The Caribbean Tourism Industry: Service or Servitude?

Catalog description

This course analyzes the development of the Caribbean tourism industry. The nations surrounding the Caribbean Sea are widely regarded as a premier international tourist destination. It is argued these destinations have been purposefully engineered to boost local, state, regional, and federal economies of scale and have undergone many cycles of "boom and bust" with respect to changing consumer habits, environmental disasters (i.e. hurricanes and tropical storms), and the impact of global financial and terrorist crises. The Caribbean is a prime location to understand the often complex and dynamic effects that different types of tourism, transnationalism, and globalization have on everyday people living, working, and choosing to vacation there. The class will analyze the development of this regional tourism center with respect to understanding the identities of both hosts and guests, environmental concerns, and broader sociocultural implications of such a globalized zone of excess.