Tourism Futures: The Challenge of Sustainability

Name: Lucie Carter

Student ID:

Module Code: N12109

Module Name: Tourism Futures: the challenge of sustainability

Question: Question 2 (Choose a destination. Describe the economic, cultural and environmental impacts of tourist development there and judge the extent to which the negative impacts can be ameliorated or eliminated by the effective introduction of sustainable tourism).

Word Count: 1644

Jamaica is a small island located in The Caribbean, with a population of 2.7 million people (BBC, 2012). Whilst much of the Caribbean’s economy is dependent on tourism, the region itself contributes only 5% to the world tourism industry.  Jamaica receives 9% of this total, predominantly from the USA (Boxill, 2004). Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Jamaica became an increasingly popular tourist destination, as prosperity in the West increased and the price of long-haul airfares decreased, making intercontinental journeys viable (Ajagunna, 2006). The number of visitors has since increased, impacting Jamaica’s cultural, environmental and economic circumstances. 

The tourism industry contributes significantly to the Jamaican economy, bringing revenue both directly and indirectly into the country. The total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP was 25.6% of Jamaica’s GDP in 2013, which is expected to rise to 34.7% of GDP in 2024 (Turner, 2015). As this accounts for such a large percentage of the country’s GDP, arguably Jamaica would face higher levels of poverty and other social problems if tourism declined. Moreover, in 2013, the total contribution of travel and tourism to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, was 23.4% of total employment, which is expected to increase 3.8% pa to 412,000 jobs in 2024 (Turner, 2014). Without these extra jobs, higher rates of unemployment could increase problems such as crime. The Tourism and Entertainment Minister, Dr Wykeham McNeill has recognised that the tourism industry is ‘leading Jamaica's economic recovery programme’, and further highlighted that no other sector ‘offers the possibility of successful investment to entrepreneurs’ (McNeill, 2015). This emphasises the importance of tourism on the Jamaican economy, as it has brought numerous economic opportunities that traditional sectors such as agriculture could not. 

However, the tourism industry has not brought complete economic prosperity to the island. Jamaica’s unemployment rate remains high at 15%, with the figure for youth unemployment being particularly high. Economic growth has been extremely slow at around 1.5% each year, predominantly due to Jamaica’s vulnerability to external shocks (Hibbert, Thaver and Hutchinson, 2012). This included the 2008 global economic crisis when fewer tourists travelled, meaning tourism dependent countries like Jamaica suffered. The tourism industry has not allowed Jamaica to escape poverty, which has increased from 12.3% to 19.3%, 2008 to 2012, indicating that reliance on tourism alone has not provided serious development (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2015). The low-skilled jobs earn a minimum wage of US$1.21 an hour (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2015), which is insufficient to enhance living conditions. Yet workers are faced with limited alternative sources of employment. Jamaica has many all-inclusive based hotels, such as the 7 Sandals resorts. These resorts have been criticised for lacking ‘inclusiveness on the economy of local artisans’ (Anthony, 2001, P.26). As everything onsite is provided and prepaid for, tourists are encouraged to remain within the resort, so are less likely to contribute to the economy through buying local goods or eating in local restaurants. Moreover, some goods used by the hotels, like food produce are shipped in from overseas, meaning there is a little contribution to the Jamaican economy. Furthermore, the seasonal nature of tourism means less workers are needed from September to November, ‘when arrivals are seasonally at the lowest levels’ resulting in ‘concerned’ local hotel operators (Thame, 2015). This results in those locals who are involved in the tourism industry to be lacking work for much of the year.

The Tourism industry has had both positive and negative effects on Jamaica’s environment. Jamaica has seen large structural developments, such as a new highway to be completed in 2015, connecting Kingston with the resort towns of Ocho Rios and Montego Bay. This will be completed using US$12 million from Funds the Tourism Enhancement Fund. Money will also be used to improve resort towns, Negril and the historical Port Royal (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2013). Although it could be perceived that hotels are damaging the environment, resorts such as Sandals have implemented environmentally protecting measures to combat this. The Negril Beach resort and Spa was certified as Green Globe 21 Standard in 1998, and has ‘environmental management systems’ along with ‘environmental training programmes’ (Kingsbury, 2006, P112). Rather than damaging the environment, these special measures have been enforced for the protection of the coastal towns. 

However, much infrastructural development is concentrated around the popular coastal towns. The ‘preferential treatment of coastal towns’ (Ishemo, 2009) has heightening the rate of urbanisation, thereby ‘increasing the vulnerability of human settlements’. For example, In Kingston, ‘uphill developments activities’ have resulted ‘in sediments being washed downstream and clogging the city drains’ meaning there are frequent floods (Ishemo, 2009). Tourist activities have also created problems. The large concentration of tourists to the North creates ‘stress on the reef imposed by tourists who engage in diving and other water sports’ (Ahmed, Chung and Cesar, 2005, p.196). Many of the most popular tourist destinations such as Monetgo Bay, are ‘impacted by a wide range of anthropogenic issues’ such as ‘sewage, solid waste disposal and deforestation’, with many of these activities occurring within ‘boundaries of the relevant parks and protected areas’ (Edwards, 2009).  Moreover, the hotels themselves are ‘prime sources of water contamination’ compounded by man-made marinas and ports. The ‘destruction of mangroves’ puts the country at more risk from hurricanes and ‘oil leaks from engines’ are also damaging to the environment, especially to the islands biodiversity (Baver and Lynch, 2006, P.37).

The large influx on tourists upon a small nation island, inevitably influences cultural and social aspects of the country. As highlighted by Barver and Lynch, much of Jamaica’s culture is being ‘commodified’ which has ‘contributed to the degradation’ of cultural resources, as goods have been ‘routinised into products for sale to the tourist’ (2006, p.34). This commodification is evident in Jamaica’s art work, which has been ‘modified’ to make ‘stereotypical products they believe tourists want’, such as dreadlocked Rastafarians. Moreover, tourism packagers ‘caricature’ aspects of the Jamaican culture, portraying locals as ‘limbo dancing’ characters (Baver and Lynch, 2006, p,41). Furthermore, tourism brings increased crime, from unemployed settlers around the resorts, this has increased ‘violent crimes and incidences of harassment’ (Ajagunna, 2006). Arguably, Jamaica’s dependency on more developed countries means the country has ‘retained patterns reminiscent of its colonial past’ (Williams, 2012, P.193). These relations are also perpetuated in that for the majority of the time black Jamaicans are serving a largely white clientele, an image often portrayed by promoters (Barver and Lynch, 2006). Moreover, there may be a degree of hostility created towards the tourists, as there is a ‘pressure’ for the locals to be ‘nice to the tourists’ despite any underlying hostility (Barver and Lynch, 2006, p.41), as sometimes visitors are ‘tolerated or forced upon communities’ (Holden, 2003, P.4)