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Here Comes the Sun: Deconstructed Student Essays

Jamaica at the MoMA

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2. Briefing Paper, Carter and Manley
13. Tourism in Jamaica This primary source is a vintage tourism advertisement for Jamaica from 1950. It was put out by the Jamaica Tourist Board, which held two offices in the United States at the time this was released. The advertisement shows an image of a white couple enjoying a tranquil Jamaica beach, as well as various incentives enticing tourists from neocolonialist powers to visit the island. Vivid language is used to paint Jamaica as the perfect tourist destination. The advertisement fails to expose the real Jamaica. It does not display any native Jamaicans and creates a mirage of the island designed to appeal to tourists while neglecting those who live there. Advertisements similar to this one were common throughout American and European tourism boards and used similar vivid language to create a unifying image of all Caribbean islands as places of pure relaxation where tourists could come and be treated like royalty. Unknowingly, these tourists would be participating in neocolonialism, and to a much lesser extent, were involved in the exploitation of the local people of the Caribbean islands in a similar way to the colonizers who came a few centuries prior. (Jamaica Tourist Board)