ABSTRACT
The word ‘Caribbean’ conjures up Kodachrome images of azure seas w ith matching skies framing green palm trees along unblemished white sand beaches, awaiting Robinson C rusoe’s footprint. It is a picture unchanged since the first white tourist, Christopher Columbus, w rote hom e from the Bahamas of vegetation lush like that of Andalusia in April, of large flocks of parrots, of sweetly singing birds and plentiful, exotic, heavily laden and aromatic fru it trees. From Cuba, he w rote to his patron King Ferdinand in 1492, “Sire, these countries far surpass all the rest of the w orld in beauty” (in Watts 1987: 1). Thus the region’s first publicist sold the image of an Edenic, unspoiled paradise to attract investm ent and visitors half a millennium ago. Little since has diminished tourists’ fascination w ith islands (King 1993). As the Acting Prim e M inister of Trinidad and Tobago, the Hon. John Humphrey, said, “It may be argued that as it is now perceived, the Caribbean is the best brand name among tourism destinations.”Yet the geography of the brand name is not entirely clear.
