L’entrelacement de la violence et du tourisme: les réalités complexes de l’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes

Tourism is seen as a fast track to socio-economic progress due to the flow of foreign currency and high employment rates (Lumsdon and Swift, 2001; Duval, 2004). However, tourist territories face problems of socio-economic redistribution and failure related to the indifference of the State towards socially incorrect behaviors, which are criminogenic factors (Gómez Sánchez and Sánchez Hernández, 2020; Gómez Sánchez, 2020). Under these “civilized” tourism practices, a violent and deceptive underworld coexists (Kempadoo, 2004; Gutiérrez Sanín, 2014: 12).3This issue of Caribbean Studies aims to explore the intersection between violence and tourism, by examining the contradiction between "pacified" areas that attract population flows in search of better income and territories marked by high multidimensional violence. The question is whether tourism encourages crime and vice versa, in a context where tourist activity tends to concentrate in exclusive, extremely secure areas (Pattulo, 1996; Dehoorne and Murat, 2008).