The Broken Golden Egg of the Galapagos: Mistrust and short sightedness in the UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Galapagos Islands, known as a leading sustainable tourism destination in the world, was hit by the COVID pandemic in 2020. Tourism numbers fell by 73% from 2019 causing tremendous challenges to local tourism stakeholders. The study revealed that the UNESCO World Heritage Site, despite its excellence in the management of environmental sustainability, has been falling short concerning social and economic sustainability of local tourism stakeholders. Through an exploratory study with 586 completed semi-structured surveys in the local population, alongside interviews with diverse stakeholders and leading tourism authorities, the article explains what social and economic impacts and challenges the pandemic has generated in the local tourism sector. Additionally, the study also elucidates, on the one hand, what sociocultural modifications the studied stakeholders needed to adopt to survive during this unprecedented period in tourism history, and, on the other hand, what tourism authorities propose to revitalize tourism in the post-COVID period. Keywords: Galapagos Islands; tourism; sustainability; impact of pandemic; stakeholders’ perception