This research about the impacts of economic slowdown caused by COVID-19 on the wellbeing of
tourism-dependent communities in the Pacific emerged from concerns shared by Dr Apisalome
Movono and Professor Regina Scheyvens – tourism and development researchers in the Institute of
Development Studies at Massey University. Both scholars had previously researched how tourism could
contribute to sustainable development of communities in the Pacific and they felt compelled to now
examine COVID-19’s effects on people who were highly reliant on tourism income. By Easter 2020,
most international flights to the region had ceased and tens of thousands of tourism sector jobs were
threatened. Anecdotally, the researchers had heard that some people were adapting quite well to life
without international tourists by growing their own food and bartering, for example, but they were also
aware of others who were really struggling. They thus started to design a research project that would
allow them to understand the complex realities of the impacts of the pandemic on those people whose
livelihoods were largely based on tourism, and how they were adapting. The focus was on communities
in tourism-dependent areas, as other entities in the region were already running separate surveys on
businesses impacted by the slowdown.
