The Tourism Demonstration Effect in the Caribbean

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Abstract
According to academic critics, the benefits of Caribbean tourism are severely vitiated by the socioeconomic dysfunctions associated with the tourism demonstration effect-the rapid local assimilation of expensive North American consumption patterns stimulated by the presence of relatively large numbers of tourists. This notion, however, lacks empirical validation. This study examines the simple relationship between tourism intensity and local spending patterns using a small cross-section of nine countries. The findings indicate that tourism may influence host consumption behavior, but that tourism's impact is considerably weaker than and not easily distinguished from the more encompassing influences associated with societal modernization. The repeated claims of tourism's alleged demonstration effects must be viewed with caution and a research agenda, suggested here, would more carefully measure demonstration and help disentangle tourism's impact from nontourist influences.

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