Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean

After having traveled in the Caribbean as a tourist for years, I always wanted to read a good analysis of tourism in the Caribbean. This book is the best. It explains how very little of the economic benefits of the money we spend in as a tourist reaches the local people. Pattullo explains how deep this exploitation goes and has tons of data to support her conclusions.

"Last Resorts" by Polly Pattullo is an excellent history and analysis of the Caribbean tourist industry. Ms. Pattullo examines the myriad social, environmental, economic and cultural changes that tourism has produced in the region. Along the way, the reader gains insight into how the promotion of the Carribean as a place of carfree escapism may be endangering the region's future unless vast inequities both within and without the Carribean are addressed in a meaningful way. Ms. Pattullo explains that mass tourism emerged as an economic development strategy that was defined by the Caribbean's dependent relationship with the colonial powers of the 20th century and especially the United States. When air travel opened tourism to the middle classes in the 1960s, post-colonial governments turned to Western corporations to develop destinations that might attract foreign capital and thereby prop up local economies. However, the islands have gradually become ever more dependent on outside forces as airlines, cruise ship operators, and hotel chains have come to exercise near-monopolistic control over tourist itineraries. In order to maintain their privileged positions in the struggle for market share, most Carribean governments have found it necessary to concede the majority of tourist revenues to the procurement of foreign goods and services. For example, Ms. Pattullo discusses how top jobs in the tourism sector tend to go to foreigners while locals get mostly dead-end jobs; many are resentful about earning poor wages despite working in a highly profitable industry. As street vendors and other freelancers seek to aggressively sell drugs and their bodies to tourists, more destinations have chosen to offer all-inclusive experiences that shut the dangers of the outside world away. Yet the coccoon-like world of the all-inclusives only serves to reinforce privilege, depriving locals of their own beaches and insulating visitors from the discomfort of viewing the socio-economic deprivation that often surrounds them. Ms. Pattullo addresses that most pernicious of all tourism, the cruise ship industry which largely treats the Caribbean as a parking lot and waste dump for its 20 million annual passengers and where island culture is experienced in its most sanitized and commodified form. Most passengers spend little time onshore but frequently purchase goods at duty-free shops that are aligned with the ships, providing little revenues for the islands -- who, for their part, have found it impossible to impose reasonable rates of taxation on the industry for fear of being dropped from itineraries. Whereas the path of corporate-controlled mass tourism is leading towards the Disneyification of island culture and the degradation of its environment, Ms. Pattullo believes that the Caribbean can secure a better future by embracing the principle of sustainability. The author contends that the region must begin to celebrate and preserve its unique history, culture and na

Last Resorts: The Cost Of Tourism In The Caribbean, second edition, updated and revised by Polly Pattullo is an in-depth study of the economic and general effects of tourism upon the Caribbean area. Knowledgeably written, Last Resorts covers the overall economic effects of employment, history, government, social impact, culture, as well as an informative prediction of future probabilities for the Caribbean. Highly recommended for the vast coverage it provides, as well as its highly acute and accurate analytical content, Last Resorts is an excellent read for economics advisors, Caribbean trade executives, and non-specialist general readers, local citizens and vacationers with an interest in the Caribbean.

- Everyone's tropical paradaise might be a victim of its own success. This book reviews the tourism industry and explores how to bring greater benefits to the region. Excellent! Ron Mader / El Planeta Platica