Dr. Jean Holder’s book Caribbean Tourism, published late last year by Canoe Press of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), is an excellent, comprehensive survey of the historical evolution of tourism in the Caribbean, its socio-economic features, its institutional or organisational dimensions, and its policy challenges. The volume, too, is a study in the political economy of the Caribbean, particularly in its dialectical analysis of the shift from commodity production to the commodification of extensive services, mainly tourism and leisure. The book, with its fifteen chapters, seven appendices, and useful index covering 448 pages, is a statistical gold-mine of tourism, its various sub-sectors, tourism taxes, and air transport costs of the regional air carrier, LIAT. Holder, in elegant language as befitting his training and persona, has delivered a magnificent, unprecedented offering to the student of the economic history of the Caribbean, divers practitioners in the field of tourism, and policy-makers.

Holder’s Caribbean Tourism has come swiftly on the heels of his brilliant book, Don’t Burn Our Bridges: The Case for Owning Caribbean Airlines, a detailed examination of the airline industry in the Caribbean, including his beloved LIAT of which he has been its outstanding Chairman of the Board of Directors for over ten years now. Caribbean Tourism is indeed a companion volume to Don’t Burn Our Bridges.

Holder’s prolific writing in his years beyond the proverbial three score and ten is an absolute marvel. His restless energy and zest have already been documented by the LIAT Magazine which has authoritatively informed us that he awakes at 1:00 a.m. to play “ping pong” downstairs with his dear wife, Norma. What a delicious thought! What else does Holder get up to at these wee hours and more? On the evidence before us, in the absence of any further information, he at least writes compelling books. And how well and commandingly he writes!

Jean Holder comes to his labour of love in Caribbean Tourism from a lifetime of work and production in Caribbean tourism and the airline industry, resting upon the foundation of undoubted scholarship honed in Barbados, Oxford, and beyond. A hugely gifted man of knowledge, wisdom, and experience, Jean Holder has brought it all together to inform, educate, guide, plan, and lead. He has also given us prophecy of a better tourism future for our region amidst its possibilities and limitations.

Jean Holder has taken us on an exploratory journey in Caribbean tourism from its essentially mid-nineteenth century roots, even though the first hotel in Barbados, The Royal Naval Hotel was founded in 1780, to the contemporary period, and a gaze into the future. In the process Holder has shone a brightness even in tourism’s darkest corners to clear the pathway ___ a brightness which the iconic George Lamming has oft-reminded us must illuminate, not blind. So, Holder gets us to grasp the complexities and many-sided characteristics of tourism, the changing face of Caribbean tourism, the expansion of tourism to Europe and elsewhere, sustainable tourism, the nexus between tourism and regional integration, the ethnic and sociological tensions in Caribbean tourism, the creation of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation of which he was a dynamic Secretary-General for years, a strategic plan for tourism, the sub-sectors of tourism (cruise, sports, culture/heritage, excursion, yachting and stay-over tourism), the global context of modern tourism, and the burning query: Whither Caribbean tourism?

Along the way, Holder infuses his narrative with his assessments of the contributions of outstanding personalities. At the same time, he never sought to settle scores ___ a temptation grounded in malice to which many authors of lived experiences have so often yielded. And we know that Holder is a man devoid of malice, and possessed of a generosity of spirit. These qualities resonate in hsi magisterial work on Caribbean Tourism.

It is evident that Errol Walton Barrow, Premier and Prime Minister of Barbados for some seventeen years and now one of his country’s National Heroes, is held in especial esteem. Holder writes thus:

“Barrow described himself as a democratic socialist, explaining that for him this meant commitment to equal opportunity for all. He was the father of most of the life-changing social legislation in modern Barbados.

“….In comparing Barrow to Grantley Adams, Gordon Lewis [Welsh-Puerto Rican renowned academic] writes critically that Barrow did not take Barbados in any new ideological direction from Adams. In fact, Lewis argues, the new premier and his colleagues sought less to socialise the economy than to modernise it.

“If Lewis expected from Barrow the brand of socialism of a Michael Manley in Jamaica and a Forbes Burnham in Guyana ___ which would ideologically align Barbados with the countries of Eastern Europe and even Cuba nearer home ___ again he misunderstood the Barbadian psyche. Barrow’s brand of social engineering completed the task of ending the political dominance of whites in Barbados while harnessing their experience and resources for the benefit of the wider population. By strengthening the social and educational infrastructure he vastly expanded the size of the Barbadian middle class that, for the first time, was not based on colour. His educational and social policies set Barbados on the road to becoming the leading developing country at the United Nations.”

Time and again, Holder reminds us of the value of “the Barbadian psyche” which forms a veritable base for a grounded, though enduringly transcendental “idea of Barbados” as a sui generis phenomenon. It explains a lot of Barbados’ success at tourism, and other endeavours, beyond the wonders of its seascape and landscape.

Jean Holder’s advisory on the future of Caribbean tourism is optimistic and sensibly programmatic, despite its many challenges. He writes:

“In tourism, unlike in the case of the export of sugar and bananas, the region’s horizons are not circumscribed, by old connections with former colonial powers that, in any case, no longer carry the burden of guilt, caused by colonial exploitation. The tourism world is indeed the Caribbean’s oyster. The region must therefore remain focussed on maximising tourism’s possibilities on a global scale and not respond to every sound of alarm from those pessimists who never tire of suggesting that tourism is a fickle economic option. Moreover, while advocating the need for balanced growth and respect for the socio-cultural and environmental issues, one must be concerned about the agenda of those persons whose preferences in defence of the status quo seem to favour underdevelopment over progress that could benefit the vast majority of the residents. “….Perhaps the time has come for Caribbean prime ministers to convene a second conference on the present and future of Caribbean tourism, as was first done in 1975 after the energy crisis of 1974 and 1975. The agenda should include at least the following items: a regional tourism development plan that sets targets for the region in the second decade of the twenty-first century: clear guidelines on how major inputs from regional agriculture, manufacturing and other sectors, can be received from within the region; finding solutions to creating a sustainable intra-Caribbean transportation system as the foundation on which to build a regionally integrated Caribbean Community; and examining the case for the removal or reduction of many of the existing taxes, duties and fees that currently constitute a barrier to air travel. The conference should be supported by well-researched studies and presentations, with an action agenda in the relevant areas, and should involve not only the usual tourism professionals, but also economists and other technical experts involved in the region’s development process.”

I encourage everyone with an interest in the political economy of our Caribbean and its tourism to read and study Holder’s Caribbean Tourism. I agree with Sir Courtney Blackman in his Foreword to the book that no one in our region is better qualified than Jean Holder to write on this subject. Holder has accomplished magnificently his task to tell in his own words “the story of why, when, how and where tourism, one of the world’s oldest industries, came to the Caribbean and why its journey has been so turbulent.” I thank him for the honour of being present at the launch of his path-breaking book of inestimable value to our Caribbean.

Thank you!