Saint Vincent is not a "Tourist Island". As I mentioned in the Preface, Staint Vincent and the Grenadines is not a place specifically oriented toward tourism, but the Vincentians appreciate that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a beautiful place and they welcome people who want to visit their islands.

But there are no big all-inclusive resorts or hotels that are cities in themselves. The area that most resembles a resort area is around Indian Bay and Villa beach. In that area there are beaches that are convenient for swimming, even for little children, and there are a number of small hotels. They are the kinds of hotels where you are a person and not merely the occupant of a numbered room.

After we had visited St. Vincent for the first time we were so enthusiastic that I couldn't help writing about it. Later I made a website that was built up with additions and corrections and patches. It had a kind of funky charm, but I felt St. Vincent deserve something more coherent. There was an earlier version on the web, but I decided to put together more material and make this book. The book you are reading is the third attempt at that book.

Sally and I love St. Vincent because it isn't a tourism-oriented island--aside from being beautiful it is full of real people doing real things, most of whom don't pay the slightest attention to us.

Given that, why would we want to attract tourists? Because it is a tough world for small countries.

The economy of St. Vincent and the Grenadines currently depends on agriculture, most of which is bananas shipped to Europe. The corporate giants Dole and Chiquita grow bananas on flat land in Central America using machinery and cheap labor. Caribbean bananas are grown on mountainsides and are hand-tended, so they taste better but leave more money in the producing country's economy. The US figures that profit for US corporations that exploit former colonial labor markets is more important than the economies of independent Caribbean countries like Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

The result is that in the name of Globalization and "Free Trade" the economies of several caribbean countries will be devastated to make it more profitable for Dole and Chiquita to exploit mainland central american labor. That, in turn, means that St. Vincent has to take the tourist market more seriously.

To be helpful, this book has to have should have content useful to two kinds of visitors:

the cruise ship passengers who are in Kingstown for the day and

the longer-term visitors who stay for a week or so.

If you know what you are looking for, you can click on the page numbers below. If you aren't looking for something specific, start with the Kingstown Page because you'll want to take a walk around the city in any case.

Page 101 Places to Visit
Page 102 Places to Visit Index
Page 129 Taxi Trips
Page 150 Hotels
Page 160 Restaurants
Page 170 Excursions
Page 180 Petroglyph Overview

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