Building climate resilience with Pacific Island tourism destinations

Building resilience through local partnerships

Building climate resilience with Pacific Island tourism destinations is an Australian Research Council-funded research project that helps Pacific Island tourism destinations adapt to the impacts of climate change through locally led, community-driven solutions. Working with universities, tourism organisations, environmental partners and communities across the Pacific, the project combines Indigenous knowledge, cultural values and local ecosystem expertise to co-design practical climate adaptation pathways. By strengthening destination resilience, supporting sustainable tourism and developing scalable adaptation tools, the research aims to improve climate resilience across the Pacific while providing practical approaches that can be applied globally.

Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP250200507 2026–2029

Sustainable Development Goals

Griffith University is aligned with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and committed to creating sustainable cities and communities and tackling global challenges around climate action, life below water, and life on land.

Why this research matters

Climate change threatens Pacific tourism destinations

Pacific Island nations are among the world's most climate-vulnerable regions. Rising sea levels, changing weather patterns, coastal erosion and ecosystem degradation affect communities, livelihoods and tourism assets.

Tourism is a critical economic sector throughout the Pacific, creating opportunities to strengthen local resilience while supporting sustainable development.

“Resilience grows strongest when adaptation is led by local knowledge, local priorities and local communities.”

Project partners

Pacific Tourism Organisation

Santo Sunset Environment Network

Nasituan Christian Service Association

Kaibu Foundation

Mamanuca Environment Society

Te Ipukarea Society

Kōrero o te 'Ōrau

Meet our researchers

Professor Christopher Fleming

Economic, environmental and social impact assessment, policy evaluation, non-market valuation, survey design and implementation, empirical analysis of subjective wellbeing.

Professor Susanne Becken

Professor of Sustainable Tourism, Griffith Institute for Tourism

Dr Wade Hadwen

Climate change, tourism, and sustainable development

Dr Johanna Loehr

Tourism and climate change, sustainable tourism, systems thinking and South Pacific tourism.

Dr Apisalome Movono

Indigenous governance, sustainability, and resilience-building (University of the South Pacific)

Professor Andreas Neef

Global development, climate mobilities, mobility justice, and climate change adaptation

Dr Ross Westoby

International development, sustainable livelihoods and climate change adaptation.

Andrew Buckwell

Research Fellow. Ecosystem service valuation, social benefit-cost analysis, Q-method discourse analysis, and climate change adaptation

Previous outputs leading up to the project

Partner engagement

Tourism and climate change

South Pacific tourism

Becken, S., Westoby, R., Fleming, C., Ariki, M., Loehr, J., Mafi-Stephens, M., Mate, F., Tiraa, S., & Vakacola, M. (2026). Tourism in the pluriverse: Bridging theory and practice for regenerative futures in the Pacific. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 40, 101087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2026.101087
Loehr, J., Becken, S., Tiraa, S., Mafi Stephens, M., Westoby, R., & Fleming, C. (2026). The value of Q-methodology for optimising tourism priorities. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2025.2608961.
Becken, S., et al. (2025). Negotiating wellbeing and tourism: A reorientation process in the Cook Islands. Sustain., 17(3), 1123. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17031123.
Fleming, C., Westoby, R., Loehr, J. & Becken, S. (2025). Pacific Better Practice Tourism Guide. Griffith University. Available: https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/2174533/GRF044-Pacific-Better-Practice-Tourism-Guide.pdf.
Loehr, J., Gibson, D., Buckwell, A., Vada, S., Fleming, C., ..., Hadwen, W., et al. (2022). Using Q method to investigate the influence of inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) on tourists’ hotel choice in Fiji. Curr. Issues Tour., 26, 647-663. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2022.2035699.
Movono, A., et al. (2022). Silver linings around dark clouds: Tourism, Covid‐19 and a return to traditional values, villages and the vanua. Asia Pac. Viewp., 63(2), 164-179. https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12340.
Movono, A.; …& Becken, S. (2018). Fijian culture and the environment: A focus on the ecological and social interconnectedness of tourism development. J. Sustain. Tour., 26, 451–469. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2017.1359280.
Neef, A. (2021). The contentious role of tourism in disaster response and recovery in Vanuatu. Fron. Earth Sci., 9, 771345. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.771345.
Scheyvens, R.A., Movono, A.,... (2023). Pacific peoples and the pandemic: Exploring multiple well-beings of people in tourism-dependent communities. J. Sustain. Tour., 31, 111–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2021.1970757.
Vinde Folkersen, M., Fleming, C. and Hasan, S. (2018). Deep sea mining's future effects on Fiji's tourism industry: A contingent behaviour study. Marine Policy¸ 96, 81-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2018.08.001

