Tourism and Development in the Senian Context: Does It Help or Hurt SIDS? The Case of Aruba

Abstract

Tourism is the lifeblood of many small island independent states and those that are categorized as small non-independent jurisdictions (SNIJs) such as Aruba. The question that this paper proposes to address is whether and how tourism helps or hinders island development. Research has been conducted on the economic effects of tourism in a global context; however, our approach is to look at its effect in one destination, Aruba, and to contextualize this research by situating it among other Caribbean islands. The rationale is that tourism is of more significance to the Caribbean in terms of economic dependence and tourism intensity. Because of the density of tourism in Aruba and its mono-economical development paradigm this makes for an ideal case study. 1 Our methodology is based on an ontological review of the relationship between tourism and economic development utilizing a contextualized definition of development that fits within the philosophical position of Amartya Sen. In that context defined not just in terms of GDP growth but the enhanced social welfare of its citizens also in the Senian sense as distance from unfreedom. The concept of unfreedom for purposes of this paper is based on the extent to which there is an inertia to shift paradigms even if the existing paradigm enhances vulnerability, fragility and restricts opportunities to its citizenry. Therefore, despite its impact on the economy in terms of foreign exchange, investments, and employment, there are considerable and pervasive externalities which should be considered in conceptualizing the totality of tourism's effect on economic and social development. In this essay, we consider Sen's (2000) definition of development as freedom and situate it in that context and introduce the work of envelopment theory as conceptualized by Sankatsing (2016).