Abstract
Tourism is now a significant industry for the economic development of the Maldives which like many island developing states in the Indian and Pacific Ocean have few resources and opportunities for development. The paper outlines the impact which tourism has had on the economic development of the Maldives and compares and contrasts this with the experiences and strategies of similar states in the Indo-Pacific Region, such as the Seychelles and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and Fiji, Western Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific Islands.