It is difficult to generalize the locals in the Caribbean Islands seeing as the Caribbean consists of over 7,000 Islands within 28 different countries. However, there are quite a few similarities throughout the region for, at least, the majority. One similarity is the history. Many Islands were owned by European nations - mostly the Spanish, Dutch or British. They were largely populated by slaves brought in to run sugar cane factories, a difficult and strenuous job. In the early 1800's, slavery was mostly abolished in the Caribbean, particularly in the British-owned portions. However, this left the region in a poor economic state. The abolition of slavery took away the majority of the work force in sugar cane so the production all but came to a halt. Sugarcane was one of the few things the Caribbean had as a resource on the islands that they could export (not that they were receiving compensation for the production at the time). The islands in general do not have many natural resources and therefore have to spend large sums of money to import nearly everything they have - food, building materials, gas, etc. Therefore, the islands are consisting of mostly ancestors of poor slaves who don't have much to live off of without importing expensive resources. They do, however, have one saving grace - a beautiful landscape that makes the rest of worlds mouths water at the sight of it. The Caribbean is "Heaven on Earth" and that will make many people pay any price to see and experience it. The locals strive off of tourism and make a decent amount of their income from foreign visitors. The only problem is that other countries have discovered how much people will pay to visit these incredible islands and have decided they want a cut of the money. Large corporations from all over the world have set up shop in the islands and they get a large portion of the business that comes. If the locals aren't getting enough business, the unique local areas will shut down and it could potentially turn into the same type of shopping areas all around the world. Hopefully people will read this and decide to buy local when they visit these beautiful places and keep them unique.
I have read your blog, and it impressed me a lot. I have hardly learned anything about Caribbean Islands. So your blog really broaden my view.
I think your topic interrelates to my area. This dilemma is almost the same in some regions in China. People want to develop economy through tourism. But tourism does bring a lot of changes to local people, environment, and even culture. How can we stride a balance? I think this is what we want to discover.
I believe the UNESCO will help you a lot with your topic. You can easily find resource about the heritage, and the preservation of your region.
What we can do to make a difference? I think the Internet will help a lot. At least, we can call for the awareness of our friends through social media.
I really enjoyed your thoughts and research about the Caribbean since I did not even know this was going on! Since the Caribbean is a large tourist attraction with a large poor population I do hope that people recognize where they spend their money and hopefully spending it in the right places. The dangerous thing about poor families in these high tourist areas will do anything for a quick dollar. Human trafficking and sex trafficking is a huge issue in the travel industry. I am studying sex tourism in India and think that the Caribbean could be another location with this issue. I did do some quick reading about the Caribbean and sex tourism and this is what I found: http://gocaribbean.about.com/od/healthandsafety/a/Caribbeansex_2.htm I think we all must be careful. Yes, let's keep the money local but also let's not drive the poor to do anything for a quick buck.
Your topic is so interesting, but also so sad! I, too, lived in the Caribbean for some time. I lived on Grand Cayman for 9 months and then I lived in Puerto Rico for 4 months. It is so true that the locals struggle. While I was there I never met a local that was "well off." All of the rich people with the big homes were not from the islands. I was happy to know that there is a law in Cayman that all businesses have to be 55% Caymanian owned. That way they are providing more opportunity for the locals. An organization that might help you out is http://www.kirkfreeport.net/. Kirk Freeport is the company in the Cayman Islands that enforces the law that i mentioned above. Maybe you could get into contact with them and see how that whole thing came about so that it could get implemented on other islands.
Our topics are similar but also different. I am researching the changes in the culture in Nepal due to too much tourism from Mount Everest. Their culture has changed so much from what it used to be, which i find to be very sad. I want the culture to stay focused on the locals and their way of life. If tourism remains very popular in Nepal I want it to be the locals that are reaping the benefits from all the tourism.
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Dallas Harlan
2/13/2014 02:50:43 pm
I changed my topic not too long ago and had no idea that someone was also covering the Caribbean. While my focus is more specifically how the cruise industry is affecting life in the Caribbean, the two topics are almost impossibly intertwined since it seems that they feed off of each other constantly. I have been looking into the environmental side of things and the The Caribbean Environmental Programme provides information on measures and efforts that are being made to preserve the eco-system there. Hope it's useful.
-Dallas
http://www.cep.unep.org/
We both are concerned about a community and an area that is geographically isolated, Alberta Canada is a land locked area reliant on outside tourism and many industries rely on outside import/export. And, where as my geographic region draws tourists for its mostly winter experiences and yours for generally summer experiences everybody (especially for me, the people of Banff) rely on the income brought in from tourist dollars.
We may be able to help each other in research and topics to explore such as why people want to come to our areas and how poverty is being effected by tourism in the areas of our interest.
Gejiang said something about UNESCO. Banff Alberta is a UNESCO world heritage site.
And organization that may be of interest to you is...
The Caribbean Cultural and Carnival Organization
http://www.myccco.org/
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My name is Raena McGlochlin and I am in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Major at the University of Utah. I spent most of 2013 living in the Caribbean and touring the Islands. St. Thomas, USVI was my home for six months but I also discovered the rest of the US Virgin Islands as well as all of the British Virgin Islands and others. I became addicted to traveling during this year and decided I want to do it for the rest of my life. My hope is that others and maybe my own kids one day will be able to experience the things that I have, including the true beauty of these places - the local culture.