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The Tourism Industry in the Carribean Essay

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In her essay, “Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean”, journalist Polly Pattullo presents an inside view of the resort industry in the Caribbean Islands, and how it truly operates. Tourism is the main industry of the Caribbean, formerly referred to as the West Indies, and it is the major part of the economy there. Pattullo’s essay mirrors the ideas of Trevor M.A. Farrell’s perspective “Decolonization in the English-Speaking Caribbean” in which he writes about the implicit meaning of the colonial condition. Pattollo’s essay illustrates that colonialism is present in the Caribbean tourism industry by comparing the meaning of it presented in Farrell’s perspective. In this essay I will explain how these two essays explain how …show more content…

Pattullo’s report explains how most of the control of the economy and commerce in the Caribbean is in the large corporations that operate there but are located in other foreign countries. Comparing to Farrell’s account, she explains this by showing how the tourism industry is run and operated there. Farrell justifies reference to colonialism in the Caribbean. He describes colonization as a lack of control over that country’s own movement or development (political, economic, or cultural). Even though tourism is the dominant industry in the Caribbean, it’s not operated where it enables the people there to have control over their economic movement or development. It is the larger airlines and hotel chains that dominate the tourism.
The airline industry also contributes to exploitation in the region. For instance, the airline companies that operate most of the trips in and out of the Caribbean are large foreign-owned airlines that practically have a monopoly on seats sold, and have the say as to when flights are scheduled. There is not much opportunity for other regionally owned airlines to gain a market share of this segment of the tourism economy. In her essay, Pattullo explains, “In 1992, foreign airlines controlled nearly three-quarters of the seats to the region, with American Airlines alone picking up more than half of those seats. American Airlines, KLM, British Airways, Air France (the last three reflecting old colonial links), and

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