Re-Branding Alternative Tourism in the Caribbean: The Case for ‘Slow Tourism’

Abstract

Slow tourism represents a progressive genre of alternative tourism for remote locales in the Caribbean beyond mass-tourism complexes. We propose this new form of slow tourism as a viable promotional identity for alternative tourist offerings, which are in need of re-branding, through the decentralized medium of information technologies. A further contribution to this new construct's identity is our recognition of the potential for the Caribbean diaspora to participate as stakeholders in slow tourism ventures in under-developed spaces of the Caribbean that lack the requisite resources and bundle of social and economic advantages that mass- tourism relies upon. Thus, the unevenness of tourism-driven development in the Caribbean can be countered progressively, and more inclusively, than in times past. In addition to developing the theoretical construct of slow tourism, we offer several prototype examples to demonstrate quality offerings already in praxis.