The Challenge of Development

Analyze the pictures below.

  • What do they all have in common?
  • Why do you suppose these countries have weak economies?
  • Check out the GDP/capita for select countries in the Caribbean using GapMinder

Tourism – An Economic Force in the Caribbean

  • Tourism important to Caribbean economies due to volatile demands of agricultural products (primary industries)
  • Most tourists come from North America and Europe
  • Tourism supported more than 614,000 direct jobs in 2011
  • Direct and indirect employment from tourism
  • Workers are involved with jobs such as:

-Transportation

-Accommodations

-Recreation (eg. Tours, boating)

-Retail

-Restaurants

  • Estimated that one all-inclusive resort creates 700-800 jobs!
  • Governments also earn money from:

-Airplane and ship landing fees

-Departure taxes

-Hotel bed taxes

-Custom duties on imports

  • Much of this revenue is used to improve infrastructure to support tourism
  • Money from tourism is considered to be an invisible export. This means that the Caribbean is essentially selling experiences and memories to tourists who take them home with them while the region earns money.

Tourism Receipts for the Caribbean, 2011

One way that we determine the importance of the tourism industry to the economy of a region is by analyzing the tourism receipts, or the dollar amount the tourism industry earns in a year. Let’s examine selected countries to get a snapshot of the economic impact that tourism has in the Caribbean.

YOUR TASK:

Imagine that you are the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the official Caribbean Tourism Organization. You are in charge of tracking tourism receipts (money earned) for select countries listed below so that you can identify the importance of this industry in the region. Create a pie graph to report your findings that identifies tourism receipts for the selected countries. Tables will be assigned a data set to use and we will share our findings after.

Tourism Receipts for 2011 (USD$ millions)

Country / USD$ millions
St. Lucia / 296
Aruba / 1 352
Jamaica / 2 012
Dominican Republic / 4 353
Total

Tourism Receipts for 2011 (USD$ millions)

Country / USD$ millions
Dominica / 80
Aruba / 1 352
Jamaica / 2 012
Puerto Rico / 3 598
Total

Now look at the GDP for each country and calculate how much the country’s tourism receipts in 2011 accounted for the total GDP for each country.
Country Approx. GDP 2011Tourism as a % of total GDP
Aruba $USD 2.2 billion
Dominica$USD 982 million

St. Lucia $USD 2.1 billion

Jamaica $USD 25.0 billion

Puerto Rico $USD 64.8 billion
Dominican Republic $USD 94.5 billion

Official Statement from the CFO

  1. Based on your calculations, write a two-paragraph statement that will appear on the official Caribbean Tourism Organization website that identifies the importance ofthe tourism industry to the overall economy of the region. You should include some key statistics from 2011 that you have uncovered in your investigation.