November/December 2007
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Island Destinations Rated: About the Survey
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Introduction Africa Caribbean Region East & Southeast Asia
Indian Ocean Region Mediterranean North & West Europe
North America Pacific/Australia/NZ South America
This survey rates the qualities that make a destination unique—"integrity of place." It's not about consumer service, so a poor but unspoiled island like Palawan can rate higher than a Hilton Head, called "the best golf-course-and-gated-community island anywhere."
We selected mainly small and medium-size islands and groups, allowing a few larger exceptions with relatively unified character, such as Iceland and Tasmania. Since evaluating an entire destination involves such unquantifiables as aesthetics and cultural integrity, we decided the best measure is informed human judgment: a panel of 522 well-traveled experts in a variety of fields—ecology, sustainable tourism, geography, travel writing and photography, site management, historic preservation, indigenous cultures, archaeology.
We asked panelists to evaluate just the islands with which they were familiar, using six criteria weighted according to importance:
• Environmental and ecological quality
• Social and cultural integrity
• Condition of historic buildings and archaeological sites
• Aesthetic appeal; quality of tourism management
• Outlook for the future
Experts first posted points of view on each destination—anonymously, to ensure objectivity. After reading each others' remarks—a variation of a research tool called the Delphi technique—panelists filed their final stewardship scores. For a list of panelists, click here.
The resulting Stewardship Index rating is an average of informed judgments about each place as a whole—all its many faces. Like the scores posted by Olympic judges, our experts' ratings reflect both measurable factors and the intangibles of style, aesthetics, and culture. And like an athlete, each island has a chance to improve.
More Traveler's Places Rated
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