Tourism In The Caribbean
Economic Impact On The Caribbean
Tourism impacts significantly on Caribbean economies, it provides employment to thousands of persons on the various destinations.
It creates linkages with other sectors such as agriculture, land sea and air transportation, food and beverage, restaurants etc.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year in the Caribbean by visitors from all over the world.
Revenue derived from tourism helps governments to develop their countries infrastructure and maintain several social services.
The industry offers great opportunities for private sector entrepreneurs such as hoteliers, tour operators and destination management companies.
Tourism is the only industry which some Caribbean islands have, without tourism they would have difficulty maintaining their desired standard of living.
Social Impact
Tourism has both positive and negative impacts on the Caribbean.
To look at the positive side, if helps Caribbean People to understand and appreciate different cultures and lifestyles.
The exchange of information which it offers helps to enlighten people in the Caribbean Region about the rest of the world and its affairs.
It helps to break down linguistic, cultural and social barriers which often in the past isolated people because of our lack of understanding of each other.
Some negative impacts are increased prostitution in some destinations, increase in sexually transmitted diseases, the sale and use of illegal drugs which threatens to undermine and destroy family religious and social values.
In some cases some destinations become so dependent on tourism that they no longer seek to pursue the development of alternative industries which will alleviate financial problems resulting from a serious decline in their tourism industry.
Vulnerability Of Tourism
Tourism can be affected by many unforeseen and unpredictable variables, such as wars, social and political unrest, economic recession and natural disasters.
Currently Dominica and other Caribbean Islands are experiencing a major decline in tourism arrivals because of the effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.