Jamaica Kincaid's "A Small Place"- Tourists

Jamaica Kincaid explains in her novel “A Small Place” how are the tourists that vacation at Antigua. Jamaica Kincaid expresses herself referring to the tourists in a very sarcastic and rude kind of way. It seems that Jamaica Kincaid have some resentment against tourist that visit the Island where she comes from, Antigua. In some aspects I agree with the author, because sometimes tourists believe things should be done the way they want, not having in mind the cultural differences and that different countries make things in a different way. Tourism should be a compromise in where tourists understand the culture of the place they are visiting and the locals should understand that tourists are in your country to enjoy it and have a good time. This is the part which the author, in my opinion, doesn’t understand. From the vocabulary she uses we can state that she doesn’t really like tourists. She believes that the tourists that visit Antigua don’t truly know the island or it habitants. This fact makes her mad because the tourists go to Antigua to forget the problems they leave home when they vacation, but the locals of Antigua don’t have that option to escape from their reality, because of poverty.

If we compare the attitude of the author towards the tourists that vacation in Antigua and the attitude of the Puerto Ricans towards the ones that visit our island it has many differences and many similarities. The main similarity is that the tourists that come to Puerto Rico and the ones that visit Antigua enjoy mostly the beaches and the many things we have that many tourists don’t have on their home lands. Me as a Puerto Rican that has been to the United States also agree with Jamaica Kincaid that the tourists don’t trust us, believe that we have a very bad driving, can’t imagine how we can buy expensive stuff. These examples bother the locals, both the residents of Antigua and the Puerto Ricans, because the vision they have of us is one mainly filled with ignorance. In the case of Puerto Ricans we don’t believe that it is a shortage of consideration that tourists visit Puerto Rico to forget their problems, because we can’t do the same, because a grand part of Puerto Ricans go on vacation, or do interior tourism if we can afford a trip.