Urban tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Urban tourism - Essay Example In fact after WWII, Haiti was among the leading countries that had taken advantage of the international tourism that had aroused from the global economic restoration. This had created in Haiti an estimate of more than 60,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributed a 3.5% share to the country’s GDP, and earned an annual income of $50 million. (International Monetary Fund 34) According to Americas, during 1950s and ‘60s Haiti had been one of the strongest competitors in the tourism industry in the Caribbean (qtd. in Pawlowski 1). However, the development of tourism in Haiti has been historically lopsided and marred with many setbacks. Even during the most auspicious times, Haiti’s tourism has never attracted a significant portion of the total Antilles tourist market. Only Labadie on the northern coast has achieved consistent success, being the docking site of tourist cruises in the Caribbean (Lundahl 64). It was in Labadie where the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has been landing in Haiti for nearly 30 years, without informing tourists that it is actually part of Haiti, instead referring to it as an ‘island’ on Hispaniola (Lazar, par. 12-3; Pawlowski 2). Furthermore, the worsened political and social instability since the ending of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorial regime in 1986 (Hudman and Jackson 134) plus the inadequate infrastructure needed by a flourishing tourist industry – the focus of Duvalier’s later investments, have greatly pulled Haiti’s tourism indu stry backward, leaving a mere 800 hotel rooms available for tourists by the latter part of 1990s (Street 5). After Duvalier’s fall, though Haiti’s political leadership remains unstable, the second ascension to Presidency of Renà © Prà ©val in 2004 has brought a slow yet better changes to Haiti, such as, a stabilizing Haiti’s political climate; a