Caribbean Tourism: New Perspectives

It has often been said, whether earnestly or jokingly, that Christopher Columbus was the fi rst tourist to the Caribbean. Admittedly, it seems quite a dubious assertion that modern-day tourism in the region owes its genesis to the fi rst landing of the European explorer. But from the vantage point of retrospection, it could be argued that, in some respects, tourism has been a major contributor to contemporary societal changes that are as indelible and irrevocable as those perpetuated on the landscape and natives by the peoples and civilisations that willingly came, or were forcibly transplanted, to the region. Today, there is an incessant fl ow of millions of ‘arrivals’ that visit the region mainly for the enjoyment of the sun, sand, sea, and sex that is epitomised in the Caribbean holiday experience. The consequences of the encounter and the accommodation between the peoples who now inhabit, and those who continue to come to the region as tourists, have determinedly contributed to the Caribbean being ‘regarded as one of the world’s premier travel destinations’ (Duval 2004:3) and at the same time as being ‘one of the most tourism dependent regions of the world’ (Poon 2000:143; Jayawardena 2007:3).