Caribbean History: From Colonialism to Independence
AM217
Lecture 16: The growth of tourism
This lecture will address the biggest industry in the world and the most significant for
the Caribbean: tourism. We will consider the historical development of tourism,
especially in Cuba and Jamaica, as well as how Caribbean tourism has been
theorised as a continuation of the plantation system. We will also examine the way
in which the Caribbean is imagined through tourism and historical origins of such
imagery.
Lecture structure
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2.
3.
4.
5.
The origins of Caribbean tourism
Tourism in Cuba and Jamaica
Modern Caribbean tourism
Theorising Caribbean tourism
Tourist imagery
Caribbean tourism
The [tourist] industry hinges on the exploitation of a number of the region’s
resources, particularly sun, sea and sand, but also on its tropical rainforests and
coral reefs as well as its music, such as reggae and calypso, its cuisine, and other
cultural symbols such as carnival. It offers a variety of packages, including golf
vacations, weddings and honeymoons, dive trips, and eco-tours, its sole raison
d’être to provide pleasure to the visitor…Male and female labor (sic) and energies
constitute a part of the package that is paid for and consumed by the tourist during
the period in which she or he seeks to relax and enjoy – in the leisure time the tourist
has set aside to recuperate and restore the mind and body in order to maintain a
healthy and productive working life on returning home…
K. Kempadoo, Sun, sex, and gold (1999), pp 20-21.
Tensions between tourism and nationalism
THE LIFE YOU WISH YOU LED
The villas come equipped with gentle people named Ivy or Maud or Malcolm who will
cook, tend, mend and launder for you. Who will ‘Mister Peter, please’ you all day
long, pamper you with homemade coconut pie…weep when you leave.
Quoted in B. Mullins, ’Caribbean tourism’ (2004), p. 102.
‘Plantation tourism landscape’ model
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Based on Antigua and heavily influenced by dependency theory.
David Weaver (1988) identifies three phases in the evolution of Anitgua’s
landscape:
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Caribbean History: From Colonialism to Independence
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Pre-tourism (1632-1949) – agriculture dominant
Transition (1950-1969)
Tourism dominant (1970 to present)
Tourism and the plantation system
[S]imilarities include the dominant role of expatriate investment capital as well as
ownership and management, the seasonal nature of employment, the need for a
large component of unskilled local labour, the reliance upon a narrow range of
markets, and the responsiveness of each activity to external rather than local needs.
David Weaver, ‘The evolution of a “plantation”
tourism landscape’ (1988), p. 320.
Selling the Caribbean landscape
The natural tropical island environment with some of the world’s most beautiful
beaches is an idyllic setting for a vacation, and so tourism has become a significant
industry in the Caribbean.
T. Boswell (2003), in Hillman and D’Agostino (eds) Understanding the contemporary
Caribbean, p. 47.
Edenism and hedonism
Caribbean tourism is vested in the branding and marketing of Paradise… [S]uch
imagery picks up longstanding visual and literary themes in European
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Caribbean History: From Colonialism to Independence
AM217
representations of Caribbean landscapes as microcosms of earthly paradise –
including the temptation and corruption that go along with being in new Edens.
These discursive formations of Caribbean scenery are closely related to the
emergence of ‘hedonism’ as a key set of practices associated with Caribbean
tourism. Depictions of Caribbean ‘Edenism’…underwrite performances of touristic
‘hedonism’ by naturalising the region’s landscape and its inhabitants as avatars of
primitivism, luxuriant corruption, sensual stimulation, ease and availability.
M. Sheller, ‘Natural hedonism’ (2004), p. 23.
Cuban tourist posters from 1940s and 1950s
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Caribbean History: From Colonialism to Independence
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Caribbean History: From Colonialism to Independence
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