Abstract
Tourism continues to play a major role in island economies. However, tourism development is not without problems and concern. The paper concentrates mainly but not exclusively on the impact of tourism in the island economies in the Southern Indian Ocean. The article considers the economic and related consequences of tourism for island states such as the Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar and the Maldives, and for Western Australia. The article covers the origin of visitors and trends in tourist numbers, the extent to which tourism in these countries is ocean-based and obstacles to tourism such as remoteness from the main centres; transportation difficulties and the role of package tours.