ABSTRACT
Mass-marketed tourism in The Bahamas is increasingly becoming one of the most common forms of cross-cultural contact. While the effects of immigration, economic development, education, and such have major consequences in The Bahamas’ dynamic and evolving culture, the policy shift in viewing tourism as a mass-marketed industry to attract massive numbers since the 1980s has resulted in a rapidly increasing contact between the ‘donor’ culture and the ‘recipient’ host culture. Usually this contact tends to be one-sided where the acculturative pressure flows in an unbalanced way in influencing the host culture, especially within developing country. Researchers have widely accepted that acculturation happens at both the group and individual levels. This chapter will focus on psychological acculturation where individuals demonstrate changes in traits and behaviours as a response to acculturation. With tourism as a major industry in The Bahamas, cultural contact is resulting in psychological acculturation impacting the positive qualities of well-being.
