"Tourism in the Caribbean has developed from being merely a place of 'sun and fun', to include ecotourism. Ecotourism is a marketing term that includes a range of activities from adventure tourism to visiting cultural and heritage sites.
The positive developmental effect of ecotourism is that it serves to differentiate the tourist destination in terms related to both natural features and history and culture. An important secondary effect of ecotourism is that by marketing the special and unique characteristics of a place, local inhabitants develop xhore pride and interest in their own conditions and background.
An example of this positive reinforcement working to produce both civic virtue and improved marketing opportunities is the recent discovery by local residents that ancestors of Thomas Jefferson lived on the small island of St. Kitts, whose sister island of Nevis is already known for its connection with other colonial-era leaders such as Alexander Hamilton and Admiral Horatio Nelson.
The risk of these various expressions of ecotourism is that all have limits
on their ability to absorb certain numbers of tourists without destroying precisely
those features that serve to differentiate the site in the first place.
Despite these attempts to protect the environment through ecotourism, it is probably true that the increase in ecotourists has been equalled or exceeded by increased numbers of tourists staying in large resorts and all-inclusive hotels. In general, these larger facilities are felt to be more intrusive on the environment than bed and breakfasts, small inns and camping grounds.
On a per-tourist basis, however, the economic and environmental costs and benefits
of alternative forms and facilities supporting tourism are not known with sufficient
confidence to guide public policy. In August 1998, the World Bank announced
a new programme of support for tourism in the Caribbean. This is to be accompanied
by studies of the costs and benefits of managed tourism in the region (statement
of Maritta Koch-Weser to the Caribbean Group for Co-operation in Economic Development,
Washington, August 1998).
Source: CEO1999:7
UNEP: Caribbean Environment Outlook (1999) ISBN: 92-807-1791-X