Abstract
Coastal tourism destinations worldwide are facing unprecedented existential threats driven by climate change, with accelerated sea-level rise posing immediate operational and structural challenges. The Republic of Maldives, an archipelagic nation characterized by low-lying coral atolls, serves as a critical frontline indicator for the viability of coastal tourism policy and resilience planning. This study investigates the design, implementation, and efficacy of adaptive management strategies formulated to safeguard tourism infrastructure and natural capital against encroaching sea levels. Employing a multi-method qualitative case study approach, we analyzed institutional policy frameworks, spatial coastal zoning regulations, and empirical data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 38 key stakeholders, including resort operators, government policymakers, environmental consultants, and local island council leaders. The findings reveal a bifurcated adaptive capacity: while high-end private resort enclaves successfully deploy capital-intensive soft and hard engineering solutions alongside integrated ecosystem restoration, inhabited local tourism islands remain constrained by fragmented regulatory oversight, centralized bureaucratic bottlenecks, and severe financial limitations. We identify key institutional misalignments between national climate adaptation mandates and destination-level execution. Based on these insights, we propose a holistic, polycentric adaptive management framework tailored for small island developing states (SIDS) to bridge policy-practice divides, enhance ecological resilience, and ensure the long-term socio-economic viability of ongoing coastal tourism.
