A complexa equação Segurança, Turismo e Desenvolvimento Sustentável em Cabo Verde

Tourism is the driving force behind sustainable development, with exponential growth in the Cape Verdean economy, accounting for 25 per cent of all national wealth and 9 per cent of jobs. At the same time, security has become one of the criteria for choosing tourist destinations. Cape Verde, a small island state, has several elements of vulnerability to security risks, due to its geographical position in the mid-Atlantic, its location at the crossroads of three continents, Africa, Europe and America, and its territorial discontinuity as an archipelago. As far as tourism security is concerned, the partnership between public and private actors has led to the implementation of the ‘safe tourism’ program on the islands with the greatest tourism vocation. The question remains as to whether these the articulation between tourism development and maintaining security are compatible with a sustainable development strategy. This study is a qualitative approach to the problem of the equation of security, tourism and sustainable development, synthesizing the existing literature and pointing at opportunities and threats that this combination allows for the country.