Volume: 5  Number: 1  Page: 1–16  doi:10.2167/jtcc081.0

Traces of the Past: The Cycle of Expectation in Caribbean Tourism Representations

Velvet Nelson Department of Geography and Geology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA

Tourism representations can be highly influential and extremely pervasive. This paper investigates the origins of the vivid imagery common in today's Caribbean tourism representations. The 99-year period from 1815 to 1914 was a key era in the development of tourism for the British West Indies with increased geopolitical stability, improved transportation, and increased demand for new tourism experiences. With the growing popularity of travel, as well as the popularity of travel writing as a genre in British literature, more people travelled to the region as tourists and wrote about their experiences. The detailed descriptions and illustrations in travel narratives created popular geographies about the islands. Tourists were both potential consumers and producers of these popular geographies. They frequently read travel literature prior to and during travel, thereby carrying images with them to recreate the experiences described. Some also chose to write their own travel narratives, thereby reaffirming the imagery of the Caribbean. Narratives were further cited in travel guides and regional geographies, effectively extending their influence. This pattern became a cycle of expectation, in which ideas about the region were established and perpetuated. As a result, evidence of past representations may be seen in those of the present.

Keywords: Caribbean, 19th century, representations, travel writing

© 2007 V. Nelson

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