Analysis of local people’s perspectives on sustainable island tourism in Cape Verde Islands

Abstract Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, island territories in underdeveloped countries have seen how their image as earthly paradises has led to a significant influx in tourists. Thus, there is need for researchers to focus in island countries. However, less attention is placed in Cape Verde (CV) at the global level, hence the importance of this study. The results of this study of CV contradict the projections often made in the literature for the pandemic years 2020-21. The analysis of official statistics -World Bank; World Travel & Tourism Council; National Statistics Institute of CV; Ministério do Turismo e Transportes, CV; World Tourism Organization- has showed the enormous contribution of tourism to economic recovery in the post-crisis period. Nevertheless, the interviews to the local economic and social agents has evidenced the existence of a deep gap between what local population demand and what the authorities decide. Indeed, tourism demand has reached pre-pandemic levels, but it is mainly channelled towards islands specialising in sun and beach tourism. By contrast, tourist flows to islands specialising in more sustainable forms of tourism, such as rural tourism, are still much lower than in pre-Covid 19 times.