ABSTRACT
The regional development of tourism has given rise to increased employment opportunities in the fi eld and, along with that increase, a need for better means of educating the industry’s workforce. In recognition of the need for people educated in tourism operations, governments in the Caribbean have sent students overseas to centres primarily in the United Kingdom. However, the focus of most of these programmes has been on courses designed to prepare graduates for employment in the tourism industry in developed mainland tourist destinations, that is, in contrast to the tourism environment in the region. Chambers (1997) observed that, in many cases, programs developed in North America and in the United Kingdom have been dominated by economic models and by a vocational ethos that placed minimal emphasis on a critical assessment of the varied consequences of tourism.
