Book Review: Caribbean Tourism, By Jean Holder

The sights the tourists see, the food that they eat, and the people they meet are all carefully controlled by the resort. When the tourists are seeing the countryside, their driver will only show them the nicer parts of the island. The tourists are also too preoccupied to think about the tiny underfunded school houses, or the dilapidated hospitals. The cuisine that the tourists are consuming is actually food that has been flown in from Miami. In one scene, a Jamaican hotel guide warns the tourists to watch out for thieves when strolling about on nearby streets outside of the safety of the resort. In all likelihood, the folks walking around are people forced to flee to the city in search of work. The tourists are encouraged to stay within the resorts, where security guards and their trained dogs patrol the edges.

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid presents the hypothetical story of a tourist visiting Antigua, the author’s hometown. Kincaid places the reader in the shoes of the tourist, and tells the tourist what he/she would see through his/her travels on the island. She paints a picturesque scene of the tourist’s view of Antigua, but stains the image with details of issues that most tourists overlook: the bad roads, the origin of the so-called native food, the inefficiency of the plumbing systems in resorts, and the glitches in the health care system. Kincaid was an established writer for The New Yorker when she wrote this book, and it can be safely assumed that majority of her readers had, at some point in their lives, been tourists. I have been a

Due to the efforts to colonize the Caribbean islands, by 1750 they were almost all owned by Spain, France, or England, meaning these countries now had access to and control over this area that they did not previously; they took advantage of this newfound power (Doc 1). Sugar requires a specific climate to grow plentifully (i.e. 68°-90°F) and this was something the Caribbean islands provided the Europeans with; if European countries had not had taken control in the Caribbean islands the sugar industry would not have survived (Doc 2). At this time, the Caribbean islands were the only location that the Europeans had access to that provided the correct climate. The landscape was ideal and led to a high crop yield and without it the consumers would be at a loss (Doc 8). Through the 1700s and into the 1800s, in Barbados, Jamaica, Saint-Domingue, and Cuba, sugar production rates escalated, but this vast increase was made possible only by the natural conditions of the Caribbean islands (Doc 10).

Sugarcoating the problem of Haiti’s image and tourism industry must be genuine and for that it should be more than nice-looking pictures. It needs to start with getting real ourselves and acknowledging that we have issues that beautiful sceneries and beaches alone won’t change. A prosperous Haiti open for business should also include achieving political stability, rebuilding our infrastructures and raising awareness about the importance of education and by promoting self-reliability to an uneducated population that relies mostly on the diaspora to consume since their own government with zero concern has failed them, grounding NGO’s and “messiah’s” with no regulation using the situation to make profit. Without all these changes tourism, will only be an ideal since a country cannot solely rely on tourism as its primary source of revenue, especially since the

This is the message Kincaid, conveyed, when she expresses how tourist “marveled” at how in tune the Antiguans are with nature and how they are able to take simple things and create useful things and she tells the tourist that what you surprised at, the only reason why we are left in this state serving you because we don’t have the resource to escape our realities is because your ancenstors enslave us and left us poor that they benefited from. So you the tourist come, leaving your luxurious life to enjoy a pleasureable vacation all at the hands of the poor

Cuba has been the source of controversy for decades. Between events such as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s and the country’s ongoing Communist dictatorship, this island nation has not always been thought of as an appealing place to visit. However, Cuba’s physical and human geography, especially when coupled with the lifting of the US embargo, give it the potential to be a prime tourism destination.

The Butler Model expresses a very generalised idea of what stages a country might go through when developing into a tourism industry. The Butler Model shows the development through each stage until the country reaches stagnation. In this essay I look specifically at each stage of the Butler Model with reference to Antigua.

The cause and effects of the Haitian Revolution have played, and continue to play, a major role in the history of the Caribbean. During the time of this rebellion, slavery was a large institution throughout the Caribbean. The success of the sugar and other plantations was based on the large slave labor forces. Without these forces, Saint Domingue, the island with the largest sugar production, and the rest of the Caribbean, would face the threat of losing a profitable industry.

Elaine Potter Richardson a.k.a. Jamaica Kincaid, was one of the staff writers for the New Yorker who mostly wrote for the magazine that often-chronicled Caribbean culture. One of her work was “The Ugly Tourist” which was included in the opening chapter of “A Small Place,” and appeared in Harper’s in 1988. Kincaid’s essay talks about how it feels to be a tourist which she refers “the ugliest thing in the world.” The piece was rejected by the editor of the New Yorker because of being “too angry.” Within the composition, it’s obvious that Kincaid’s largest target is the economic structure of the dysfunctional tourism or in other words, she speaks directly to “you,” the reader. She even criticizes tourists in a resentful and ferociously pitched way that is somewhat troubling for some readers, and not obviously what she intends. Overall, Kincaid’s work doesn’t succeed to persuade his readers by failing to construct her ethos, pathos and logos.

This article was written in 1997 and still this day we face the same issues in the carribean. Im from the carribean south part of Dominican Rep (Barahona) I see how many locals struggle to survive moving to Bavaro or Punta Cana to mske a profit to support their family. Most of the sugar cane production are being run by guatemalian nd the factories are run by Korean, chiniece or brasilian. Like stated in the artlice where is the stake of the locals, the government and their people are the one receiving the beneficiated. Many tourist don’t see the down side out of the relaxing beach or the niece horse ride. “reality remain invisible to 15 million visitors who come from North America and Western Europe each season” the drugs, the poverty and health

The Caribbean is a vastly diverse area representing the effects of colonialism, slavery, and the combination of many cultures.

In “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, Kincaid criticizes tourists for being heartless and ignorant to the problems that the people of Antigua had and the sacrifices that had to be made to make Antigua a tremendous tourist/vacation spot. While Kincaid makes a strong argument, her argument suggests that she doesn't realize what tourism is for the tourists. In other words, tourism is an escape for those who are going on vacation and the tourists are well within their rights to be “ignorant”, especially because no one is telling them what is wrong with Antigua.

Tourism plays a major role on the infrastructure of the Caribbean countries. Without tourism, the Caribbean’s would perhaps be unknown territories among the ocean. The three major impacts of tourism in the Caribbean are social, cultural and environmental. Tourism impacts the Caribbean socially by proving jobs and services for the people and and generating a revenue

The evolution of Caribbean Literature started centuries before the Europeans graced these shores and continues to develop today. Quite noticeably, it developed in a manner which transcended all language barriers and cultures. Today the languages of the Caribbean are rooted in that of the colonial powers - France, Britain, Spain and Holland - whose historical encounters are quite evident throughout the region. The cosmopolitan nature of the region's language and cultural diversity develop from the mixture of European languages with Native American languages (mainly the Caribs and Arawaks) in the formation of creoles and local patois (hybrid languages) and those of Africans brought to the Caribbean as

This revolution as it is was a major element of change to the Caribbean economically and socially as well. With the introduction of sugar plantations there was chattel slavery and all its implications on Caribbean heritage and history. John F. Campbell (2010) in his study posited that Caribbean enslavement and its West African labour force was purely the result of economic necessity.