Tourism and the sustainable development goals in the Abaco cays: pre-hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how tourism investment, business and operations were aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Abaco Cays pre-Hurricane Dorian 2019 in The Bahamas. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes an exploratory qualitative approach using the Abaco Cays, The Bahamas as the geographical study area. Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face for data collection and transcribed using NVivo 12 plus. Critical discourse analysis was used to interpret interviewees’ spoken words in the broader social context of the Abaco Cays. Findings Results illustrate the extent of tourism alignment with the SDGs in communities, dependent on tourism for growth. Findings from tourism investment, business and operations data analysis provide insights on tourism and the SDGs from a local perspective. Research limitations/implications This research demonstrates how tourism aligns with the SDGs in one geographical area of The Bahamas. It also highlights discourses influencing tourism and the SDGs towards achieving the 2030 Agenda. Practical implications A practical implication of this paper is adopting a bottom-up approach for a comprehensive understanding of tourism alignment with the SDGs in the Abaco Cays. Originality/value This paper provides implementation guidelines for communities in the Abaco Cays, to align local sustainable tourism plans with the SDGs. It also provides a multidisciplinary approach for greater coherence of tourism with the SDGs from the community to the national level in the Bahamas.