Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Caribbean Islands is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Travel back to the 18th century as you wander along cobbled lanes and past meticulously restored buildings at English Harbour, Antigua; hoist a jib and set sail from sailing fantasyland, Tortola, and enjoy the journey to one of the 50 or so isles making up the British Virgin Islands; or hit the atmospheric streets of Cuba's Habana Vieja and join in the living musical soundtrack of rumba, salsa, son and reggaeton; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Caribbean Islands and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet's Caribbean Islands Travel Guide: Color maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - weddings, honeymoons, sustainable travel, cuisine, music, wildlife, culture, history Covers Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Jamaica, St Kitts, St Lucia, Trinidad, Turks & Caicos, US Virgin Islands, and more eBook Features: (Best viewed on tablet devices and smartphones) Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Caribbean Islands, our most comprehensive guide to the Caribbean Islands, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less traveled About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world’s number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveler since 1973. Over the past four decades, we’ve printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travelers. You’ll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Caribbean is one of the premier tourist destinations in the world. Changes in travel patterns, markets and traveller motivations have brought about considerable growth and dramatic change to the region's tourism sector. This book brings together a high calibre team of international researchers to provide an up-to-date assessment of the scope of tourism and the nature of tourism development in the Caribbean. Divided into three parts, the book: gives an overview of existing tourism trends in the region addresses tourism development issues, including sustainability, ecotourism, heritage tourism, community participation, management implications, and linkages with agriculture considers future trends, including an assessment of recent world events and their impacts on tourism in the region, and future trends in terms of airlift, economic sustainability and markets. A valuable resource for students of tourism and Caribbean studies, as well as governments, and national and regional tourism offices, this topical volume brings together excellent contributions to assess and analyze the state of the Caribbean tourism; past, present and future.

This book explores the lessons learned from half a century of Caribbean cruise tourism; one of the most popular and profitable sectors of the tourism industry. The modern-day cruise industry dates from the 1960s when the three major cruise lines, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian, set up shop in Florida and began selling winter cruises to the Caribbean targeting American retirees. For geopolitical reasons, the US initially excluded cruises to Cuba. This changed in 2016, following the historic Obama-Castro agreement to move towards diplomatic, trade and travel normalization. Cuba quickly became the Caribbean’s fastest growing cruise destination. This book considers the limited economic benefits of cruise tourism, its environmental and social impacts, and the effects of climate change, and "overtourism." Based on this analysis and case studies of key Caribbean and Mediterranean destinations, this book cautions against overdependence on cruise tourism and outlines reforms needed to bring more benefits and equity to Caribbean countries. It will be valuable to professionals, businesses, development agencies, NGOs, and academics interested in a sustainable cruise industry and the economic well-being of Caribbean island nations.

The Caribbean has the fortune—and the misfortune̬to be everyone's idea of a tropical paradise. Its sun, sand and scenery attract millions of visitors each year and make it a profitable destination for the world's fastest growing industry. Tourism is increasingly touted as its only hope of creating jobs and wealth—literally, the island's last resort. Last Resorts examines the real impact of tourism on the people and landscape of the Caribbean. It explores the structure of ownership of the industry and shows that the benefits it brings to the region do not live up to its claims. New developments in ecotourism, sex tourism, and the burgeoning cruise industry are not changing this pattern of short-term exploitation of the region's resources. The book shows how Caribbean societies are corrupted by tourism and its culture turned into floorshow parody. This new edition has been extensively revised and updated. It gives voice to people inside the tourism industry, its critics, and tourists themselves, and offers vital insights into a phenomenon that is central to the globalized world of today.

The essays in this collection explore the history of tourism and its promotion and development throughout Latin American and the Caribbean in the twentieth century.

Images of Jamaica and the Bahamas as tropical paradises full of palm trees, white sandy beaches, and inviting warm water seem timeless. Surprisingly, the origins of those images can be traced back to the roots of the islands’ tourism industry in the 1880s. As Krista A. Thompson explains, in the late nineteenth century, tourism promoters, backed by British colonial administrators, began to market Jamaica and the Bahamas as picturesque “tropical” paradises. They hired photographers and artists to create carefully crafted representations, which then circulated internationally via postcards and illustrated guides and lectures. Illustrated with more than one hundred images, including many in color, An Eye for the Tropics is a nuanced evaluation of the aesthetics of the “tropicalizing images” and their effects on Jamaica and the Bahamas. Thompson describes how representations created to project an image to the outside world altered everyday life on the islands. Hoteliers imported tropical plants to make the islands look more like the images. Many prominent tourist-oriented spaces, including hotels and famous beaches, became off-limits to the islands’ black populations, who were encouraged to act like the disciplined, loyal colonial subjects depicted in the pictures. Analyzing the work of specific photographers and artists who created tropical representations of Jamaica and the Bahamas between the 1880s and the 1930s, Thompson shows how their images differ from the English picturesque landscape tradition. Turning to the present, she examines how tropicalizing images are deconstructed in works by contemporary artists—including Christopher Cozier, David Bailey, and Irénée Shaw—at the same time that they remain a staple of postcolonial governments’ vigorous efforts to attract tourists.