Relationships between coastal tourism and ICM sustainability in the central Visayas region of the Philippines

As part of the Integrated Coastal Management Sustainability Research Project (ICMSRP), this study investigated the relationship between tourism and the success and sustainability of processes initiated by one ICM project in particular, the Central Visayas Regional Project (CVRP). CVRP is widely regarded as the first major externally funded coastal management project to take on a community-based, yet integrated, approach to rural development and resource management in the Philippines. CVRP was implemented by the World Bank from 1984–1992 across 16 coastal municipalities. Such a large and geographically widespread integrated coastal management project is bound to have site specific variances due to the presence or absence of certain community characteristics as well as differences between project personnel. It is these local variations that can have differential impacts on the sustainability of integrated coastal management planning and implementation. This paper focuses on the impacts of local variation in one community level variable (intensity of tourism). By looking for variation in impacts within one project (CVRP) across 23 sites, we are controlling the differences of overall project design while examining the impacts of differences in local context. nalysis revealed that the presence of coastal tourism had a positive relationship with the compliance and access indicator, but a negative relationship with both the quality of life indicator and activities sustained indicator, warranting a more thorough investigation of the costs and benefits associated with coastal tourism activities.