Research on the Coastal Marine Environment and Rural Sustainable Development Strategy of Island Countries—Taking the Penghu Islands as an Example

Abstract

In this study, we examined the keelboat industry on Penghu Island in Taiwan as an example to discuss sustainable development strategies for the marine environment and villages. First, three experts were consulted to compile questionnaires. A snowball sampling method was used to collect 278 samples of residents and tourists living in the coastal area. Opinions were collected from 8 residents, crew members, tourists, and scholars. The data were finally summarized and compared by triangulation method and then examined. We found that introducing the keelboat industry could preserve maritime culture, increase local popularity and leisure options for people, create business opportunities, and improve the economy. It could also lead to a loss of coastal architectural features, increased the amount of trash in the community, around the harbor, and on the sea, no improvement in public facilities and medical care, and decreased the willingness of young people to return to their hometowns. Encouraging men to work in tourism-related industries, assisting in balancing job opportunities, strengthening villagers’ communication, improving tourists’ environmental literacy, adding onboard guides, improving women’s professional knowledge of marine ecology and working opportunities for boat maintenance, as well as actively participating in community development planning, can improve the current situation and achieve the goal of sustainable development.

A Study on the Current Impact on Island Tourism Development under COVID-19 Epidemic Environment and Infection Risk: A Case Study of Penghu

“…The analysis showed that there were significant differences in perceptions of different stakeholders regarding the effectiveness of the current tourism development on the island due to the impact of the epidemic, such as the effectiveness of maintaining local boatmooring space, tourist resting and parking facilities, landscape and historical sites, the littering behavior of tourists, heavy oil discharge pollution, waste garbage and oil pollution on the harbor surface, destruction of marine habitats, heavy oil discharge pollution, tourism waste, and threats from foreign species. Visitors feel more strongly about littering, boatmooring space, heavy oil discharge pollution, landscape and historical sites protection, marine waste and pollution on the harbor, marine habitat, heavy oil discharge, tourism waste, and threats from foreign species, while residents feel more strongly about the lack of tourist resting and parking facilities, which is not consistent with the literature [14,15,31].…”

“…The impact of tourism development on village economic development can be explored at the level of consumer prices, industrial construction, and community development, according to scholars [31][32][33][34]. Among them, issues on local employment, wages, incentives, consumption, leisure activities, industry, construction, facilities, prices, health, culture and creativity, community feedback, and policy coordination [1,14,34,35] will be the main influences.…”

“…The island has become a unique tourism environment and resource due to the geographical advantage of being surrounded by the sea, the diversity of marine ecology, and the architectural features of the local fishing villages [14,15,31]. However, with the promotion of the tourism industry and development, the existing village communities and the surrounding marine environment will be changed to a certain extent [14,16,40].…”

“…Before a vaccine can completely stop the virus, government agencies and scholars around the world are trying to find solutions to mitigate or ameliorate the negative effects of the virus [24][25][26]. According to the literature review, in recent years, scholars have explored many different issues regarding the impact of the epidemic on tourist areas [10][11][12][13][14][15]27,28], including investigating the impact of tourism in island areas [29,30] and studying tourism in the Penghu Islands [31]. However, the impact of the epidemic on the tourism industry of the Penghu Islands has not been investigated.…”

How to improve the problem of hotel manpower shortage in the COVID-19 epidemic environment? Exploring the effectiveness of the hotel practice training system

“…In response to the development and demand of the tourism industry, the total number of global chain and independent hotels grew steadily to 1.5% from 2015 to 2019, reaching 886,900 (Shenzhen Qianzhan Information Co., Ltd., 2020 ). Coastal hotels are popular among consumers due to the geographical advantages of coastal towns, specifically developed land, sea, and air transportation infrastructure; abundant water resources; and ecological diversity (Wu 2021 ). Therefore, the demand for coastal hotels has increased, with great potential for industrial development.…”