Paradise On Earth Or Paradise Lost Tourism Essay

The Caribbean includes the over seven thousand islands. As in most developing countries, the Caribbean is recognised as an area heavily dependent on the tourism industry for economic survival ( Manley 1995 & Jessop 2000) . According to the Caribbean Tourism Statistics, in 2002 the area attracted more than 14 million tourists per year. The main attractions are the beautiful sandy beaches, clean sea and a warm climate; “…the Caribbean has more amazing beaches and sun than you can shake a stick at” (www.lastminute.com) . By looking at both the negative and positive impacts of the developments in the tourism industry in the Caribbean enables a better understanding of the impact on the local communities. Therefore, is it “Paradise on Earth” as promised by tour operators trying to sell holidays to the Caribbean, or merely an image presented to the tourist “…[the] tourist-consumer appears to buy paradise in the travel agency or airline ticket office…”(Strachan, 2002) .

“The Caribbean is a nature lover’s dream, welcoming visitors in search of the wonders of the natural world-creatures plants and landscapes unmatched in diversity and beauty”(www.caribbeantravel.com) . Is this still the truth? According to Barberia (2003) the area’s natural resources attract a large number of tourists, but mass tourism brings environmental damage to the ecosystem, as well as impacting on the economy and it damages the social and cultural environment of the Caribbean islands. The main attraction for visitors are “the 3 S’s”/ This means sun, sea, sand. But in modern world, visitors are seeking something more Nowadays , sex tourism is becoming one of the main constitutions that attracts tourist to the destination. Nowadays, tourism to the Caribbean islands has become mass tourism ( Archer & Davies 2007).

As in many developing countries, tourism to the Caribbean offers some advantages to the area, including reducing the level of poverty in the area by providing job opportunities for the local community, generating income which leads to economic growth (Palmer 1993) . However, tourism not only provides direct jobs through accommodation, hospitality, transport, shops and casinos. Tourism also helps support investment in the local infrastructure including; medical centres, new roads, utilities as well as other shopping facilities. It is also a main source of government revenue through the taxing of goods and services (Bryan 2001). The World Tourism Organisation (2001) believes that in 2012 the tourism industry created around 3 million jobs in Caribbean.

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On the other hand, the economy in the Caribbean was traditionally dependent on agriculture. The sugar crop industry was the leading industry, followed by banana, coffee, cocoa, rice and citrus. However, in recent times the Caribbean has become heavily dependent on the tourism industry (Steinberg 1978). It has been argued that the locals prefer working in the tourism industry rather than in difficult, low paying, traditional work in fishing or agriculture. An extract from the Pattullo (1996) book describes this scenario “…working in de hotel in de harbour last year, even though man getting paid really bad wage I at least know dat each week I gonna get dollar for pay for food and thing.” The young man here is explaining that, for him, there is better work available in the tourism industry. Even though he earns a small amount of money there is greater uncertainty working in agriculture or fishing (Pattullo 1996,p 55). Moreover, it has been suggested that most local people living in poverty look “exotic and different” to wealthy visitors, in many cases visitors treating the locals as slaves. It has been hard for Caribbean people to escape from the feelings of injustice that were instigated by slavery and the experiences of poverty after slavery. Tourism is still being seen as an extension of this system of slavery, with the locals there for the visitor’s luxury, amusement and comfort (Bryan 2001). According to this view, locals are there to serve the wealthy clients and are in effect still being treated as slaves. Their tourism industry is largely controlled by white people with the local black population employed in a service capacity for minimal remuneration (Miller 2006, p 39) . The low level of education in the area does not give equal opportunity for the indigenous staff to secure jobs in highly skilled, high paid jobs (Goodwin, 2008) .

Nowadays, some of the visitors come to the Caribbean not only for the “3S’s” but also for another “S”; sex tourism. Sex tourism involves the prostitution of men and women and sex trafficking of young people and children. It has been suggested that this has had a damaging effect on the local community (Bryan 2001). Moreover, it has created a negative image of local women – who are not prostitutes, but whose service includes cleaning rooms, washing cloth and sex (Sanchez-Taylor & O’Connell 1998/1999,p 1). Adverts from major tour operators construct an image of the Caribbean that suggests “… a dream Caribbean holiday has it all and more”( http://www.directline-holidays.co.uk) however, the popularity of ‘sex tourism’ has succeeded in increasing the number of sexually transmitted diseases – such as HIV, and Hepatitis, within the local communities. The number of sexually transmitted diseases is steadily increasing each year , with the current estimate of HIV cases alone believed to be between 500,000 and 700,000. Ironically, sex tourism has put at huge risk, not only the locals and the visitors, but their tourism industry as a whole, which could have a damning impact on the island’s major source of revenue. In Jamaica, where the economy is in decline, and with the country increasingly relying on income from tourism, not only for the obvious benefits, but also for the prostitution of men and women who see this as the only way to earn money to survive (UNAIDS ,2001) .

