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Island governments meeting in Jeju, South Korea, have expanded a nearly three-decade-old tourism network and added a commercial marketplace, giving their cooperation a more direct link to the businesses expected to deliver sustainable tourism.
The 27th Inter-Island Tourism Policy Forum, held October 28–30, 2026, brought approximately 450 participants from 16 countries to Jeju Stone Park. Delegations from 12 member regions adopted a joint statement addressing climate pressures, digital change and responsible tourism. Zanzibar was selected to host the 28th forum in 2027.
The developments show an organization broadening its reach. Whether membership generates additional income, better jobs, or healthier island environments remains harder to establish from its published record.
Who actually belongs to ITOP?
ITOP is a network of subnational island governments. Describing it as an alliance of independent island states misrepresents its membership and purpose.
Founded in 1997 by Jeju, Bali, Hainan and Okinawa, it connects destinations whose administrations face comparable tourism decisions despite operating within different national systems.
Its current membership comprises Jeju in South Korea; Bali in Indonesia; Hainan in China; Okinawa in Japan; Sri Lanka’s Southern Province; Hawai‘i in the United States; Zanzibar in Tanzania; Phuket in Thailand; Cebu in the Philippines; Penang in Malaysia; Ecuador’s Galápagos; and Greece’s South Aegean.
Galápagos and South Aegean joined in 2026, the first additions since 2013. Their admission extends a network historically concentrated in Asia and the Pacific into South America and Europe.
That composition matters: the forum brings together governments responsible for destination decisions, rather than simply gathering national tourism ministers or selling memberships to individual hotels.
What members are offered
ITOP’s membership guidance identifies five principal benefits: international forums, policy and best-practice exchanges, destination promotion through travel marts, opportunities to develop cooperation projects with UN Tourism, and connections with PATA and other partners.
Applicants must be subnational island governments where tourism is an important economic activity. Applications undergo administrative review and an approval process assessing commitment to the forum’s objectives and sustainable development.
The public membership pages reviewed do not specify an annual subscription or provide enough information to calculate the full cost of participation. Membership should therefore not be described as free, nor should its financial value be assumed.
For governments, the practical attraction is access to counterparts confronting familiar problems. A policy discussion about distributing visitors beyond crowded attractions, for example, can be more relevant when participants also manage island access, vulnerable landscapes and seasonal demand.
These are opportunities for learning and cooperation. They are not guarantees of investment, airline services or additional bookings.
Jeju adds a business test
The clearest new commercial initiative was the inaugural ITOP Island Travel Mart , organized with the Pacific Asia Travel Association, or PATA.
Organizers designed the marketplace around scheduled, one-to-one meetings between tourism suppliers from member destinations and buyers from Asia-Pacific markets. Reporting from the event identified 30 sellers and 30 buyers.
For participating businesses, this creates a more immediate benefit than a government declaration: access to potential distribution partners and customers. However, meetings are an intermediate result. Published contract values, converted bookings and follow-up sales would provide stronger evidence of commercial success.
The policy program also addressed online booking trends, off-season marketing, visitor dispersion and opportunities associated with direct flights. These were subjects for exchanging experience, not evidence that ITOP had secured new routes or delivered marketing growth.
What has ITOP achieved?
Its documented achievements begin with continuity. The forum has maintained a recurring platform since 1997, with meetings hosted across member regions and an agenda covering conservation, crisis management, community income and tourism technology.
Its archive also records international policy seminars continuing during 2020–2022, when the main forum was suspended because of COVID-19. Discussions addressed pandemic responses, recovery and digitalization. Maintaining that exchange during disruption is a tangible institutional output.
The 2026 membership expansion, joint statement and first travel mart add identifiable results. They demonstrate that cooperation is taking place and that its format is evolving.
The evidence is thinner on subsequent impact. The public material reviewed did not establish a comparable, member-by-member assessment linking ITOP participation to higher local earnings, reduced tourism emissions, improved waste management or additional investment.
That does not establish that members have received no value. Policy learning and working relationships can matter without appearing in visitor statistics. It does mean that broad claims of economic or environmental transformation would exceed the available evidence.
UN Tourism, PATA and WTTC: different relationships
ITOP’s connection with UN Tourismpredates the Jeju meeting. The UN agency’s Asia-Pacific Regional Support Office documented participation in the 2019 Okinawa forum, where it presented on tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2026 program included UN Tourism in the leaders’ roundtable. Organizers also announced cooperation toward a post-2030 sustainable island tourism policy model. That should be understood as work being pursued, rather than an already completed framework with demonstrated results.
PATA’s role is more directly commercial: collaboration on the 2026 travel mart provides a documented link between island suppliers and wider travel-industry networks.
Similarly, the Jeju program included an Islands Connectmeeting focused on meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. Such participation illustrates overlapping networks; it does not make ITOP a subsidiary of another association or extend another organization’s membership automatically to ITOP members.
Zanzibar’s opportunity in 2027
Zanzibar’s next-host role gives the Indian Ocean destination a platform to showcase its tourism economy and shape the following discussion. President Hussein Ali Mwinyi participated in the Jeju opening, where the forum flag was handed over.
The next meeting will also offer an opportunity to report what followed Jeju: commercial deals, shared projects, adopted policies and progress on the proposed UN Tourism cooperation.
For members, those follow-through results would make the value of this long-running island network easier to demonstrate to businesses and residents alike.
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