Tourism Development, Governance and Sustainability in The Bahamas

Sophia Rolle, Jessica Minnis, Ian Bethell-Bennett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000079883
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

This book focuses on the complex issues of tourism development, governance and sustainability in the long-standing popular island destination, The Bahamas, where tourism remains one of the primary fiscal industries.

The book achieves this by looking at the impacts of mass tourism development from social, economic and environmental perspectives; panarchy and resilience; assessing sustainability; moving towards a blue economy; impacts of climate change and innovative alternative tourism offerings to ensure sustainable tourism – a welcomed but challenging essential contemporary focus of the tourism industry. It further looks at how development, governance and sustainability come together in the aftermath of a recent natural disaster, hurricane Dorian, which proved to be a strong catalyst for action, innovation and change in The Bahamas.

Given the complexity of these key concepts and The Bahamas as an established popular tourism destination archipelago which relies so heavily on the industry, this book offers significant insight for other tourism regions and will therefore be essential reading for upper-level students and academics in the field of Tourism research.

Part I

Development

1 Identities in flux

Psychological acculturation and developing tourism in The Bahamas

Mayuri Deka

A change in the slogan from the famous “It’s Better in The Bahamas” to “The Islands of The Bahamas... It Just Keeps Getting Better” in the mid-1990s indicates not only a revision of the marketing strategies designed for the Family Islands but also a shift in the perspective toward the tourism sector in its entirety based on the changing socio-economic trends. Focusing more on possibilities, this slogan encapsulates the selling of wish-fulfillment where tourist is able “to insert his/her own fantasy about a vacation in The Islands of The Bahamas and thereby cover the widest possible range of vacation experiences” (Delancy, 1996).¹ Potential and present tourists are encouraged in viewing this slogan to imagine a destination where not only their fantasies of sun, sand and sea are satisfied but also they can interject their personal version of the perfect Bahamian vacation onto the reality. This is evident in the policy shift in viewing tourism as a mass-marketed industry to attract massive numbers beginning since the 1980s. With an objective of boosting the flailing tourist numbers, the Bahamian government initiated multiple programs within the tourism sector.² One of the most prominent campaigns of these governmental initiatives, under the flagship of Clement T. Maynard and the Ministry of Tourism, was aimed at instilling in Bahamians a sense of pride in their role as good hosts to the tourists.

As a means of creating a lasting image of the “fun-loving, eager” Bahamians, this campaign had far-reaching consequences. Presented to the world as such, as Strachan (2003) points out, “the clientele has ingrained images of how the ‘natives’ ought to behave at all times and how they should treat visitors” (p. 116). The image of the quintessentially smiling Bahamian with a colorful cocktail in hand willing to serve the tourist became ubiquitous with this marketing push. With the increase in visitor numbers combined with these programs promoting a happy servility in the Bahamian population, there has been an increasingly one-sided contact between the “donor” culture and the “recipient” host culture where the acculturative pressure flows in an unbalanced way.³ While tourists do take home certain aspects of Bahamian culture based on their appreciation of the culture, as is evident from 53.1% of tourists in 2016 indicating that they would return to the islands, the inequality of this influence seems to be only increasing. This is impacting not only the Bahamian host culture, but also resulting in individuals demonstrating changes in traits and behaviors as a response to this acculturation. As the chapter presents in the next section, there is growing evidence of a biased process where while some Bahamians resisting this influence, many are “borrowing” more from the tourists resulting in acculturation (psychological) stress in the individuals. This impacts not only the effective functioning of individuals in their daily lives, but also their overall skills in dealing with novel situations.

The individual in the social: tourism and acculturation in The Bahamas

But can tourism shape self-perception of Bahamians through its presence? So pervasive and overpowering an industry must – through its physical presence, its economic presence, its social presence, and its media presence – impose itself on the imaginations of Bahamians, i.e., impose itself in such a way that it begins to affect how Bahamians imagine themselves as social beings, and how Bahamians imagine the landscape of their community, country, and world (Strachan, 2003, p. 114).

Within the updated framework of tourism since the 1980s, The Bahamas has become a commodity that sells itself as the “Paradise” – a land drenched in sun, rum and good times. The numbers show the popularity of this myth as the tourists flock to the country. The arrival of tourists in The Bahamas increased to 707.50 thousand in March 2018 from 609.6 thousand in December of 2017 (https://tradingeconomics.com/bahamas/tourist-arrivals). While Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Caribbean Tourism Performance Report released in 2018 shows that The Bahamas was not a part of the member countries that recoded the highest percentage of visitor growth in 2017, the increased numbers of tourists do indicate the favorability of The Bahamas as a tourist destination. J.H. Bounds (1978) in his study of the Bahamian tourism sector from the beginning of the tourism sector to the late 1970s pointed out the following:

The Bahamian people are part of the great triumvirate of tourism: sun, sand, and an amiable people. A nation that can mix these three agreeable proportions into a tourist attracting amenity can languish in a luxurious tourism industry. There is no better combination for attracting tourists and The Bahamas has all three in the most perfect proportions. The Bahamian people are mostly Black with a strong culture related to the Caribbean Black culture with its tendencies toward sleepiness, laziness, strong Christian religion, a slow pace of life, a strong musical rhythm best exemplified in the calypso (Goombay in The Bahamas), a great ability to dance, an interest in living one day at a time, and a social friendliness toward each other and their guests that makes tourists want to meet them.

