SG-09

PROJECT INFORMATION

Climate-Health-Environment Nexus Risk in the ‘Shared Economy’ Hotel Sector: Assessment and Risk Reduction Planning

Principal investigator (PI):

Kalim Shah, University of Delaware, United States of America

E-mail: kalshah@udel.edu

Phone: +1 219 789 417 5

Duration & funding:

(September 2023–2024) USD 15,000

Co-funding offered

USD 16,303

Participating countries: 

United States of America, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The uncertainties and risks at the climate-health-environment nexus have significant implications for the future of the Caribbean tourism sector and, therefore, the health and well-being of island peoples. The rapidly growing ‘sharing economy’ private vacation property rental segment(‘AirBnBs’) is almost totally unregulated and therefore presents significant potential nexus risks to all participants - operators, visitors, local communities, and government regulators. This study aims to design a nexus risk assessment approach for private vacation property operators and the local communities in which they are immersed. We will implement the assessments in close consultation with a highly vulnerable, representative Jamaican community, and identify and communicate the potential risk reduction solution sets to all stakeholders. The outputs of this study will lay the groundwork for a nexus risk reduction strategy for local government policymakers, at least of an indigenous technology prototype, and a nexus risk rating system for the operators in the Jamaican AirBnB market and potentially elsewhere.