Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Conclusion
All three waves of Caribbean globalization were created by external capital and
powered by foreign demand. As such they also share the same large intrusive
scale that has left deep and lasting imprints on the fragile insular ecology and
demography. Given this history, the highly lucrative nature of the drug transit
trade, the durability of metropolitan consumer demand, the continuing problems
of North–South cooperation and coordinated enforcement, and the ongoing
American and European anti-trafficking retrenchment, the narcoeconomy
should continue to flourish and weaken the region’s political economy.
According to Richardson’s (1992, p. 131) “business as usual” comment, the
narco trade resembles an extension of the colonial economy. “In producing and
transporting narcotics for metropolitan consumption, Caribbean peoples simply
are providing tropical staples for external sources, just as they have for the past
five centuries.”
This pessimistic prognosis is likely unless at least two critical tasks are accom-
plished. The first is a new comprehensive North–South anti-drug counteroffensive
anchored by three principles. First, it must seriously address innovative ways to
reduce burgeoning demand in the United States and Europe. Second, it must
involve enhanced airport, border, and Customs security, the international distribu-
tion of narcotics intelligence, the relaxation of bank secrecy codes, and so on.
Third, it must be a truly cooperative partnership combining the financial and tech-
nical resources of the North with the Caribbean’s on-the-ground expertise. Only
such a concentrated and concerted program can stanch the growth of a narcoecon-
omy that, in a sense, has been centuries in the making.
Second, serious efforts must be dedicated to strengthening the international
competitiveness of tourism, as well as integrating all segments of society into the
fabric of the industry. This will require considerable innovation along with a long-
term commitment to training a new cadre of skilled young professionals. The goal
is that in the future ordinary islanders would be at the forefront in creating, mar-
keting, and delivering new products and services (Dunn and Dunn, 2002). Failing
these two tasks, the alternative scenario may be a continuing syndrome of violence
and instability that inhibits tourism’s full potential (Sonmez, 2002). Far worse, over
time, fragments of the region may slide unwittingly toward an accommodation
with the disease, tacitly condoning a modicum of corruption that gradually erodes
public integrity, the rule of law, and the culture of democracy (Bryan, 2000), and
in the process spawning a lost generation of youth with “a decreased sense of the
value of life, a lack of respect for property, and a lesser appreciation for honest
work” (Griffith, 1997, p. 151).
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