Tourism towards the wellbeing of small island developing states: Tourism Agenda 2030

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to contrast the capacity of tourism-specialized and non-tourism specialized systems in small developing insular societies to achieve a well-being model aligned with the Agenda 2030. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical method of this work consists of a panel-corrected standard errors analysis for a total of seven Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to measure the contribution of both economic diversification and tourism specialization to well-being in the Agenda 2030 framework. Time period considered in the analysis include 2005–2019. Findings – Linear and nonlinear relationships reveal the need to conjugate both tourism specialization and economic diversification in the 2030-development agendas of small developing insular societies as both represent a means to achieve a well-being model aligned with the Agenda 2030. Originality/value – One of the main novelties of this work is that development is analyzed from a multidimensional point of view (standard of living, access to education and health services), as an integrated thinking that considers any tourism development model that defines a route with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030 as main destination in SIDS. Specifically, practical implications are given combining recommendations to foster development and face poverty (SDG-1), while inequalities situations are reduced (SDG-10) and decent jobs are generated (SDG-8). These implications also focus on strengthening local suppliers of goods and services from other sectors to be integrated into the destination value chain (SDG-2), ensuring access to education (SDG-4) and contributing to gender equality (SDG-5)