Though the Caribbean receives only about five percent of the global tourist trade, it is the region most economically dependent on tourism. This narrow dependence on the highly volatile tourist industry is increasing as the region’s traditional agricultural exports fail, and as the small scale economies of the Caribbean get further mired down in debt, while being unable to compete with the massive engines of globalization - North America, the European Union, China, India and Brazil.
Jamaica, one of the most indebted countries in the world, is undergoing unprecedented large-scale, mass market, all-inclusive hotel development, as well as the construction of exclusive gated residential schemes and luxury condominiums for non-residents. Casino licenses have been approved, major tourist attractions, another international airport and many more hotels and luxury resorts are in the pipeline. There is a construction boom in both tourist related infrastructure (primarily highways and water delivery systems) and mega-sized hotels built on ecologically sensitive shorelines, often in socially impoverished rural communities which are without such basic amenities as proper schools, health care, housing, sewage treatment, reliable utilities and security.
