Times of the Islands Winter 2023/24

Today, 300 years later, the challenge of finding a
paradise hideaway remains as alluring as ever. Just like
Anne and Mary, modern visitors walk the same beautiful
beaches and plunge into the same dazzling sea. They too
have discovered a tropical nirvana where they can relax
and recharge while leaving the pressures of the world
behind.
Unlike the pirates who kept this paradise to themselves,
TCI has been phenomenally successful at selling
these Islands—notably Providenciales—as a high-end
tourism destination with plenty of luxury condos, big villas,
and a couple of private jet terminals. Treasures that
any pirate would envy! But success spawns its own woes
and comes at a steep cost that should give pause to the
quest for relentless development and ever-more tourists.
Rapid evolution
In the 1980s, well before tourists arrived, Providenciales
(Provo) was a sparsely populated island with around
1,000 people, far less than Grand Turk, North Caicos,
and South Caicos. Residents living in the small settlements
of Five Cays, Kew Town, and Blue Hills depended
largely on fishing and boat building for their livelihood.
Now, 40 years later, Provo’s population has exploded to
an estimated 40,000, and just about everyone depends
on tourism, directly or indirectly.
In fact, Provo sees around ten times as many tourists
as the number of residents every year, one of the highest
tourist-to-resident ratios in the world. The island’s
journey from the tranquility of near-subsistence living
to one of the most sought-after vacation and property
investment spots on the planet has at once been highly
lucrative for some and decidedly disruptive for others.
Tourism’s boom also brought a sharp influx of people
from abroad to live here—expatriates mainly from North
America and the UK, as well as migrants from nearby
island nations, especially Haiti. Immigration is a natural
consequence of prosperity and can enhance society by
bringing needed labor and through cultural exchange.
But a flood of newcomers to a small island can also overwhelm,
widen the gulf between rich and poor, and fray
the social fabric, as has also happened.
As property prices soar and wages fail to keep pace
with the cost of living, the sense among Turks & Caicos
Islanders of being squeezed out has become ever
more acute and vexing. At the same time, TCI’s natural
treasures, particularly the coral reefs, have become
increasingly vulnerable, partly due to climate change,
partly because of too many people.
Overshadowing these simmering concerns is an apprehension
that ceaseless tourism and building expansion
is diminishing Provo’s relaxed vibe and uncluttered
beaches—attributes that made it a luxury destination of
choice.
Indeed, the cyclical trajectory of tourist development
and the impact on native populations worldwide has been
well documented. What is happening in Provo is, in fact,
a global phenomena in places where tourism dominates
the economy—with similar ominous patterns.
Life cycle of a tourist destination
In 1980, a geography professor at the University of
Western Ontario, Richard Butler, PhD, developed a model
to study the life cycle of tourism. Referred to as the
Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC), the model has become
The pristine East Caicos shoreline represents what the
Islands looked like before tourism development. An initiative
is underway to designate East Caicos as a World
Heritage Site by the United Nations.
44 www.timespub.tc