Sport Tourism, a Catalyst for Sustainable Development in Island Territories: Dynamics, Stakeholders and Challenges in the Indian Ocean

International tourism has grown rapidly in recent decades and has been seen as a vehicle for economic development in many developing island states. Many of these islands have embarked on a path of tourism development due to the paradisiacal and exotic nature of the destinations. The mass tourism development model has nevertheless produced contrasting results for the islands, even though they offer undeniable assets with beaches, coral reefs, remarkable heritages, exceptional biodiversity, and a multi-ethnic mix. The islands are therefore faced with multiple climatic, environmental, territorial, and socio-economic challenges. Sustainable development therefore takes on its full meaning in these areas. A string of islands and islets in the Indian Ocean, the whole region received 4.1 million tourists in 2019. Due to their geographical configurations and climatic particularities, the Indian Oceanic islands offer the possibility of practising a wide range of sport tourism activities under optimal conditions. In this context, the various stakeholders are looking at the economic, socio-cultural and environmental stakes of these activities, anxious to make the most of their impact on local life. After having really participated in the process of developing leisure activities on the islands since the 1980s, the objective of this chapter is to study the role played by the actors in the development of tourism in sports areas and territories in the Indian Ocean, which today constitute a real economic market. More precisely, the objective is to analyse the incentives and regulations of these activities at the intersection of tourism and sport territories contributing to the sustainable development of this sector of activity. We will then study the models of initiatives of the islands as well as the perspectives of Sustainable Development Goals of sport tourism for these territories.