Mona Erfanian Salim
Today, tourism has an important role in the development of many Small Islands all over the world because of their economic dependency on tourism. The sustainable tourism has established in order to balance between the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of development in these Islands. This paper attempts to clarify that urban open public spaces can influence the dimensions of sustainability in Small Islands and become a simple resource for sustainable tourism development that acts as a continual shelter in the urban position. It provides a conceptual approach to understanding how the quality of urban open public space may improve sustainable tourism development in these Islands. From a literature survey, the study focuses on two bodies of knowledge in parallel. It reviews the global scenario of tourism in relation to the Small Islands and identifies features of these kinds of tourism destinations as well as concerns about sustainability in there. It also investigates the global scenario of urban design in relation to concerns of urban open public space. The study applies a comparative analysis to show an intersection between both literatures as identifies the issue of Small Islands in the context of urban design and tourism development. Consequently, the study acquires an in an interpretive format that establishes the significance of the quality of designing urban open public spaces for applying sustainable tourism on a Small Island. The results indicate how enhancing the quality of urban open public pace in Small Islands could improve tourism development with regards to the concept of sustainability. Eventually, this paper indicates some linkages between sustainable urban development and sustainable tourism in a Small Island. It also illustrates the importance of effective collaboration between different professionals and disciplines for integrating knowledge across a sector. Therefore, the output of the research can help to apply urban design as multidiscipline vehicle for objective of sustainable tourism in a Small Island.
Keywords: Urban open public space, Small Island, Sustainable tourism
2013, Conference of Contemporary Trends in Tourism and Hospitality – CTTH2013, Serbia