knowledge

Abstract [en]
By addressing the study's two research questions, what impact tourism destination development strategies might have on visitor behavior and attitudes, and whether they might promote sustainable behavior, this study investigates the contribution of a destination's development strategies towards developing a sustainable blue tourism industry and their impact on tourists' attitudes and behavior. The study is then a case study, with its case being Bonaire using a questionnaire based survey in order to provide a understanding of how destination development strategies could be used for obtaining a blue economy and the effect these might have on tourist behavior and attitudes.

A blue economy is an economy that relies on marine ecosystems and coastal resources to support its economy while preserving them for future generations (Clegg et al. 2021). By implementing a blue economy strategy an island can work with highlighting human-ocean-related activities and the impact these have locally and globally as they would try to strategically use coastal resources to promote economic development while safeguarding ocean and coastal ecosystems. The study found that destination development strategies, for obtaining a blue economy, could contribute by providing tourists with a learning opportunity. This could provoke higher levels of attitudes towards destination development strategies with tourists. If this is combined with proper behavioral guidelines, this could increase tourists' self-awareness of behavior and impact, and could increase tourists' self-ascribed responsibility towards the destination to act sustainably and minimize harm.