Growth of tourism urbanisation and implications for the transformation of Jamaica’s rural hinterlands

Abstract

This chapter considers the relevance of the concept of ‘planetary urbanisation’ in a context where ‘tourism urbanisation’ is taking place in the north coast region of Jamaica. This specific process of urbanisation may be generalised to other tourism-dependent small island developing states where the tourism industry has become a key sector for economic development and influences spatial change. It is argued in this chapter that, in the context of small island states, tourism urbanisation poses huge challenges in terms of its impact on land resources for agricultural production and on social change in local communities. This analysis thus presents an early warning for other small island states in the Caribbean region that can ill-afford to become entirely urbanised, from both a cultural and an economic perspective.