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Growth of Tourism Urbanisation and Implications for the Transformation of Jamaica’s Rural Hinterlands

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Emerging Urban Spaces

Part of the book series: The Urban Book Series ((UBS))

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.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The thinking among Caribbean economists in the 1960s was that countries in the periphery would follow a development plan (in the case of Jamaica, this was the policy of ‘Industrialization by Invitation’, proposed by the Caribbean economist, W. Arthur Lewis), which would lead to economic development and growth. In most cases, however, this was never the outcome, as the technical expertise and financial investment needed to promote industrialisation and, by extension, economic development and growth were not forthcoming. Instead, there has been a high degree of external dependence of the periphery on the core (Girvan 1973).

  2. 2.

    The term ‘Crown Lands’ refers to lands owned by the state.

  3. 3.

    According to Jamaica’s 2011 population census, a place is considered urban if it has a population of 2000 or more and provides a number of amenities and facilities, which in Jamaica indicates modern living. However, population growth may have been much higher given the existence of informal settlements in the vicinity of these towns where data collection may well not have taken place in these communities because of security concerns.

  4. 4.

    The term ‘returning residents’ suggests an affluent Jamaican population, many of whom have spent substantial periods of their lives abroad before returning to the island to reside permanently for pre- and post-retirement.

  5. 5.

    For an illustration of this sort of promotional material, see http://richmondjamaica.com/coolshade.html.

  6. 6.

    In the meantime, there are still poor communities in the vicinity of this region that lack reliable access to electricity and water. The prevalence of poverty in Jamaica has trended upwards since 2008 and is consistently highest in rural areas. In 2012, the national poverty prevalence was 19.9% of the population, with the food poor representing 7.5% (see the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Office of the Prime Minister, Jamaica 2016).

  7. 7.

    Lands located in these residential developments can cost up to Jamaican Dollars 18,000,000 (USD143,000 for 27249 square feet). Of course, the location of the property to amenities and whether it has a beach view will also determine the value of real estate in the north coast of Jamaica. The prices vary considerably between an already built structure and a plot of land (see http://search.remax-realtygroup-jamaica.com/i/st-ann-land).

  8. 8.

    This is a Jamaican Creole expression meaning ‘people who live in the rural parts of the country’.

  9. 9.

    Jamaica’s geographical area is just 10,991 km2, or 4213 square miles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agriculture, Science and Education, Portland, Jamaica

    Sheere Brooks

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  1. Sheere Brooks
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Correspondence to Sheere Brooks .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Development Policy and Practice, The Open University , Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

    Philipp Horn

  2. Habitat Unit, Institute for Architecture, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Paola Alfaro d'Alencon

  3. Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Federal University of Pará , Belém (PA), Brazil

    Ana Claudia Duarte Cardoso

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Brooks, S. (2018). Growth of Tourism Urbanisation and Implications for the Transformation of Jamaica’s Rural Hinterlands. In: Horn, P., Alfaro d'Alencon, P., Duarte Cardoso, A. (eds) Emerging Urban Spaces. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57816-3_7

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