Where the islands’ booking money goes.

Leg 1 of 4The loop

Three routes off the island, and one loop that keeps the money.

When a stay, a boat or a table is booked through a platform abroad, the money takes three routes before any of it comes home.

Leg 2 of 4The region

Across 30 islands, the fees add up.

Leg 3 of 4By island

Island by island.

Sort by any column. Open an island for its report card: size, people, visitors, the money leaving and the jobless rate, each with its source.

Money leaving: platform fees, modelled estimate, US dollars a year. Visitors: stayover visitors a year. Every value is sourced in the island’s card.

Leg 4 of 4Sources

Every source, by institution.

A figure we could not source is marked “Not published yet”, never guessed. Each estimate carries one of three confidence levels.

High confidence

The inputs come from official sources and agree with each other.

Moderate confidence

Official visitor counts; some inputs, such as spending per visitor, are estimated.

Low confidence

A key input is missing or estimated from comparable islands. Read the figure as a direction, not a measure.