosystem restoration linked to tourism
development (mangroves, dunes, reefs, etc.)
Communities, knowledge, and livelihoods
• Community participation, co-management, and community-led coastal governance
innovations
• Indigenous knowledge in tourism planning, monitoring, and coastal management
• Tourism linkages with other sectors, i.e. fisheries, marine agriculture, etc.
(livelihoods, resource conflicts, governance responses)
Heritage, identity, and diversification
• Coastal and maritime heritage tourism (interpretation, ethics, memory, community
partnership, connected heritage landscapes, etc)
• Destination diversification beyond enclave resort models (culture, conservation,
science-based tourism, etc.)
Mobilities and markets
• Domestic, diaspora/VFR, and intra-African tourism mobilities and their implications
for coastal destination planning
• Relational and comparative research
• Connected-place and relational coastal tourism development across sea basins
(Africa–Europe, Western Indian Ocean, Africa–Middle East, Africa-West Indies, etc.)
Political economy
• Political conflict, power relations, and contested governance in coastal tourism
development