The idea for this volume on marine tourism, and its three companion volumes, grew out of the 2015 “Innovators Think Tank: Climate Change and Coastal & Marine Tourism,” held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, July 22–24, 2015. Organized and hosted by the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) and the Grupo Puntacana Foundation, the Think Tank brought together some 35 sustainable tourism practitioners and climate change experts to take stock of how coastal and marine tourism in the Caribbean are dealing with climate change and its impacts, and to identify priorities that need to be addressed. Our discussions, ably facilitated by Roger-Mark De Souza of the Woodrow Wilson Center, were organized around a single critical theme: How coastal and marine tourism must be planned, built, and operated in this era of climate change.
One outcome of the Think Tank was the unanimous decision to put together a publication on the same theme as a tool for public education. We are grateful that many of the Think Tank participants agreed to contribute essays and case studies for these four volumes. Additional authors were identified during the years that we have worked on the books. All generously contributed their expertise to this common project.
Early in the process, Kreg Ettenger, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maine, agreed to come on board as editor of the marine tourism volumes. His contributions have been enormous and have added greatly to the quality of the books. Indispensable as well to this project has been Samantha Hogenson, CREST’s managing director, who not only contributed to the concept and content, but also, with her usual efficiency, oversaw the final copyediting and assembling of the manuscript.
She also oversaw the CREST researchers who have worked diligently on numerous essential, but often tedious, details. Patricia Nuñez Garcia, who was part of the CREST team at the Think Tank, transcribed a number of presentations that have been reshaped into contributions for the manuscript. Ashley Newson and Helena Servé organized many of the photos and graphics, including successfully securing permissions for each of them. Helena also stepped in to assist with numerous research tasks, as well as some copyediting. Finally, six other CREST researchers—Gabriela Aguerrevere Yanez, Angela Borrero, Emily Simmons, Noora Laukkanen, Jessica McCommon, and Eugene Kim—contributed to tracking down information, researching topics, and identifying potential authors. We are grateful to this entire team!
We would like to thank Scott Isenberg and Business Expert Press for taking an early interest in our proposal and agreeing to publish these volumes. We were fortunate to make contact just as BEP was launching its Tourism and Hospitality Management Collection, and to find that, like CREST, BEP focuses on reaching academic and business audiences. We are also grateful to the collection editor, Dr. Betsy Stringam of New Mexico State University, for her helpful comments and enthusiastic reception of our manuscripts.
We thank these contributors and collaborators one and all, and hope that they will be as pleased with the final product as we are at CREST.
—Martha Honey
CREST Executive Director