(pp. 186–187)

The favorable perspective of the likeability of the Bahamian people and its impact in promoting tourism to the country is reminiscent of the sensitizing campaign of the Ministry of Tourism in the 1980s. Individual Bahamians became the target as one of the factors in “the great triumvirate of tourism.” Trained to become more welcoming and exhibit all the traits of a “good host,” this stress on “service with a smile” was aimed to eradicate or at least diminish the negative connotations of “servility” redolent of the era of slavery. Consistently attempting to anticipate the expectations of the tourists, the Bahamian worker was to happily and willingly cater to the desires of the tourist. The pride in the work as a “good host” they do was intrinsically entwined with fulfilling the tourist’s wishes for a perfect holiday in paradise. However, given the country’s history in slavery Strachan (2003) points out that “in The Bahamas, as in the rest of the region, there is a line in the minds of the people between ‘service’ and ‘servility’” (p. 116). The consequences of this campaign which while actively trying to emphasize a certain type of Bahamian in the interaction with the tourist become even more crucial when we consider the scope of the tourism sector within the country. According to the Travel and Tourism Economic Impact (2017) report generated by the World Travel and Tourism Council, the direct contribution of Travel and Tourism to GDP in 2016 was BSD 1,773.9 million (19.8% of GDP) (p. 7). This was expected to rise by 3.4% to BSD (1,834.7 million) in 2017. Tourism also generated 53,000 jobs directly in 2016 (27.3% of total employment), and this is projected to increase by 3.3% in 2017 to 55,000 (27.9% of total employment). The scope of these jobs is vast including employment by hotels, travel agents, airlines, and other passenger transportation services (excluding commuter services) along with restaurant and leisure industries directly supported by tourists (p. 8). Given that most Bahamians are employed directly or indirectly in tourism and this sector is the major direct contributor to the GDP of the country, there is an increased contact between tourists and Bahamians who aim to please and fit into the “service with a smile” mold.

Furthermore, there are basic structural changes occurring in the tourism sector where tourists’ preferences and behaviors are changing (Alegre & Cladera, 2006). Many people are spending long stretches of time in places with a better climate than their home area (Munar, 2010). Moreover, with increasing developments in travel and communications, there are larger numbers of people traveling to other countries to work and partake in partial-tourism. Brent Symonette, Minister of Immigration, stated in June 2017, “In January 2012 to present some 115,323 permits have been issued…Now, whether they are homeowner’s permits, permanent residents, permits to reside, resident spouses or work permits” (Repatriation numbers increasing, 2017) is questionable. In a country where the total population in 2017 was 395,361, residents with permits constitute a significant portion of the total demographic. A portion of these are “residential tourists” who only have permits to reside without the right to work.⁴ These groups of people from diverse ethno-racial backgrounds become a part, sometimes permanently, of the consumer base in each tourist area. They have a huge impact on the area where they now live (Casado Díaz, 1999) as these partial-tourists are in constant contact with the host culture and society, which in certain situations can lead to acculturation (Cohen, 1984).⁵ Wealthier residential tourists often demand and receive accommodations and services from the host culture that duplicates their lives back home. Within The Bahamas, there are many pockets of residence like Lyford Cay and Paradise Island that cater specifically to the lifestyles of the wealthy foreign residents or residential tourists. The functioning of these spaces is dependent on a workforce that supplies exceptional services with a smile. Considering the paucity of these usually better-paid jobs, there is increasing competition to get and stronger desire to retain the job. In this changing economic climate, there is growing evidence that prestige and authority are based on factors such as personal property, political position, economics, and such rather than on family, age, or religion of the traditional Bahamian culture. While tourism is one of the external factors influencing the change in traditional culture resulting often times in acculturation, it is a major player in the transforming relationships between people and cultures of unequal economic development.

Acculturation is the result of consistent and relentless contact between two cultures where the individuals experience a change to their original cultural patterns (Redfield et al., 1936). As Park et al. (2003) explain, it “is a long-term process in which individuals modify or abandon certain aspects of their original culture as they adopt patterns of the new (adopted) culture” (p. 142). When discussing The Bahamas, especially with the increasing contact and impact of the tourists on the cultural form of the country, it becomes crucial to focus not only on the social outcomes but also on the effect on the individuals. While Sam and Berry (2010) show how group acculturation is at the societal level where changes occur in the group’s culture, customs, social institutions, food, clothing, and language, individual (or, psychological) acculturation changes a person’s psychological make-up and influences them as a unique entity. Individuals assimilate the value systems of the host culture into their own behavior and lifestyles.

Psychological acculturation is, thus, at the level of the individual and ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• About the editors
• List of contributors
• Foreword by Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I Development
• Part II Governance
• Part III Sustainable development
• Part IV Development, governance, sustainability: a look at hurricanes
• Part V Conclusion
• Index