Jamaican Kingcaid's "Tourist Through the Eyes of the Locals"

Jamaican Kingcaid

Have you ever went on a vacation or on a journey onto the unknown, ready for adventure? If that is not your case don’t worry because I want to reflect basing my self on Jamaican Kingcaid’s writing. Taking and discussing the perspective of the “locals” and how they see outsiders when they come to visit. Where sometimes we as tourist may think they love having us around, but think again, because it may be the other way around. Changing the way we may see locals and even how we may see ourselves when we take a trip, using this as advice or as a reflection on how this situation may be solved. “Pack your bags we are going on a vacation” these words are breath of fresh air to many when the struggle of life has been great and a bit of relaxation is much needed. In any vacation, you are a tourist. You become a new face in a new crowd. Thoughts of doubts on what to do, what to see, and what are the activities you can only do there. What is so special about a place that would cause the most form of pleasure and joy? These are the questions a tourist asks, when dealing with what to do.

Now, how does tourism affect “the locals”? Tourism always brings in money from another part of the world, but the income can help progress the location for better facilities, better treatment, and an overall better environment, but is limited by how the income is being treated. They also, see how life in the area they are visiting is. Many times tourist are seen as dollar signs in areas where poverty, sicknesses, and economic situations are most visible, but they are more than that. They are human being seeing a new place with enchantment, and a new adventure where they are seen as an invader, but are there to learn and grow. This is a break from their daily routines, as a local might see it when becoming a tourist in a different location.  

Beach in Antigua

Sometimes tourist can be mean to locals, and vice versa, out of the idea that one is better than the other, and that would justify the way they treat or are treated. Then I must ask of you, if you see a tourist, what do you see? Do you see a person who will leave your home with a memory that will make them seek more from life, and grow, or a pain that they would like to forget, and never do? How would you want to feel if you became the tourist, in someone else’s home? We just need to picture ourselves in their shoes, and that way we will understand and create empathy when we throw into a journey in search of new adventures. Where Kincaid talk about antigua, but we need to know and understand that theres more than beautiful beaches and food, when it comes to exploring the truth and reality of a small place.