The large volume of tourism in the Caribbean is mostly generated by two areas, all-inclusive and cruise tourism (Duval 2004, p10).The all- inclusive vacation is the easiest way to control guests’ experience and their expenditure, Controlling what to eat, drink, entertainment and what to buy, whilst conveniently preventing them from sharing in the culture of the natives living on the islands, and their hardships. Tourists spend most of their money before coming to Caribbean i.e. “The traveller is buying into the resort and its image, not the location”.(Henthorne & Miller 2003, p 8) Is this of benefit to the local community? Most resorts are owned by multinational corporations, and so the money usually doesn’t remain within the locally economy. The food and beverages are imported and only low paid jobs are provides for locals is benefit community . On the other hand, some of the local natural resources are no longer accessible as well as some areas on which locals have traditionally depended for their livelihood, entertainment and work. Moreover, the community has suffered from water shortages during the dry season partly as a result of water provided to hotels and resorts (Bayer & Lynch 2006,p 8) . When coastal tourism started to grow, extensive damage was done to sand dunes and lagoons resulting in the deaths of various species of animals and fish. Jamaica has the highest number of animal and plant species which are under the threat of disappearance in Caribbean. The Caribbean has become the largest destination for cruise tourism in the world. According to Wood (2004), cruise tourism amounted to only 12 percent of all tourism spending in the Caribbean in 2000. Caribbean communities get the smallest economic benefits from cruise tourism. Governments of some countries in the Caribbean, in order to attract a large number of cruise ships to the port destinations, have been competing to relax the environmental standards. As with all inclusive resorts, the cruise ships are largely owned by foreign companies, exploiting the local work force, and it could be argued, not reinvesting the profits into the local economy. Also, the ‘cruise’ industry has had a major environmental impact on the coastal waters, and marine life. Ships dump waste into the ocean, destroying coral reef ecosystems (Wood, 2000) scuba drivers and snorkelers are damaging coral reefs through repeated excessive contact, as well as the locals who remove the corals to sell it as tourist souvenirs in a desperate attempt to escape the extreme poverty accentuated by the tourist trade.

Conclusion

In revision of all the negative and positive impacts raised in this essay, I conclude that tourism cannot solely destroy the Caribbean sun, the beaches and water, but ironically, it can drastically reduce and eventually destroy this wonderful habitat, the very thing that brings the tourists to the Caribbean in the first place. Most tourists search out the area for typical reasons: beaches, landscape and climate, they are looking for “a holiday of a lifetime” experience , to visit a real live paradise, without totally comprehending the effects on the local environment.

It could be argued that the image of this paradise was in fact created by tour operators, in an attempt to increase the number of visitors (and their profits!). With the increased availability of cheaper air travel over the last decade or so, there is now a growing demand for people wanting to honeymoon, and even marry in this paradise-like region of the world, a”…blue water paradise, there are abundant islands offering pristine beaches, all types of water activities, green landscapes and awesome sunsets to set that romantic mood for two.” (http://www.honeymoonersreviewguide.com/caribbean/)

“The tourist/consumer appears to buy paradise in travel agents…,but actually, this traveller has purchased only the promise of “paradise”: the collection of ideas, the myth…”( sited on presentation, appendix 1). Each person has a different view of paradise: some look for a few weeks of luxury, to be waited on hand and foot, to experience a different way of life, to escape from the stresses of home. Other visitors associate the Caribbean with sex and/or romance, where the abject poverty present, again allows the ‘affluent’ to have every whim catered to. However, most tourists have a limited view of these islands: all they see is the airport, the ports, the hotels, the beaches and sights, often never even leaving the hotel complex. This short sighted vision of the region helps attract tourism to the island, giving the perfect holiday experience for them but at the same time damage environments and having a negative impact on life within the local community. The real life and experiences of locals and all their problems are conveniently hidden behind “the hedges” of these all- inclusive resorts.(Henthorne &Miller 2003)

Tourism has a predisposition to be more negative than positive when used as the single or most important, chain for development and when taken out of the hands of the local people who are most impacted. As with most third world destinations, the Caribbean is, at this time experiencing many of the negative side effects of the tourism trade. The paradise that exists in holiday brochures and in visitors’ observations of the Caribbean could become a hell for the local community if there is not a suitable reinvestment of tourist cash put back into improving the infrastructure within these idyllic islands . The sustainability in tourism development has to be ensured for the future benefits of the Caribbean, and it’s peoples and become a true “paradise on Earth” and not only in image.