Climate risk, adaptation and environmental management

Buckwell, A., Ariki, M., Oiire, C., Unga, C., & Fleming, C. (2024). Twenty-five years of world heritage status: Show us the benefits! Journal of Environmental Management, 358, 120849. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120849
Buckwell, A., Fleming, C., et al. (2020). Revealing the dominant discourses of stakeholders towards natural resource management in Port Resolution, Vanuatu, using Q-method. Ecol. Econ., 177, 106781. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106781.
Buckwell, A., Fleming, C., Smart, J., Ware, D. and Mackey, B. (2020). Challenges and sensitivities in assessing total ecosystem service values: Lessons from Vanuatu for the Pacific. Journal of Environment and Development, 29, 329-365. https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496520937033
Buckwell, A, Ware, D., Fleming, C., Smart, J., Mackey, B., Nalau, J. and Dan, A. (2020). Social benefit cost analysis of ecosystem-based climate change adaptations: A community-level case study in Tanna Island, Vanuatu. Climate and Development, 12, 495-510. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2019.1642179
Clissold, R, Westoby, R & McNamara, KE (2020). Women as recovery enablers in the face of disasters in Vanuatu, Geoforum, 113, 101-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.05.003.
Faivre, G., … Hadwen, W., Buckwell, A., & Mackey, B. (2022). Effective coastal adaptation needs accurate hazard assessment: A case study in Port Resolution, Tanna Island Vanuatu. Clim. Change, 170(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03304-9.
Hasan, S., Fleming, C., Smart, J., Buckwell, A., Folkersen, M. and Mackey, B. (2021). Identifying and mitigating risks to completion of small grant climate change adaptation projects: Evidence from the Pacific. Regional Environmental Change, 21, 55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-021-01781-3
Mackey, B; … Buckwell, A; Sahin, O; Fleming, C; et al. (2017). Vanuatu Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM). SPREP. Available: https://library.sprep.org/content/vanuatu-ecosystem-and-socio-economic-resilience-analysis-and-mapping-esram.
McNamara, K.E., Westoby, R. & Clissold, R. (2022). Lessons for adaptation pathways in the Pacific Islands. PLOS Clim 1(2), e0000011. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000011.
Nalau, J., Becken, S., Schliephack, J., et al. (2018). The role of indigenous and traditional knowledge in ecosystem-based adaptation: A review of the literature and case studies from the Pacific Islands. Weather Clim. Soc., 10(4), 851-865. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-18-0032.1.
Neef, A., et al. (2018). Climate adaptation strategies in Fiji: The role of social norms and cultural values. World Dev., 127, 125-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.02.029.
Sahin, O., Hadwen, W.L., Buckwell, A., Fleming, C., et al. (2021). Assessing how ecosystem-based adaptations to climate change influence community wellbeing: A Vanuatu case study. Reg. Env. Change, 21(4), 90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-021-01809-8.
Turton, S. M., Dickson, T., Hadwen, W. L., et al. (2010). Developing an approach for tourism climate change assessment: Evidence from four contrasting Australian case studies. J of Sustain. Tour., 18(3), 429-447. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669581003639814.
Westoby, R., et al. (2021). Alternative entry points for adaptation: Examples from Vanuatu. Weather Clim. Soc., 13(1), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-20-0064.1.
Westoby, R., et al. (2022). Cascading loss and loss risk multipliers amid a changing climate in the Pacific Islands. Ambio. 51(5), 1239-1246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01640-9.
Westoby, R., et al. (2020). From community-based to locally led adaptation: Evidence from Vanuatu. Ambio, 49, 1466-1473. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01294-8

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