Analyse empirique de la relation entre la biodiversité marine et l’activité touristique dans les petits et micro-États de la Caraïbe

Small islands of Caribbean are facing important marine, environmental, and terrestrial challenges. The biodiversities in this region are considered as the most threated of the world. Simultaneously, the tourism sector plays a key role in these economies. The objective of this paper is to analyze and evaluate economically the relationship among marine biodiversity and tourism, on the one hand, and inversely between tourism and marine biodiversity, on the other hand. As the result, a panel data is used, also Hausman-Taylor estimator (HT) to investigate a tourism demand function, applied to six small islands of Caribbean, members of Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS): Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St Vincent and Grenadines. In this function, marine biodiversity plays a key role, in addition to the traditional economic and price variables. Levels of biodiversity are found to have a significant influence on tourism. This justifies their inclusion in a tourism demand function, and points to the importance of national policy in protecting the biodiversity of the Caribbean islands. Finally, the results show an urgent need to impose an optimal carrying capacity for these destinations in order to reach tourism sustainable development.panel data, Hausman-Taylor estimator (HP), marine biodiversity, OECS, economic impact