Hotel development and tourism impacts in Mauritius: Hoteliers' perspectives on sustainable tourism

Sustainable tourism development is crucial to small island developing states, given that tourism is often the main pillar of their economy. Stakeholders therefore need to embrace principles of environmental, economic and social sustainability for continued success. This study assessed hoteliers' perceptions of the tourism impacts of hotel development. Existing attitudinal scales on tourism impacts were applied to the Mauritian context and measured among top and middle management of hotels. The findings, based on 90 questionnaires, indicated 11 underlying dimensions. Hoteliers on average agreed that hotel development should contribute to environmental sustainability, and have positive economic, social and cultural impacts. They were not entirely convinced that there were negative cultural and economic impacts, and they disagreed that there were negative social impacts. The paper suggests implications for tourism policy, hotel development and management of tourism impacts.