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Academics Put It Another Way. They Argue That the Problem, Especially NEW FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND: THE FUTURE Academics put it another way. They argue that the problem, especially tourism, the Cuban ambassador to Grenada and the executive directors in the case of the ‘microstates’ of the Eastern Caribbean, is that the eco- of the Caribbean Tourism Research and Development Centre and the nomic model of export-led agriculture and light industry, and a tourism Caribbean Tourism Association, the precursors of the Caribbean Tour- based on foreign investment does not provide for so-called ‘basic needs ism Organization. provision’ for the people.’ The public sector’s laissez-faire approach, its It is worth paying some attention to Bishop’s speech because Grenada inability to plan for the future and its failure to implement any plans that under the PRG and, to some extent, Jamaica are probably the only do exist are further key constraints to sustainable development. This is Caribbean states to have created a political framework for the ‘new’ particularly critical in islands such as Aruba, Antigua, Barbados, the tourism and to have had the political will to develop it. Bahamas and St Maarten which have adopted a mass-tourism profile. Bishop began his speech by emphasizing the PRG’s commitment to Such scenarios have prompted some unfavourable verdicts. For instance, tourism and to its expansion (he mentioned the forthcoming con- Professor Robert Potter quotes the Canadian academic Paul Wilkinson’s struction of the international airport at Point Salines, ‘in the centre of our conclusions on Barbados, ‘an example of the non-sustainability of a main tourist area’). He said that Grenada’s tourism would reflect ‘the fragile island microstate embracing large-scale mass tourism in what is nature of our revolution’ and that the ‘old tourism’ would be replaced by nearly a policy and planning vac~um.‘~ a ‘new tourism’i. He associated the old tourism with an imperialist age, The conclusion reached by many specialists is that high-density mass when tourism was ‘intended as a means of increasing dependence on the tourism and the open economies and closed ecosystems of small islands metropole and of providing development for the few and under- are not compatible with sustainable development. If this is so, the policy development for the vast majority of the people of our islands’.6 of the Caribbean’s tourist industry to keep on bringing more and more He summarized this ‘old tourism’ as: visitors to its shores is seriously flawed. There is, however, an alternative path to the mass-marker, leaking-vessel approach. The alternative is an integrated tourism in which the industry is managed for the common good, focusing on ecological and human needs as well as business considerations. This concept, the ‘new’ tourism, was possibly coined as long ago as 1972 by the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley, at the start of his first term of office. At any rate, that administration attempted to change (As this book has attempted to explain, Bishop would still recognize ‘old the top-down, white-on-black culture of the industry Holidays for tourism’ today in all of the Caribbean, including Grenada.) Jamaican workers were organized in the tourist resorts to break what Bishop then examined what shape he thought the new tourism should Manley called the old elitist patterns in which hotels were ‘shut away take. ‘We start from the principle that Grenadians as all Caribbean from the local population by psychology as much as by price’.’ people must be recognised as controllers of their own destiny and ‘New’ tourism later became associated with the late Prime Minister of developers of their own process.’ He went on to explore the tenets of the Grenada, Maurice Bishop, just eight months after a bloodless coup had new tourism both from an internal perspective and from a regional and brought his People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) to power. international one. Bishop’s administration was to end in his murder in October 1983. Tourism was a tool for development, he said, emphasizing its potential However, during the short-lived regime, a new tourism began to take for creating linkages with the rest of the economy at many levels, shape. including food and handicrafts. The government was also working In December 1979, Bishop gave the opening address to a regional towards what he called a proper ‘internal climate’ for tourism: this conference on the sociocultural and environmental impact of tourism on included a strong agro-industrial sector, the international airport, Caribbean societies. It war held at the Holiday Inn, on Grande Anse improved water supply and training and cultural programmes. He also Beach, Grenada, and was an important opportunity for Bishop to explain anticipated that ordinary people could participate ‘in the process of his government’s policies on tourism in front of what must have been a defining the type of tourist activity’ that Grenada wanted. somewhat suspicious regional audience. Delegates included ministers of Looking outwards, Bishop tint identified tourism as being an 204 205.
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