Sun Lust to Sun Plus

10. Medical Tourism: An Examination of Caymankind ........ 187

Belinda Blessitt Vincent

11.     Cruise Tourism in the Caribbean Island of Cozumel: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainability in the

Post-COVID-19 Era ...................................................... 211

Kennedy Obombo Magio

12.     Resident Attitude to Domestic Tourism in a Core- Periphery Island Context .............................................. 231

Sherma Roberts

13.     Niche Marketing in the Caribbean: A Call for a

Scorecard Approach in Tourism-Intensive SIDS ............ 254

Narendra Ramgulam and Acolla Lewis-Cameron

Concluding Remarks ........................................... 276

Acolla Lewis-Cameron

About the Contributors ........................................ 279

       Index ................................................................... 283

1.

Introduction: Caribbean Realities from Past to Present

Leslie-Ann Jordan

Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

Small island developing states (SIDS) have long attracted the attention and fascination of scholars and researchers from a wide range of disciplines such as geography, biology, history, politics, ecology, anthropology and economics. For many researchers, islands function as small-scale spatial laboratories where theories can be tested and processes observed in the setting of a semi-closed system (Alexander 1980; King 1993; Baum 1997). SIDS vary dramatically in their physical size and their total land area; in their location, either in favourable and hospitable situations or in truly challenging ones where they cope with natural hardships such as hurricanes and cyclones; in their natural resource bases, both on land and offshore; and in their prospects for self-reliant economic development (Wood 1967; King 1993; Bartmann 2001). They also differ in the nature of their political cultures, in their particular historical experiences, in their vulnerability to external intervention and in their ecological fragility (Bartmann 2001; Payne and Sutton 2001). As a result of such diversity, many scholars have become fascinated by SIDS and their commonalties and differences.