Racialised boundaries in travel and tourism: a case study of the UK Black Caribbean Community

Studies of tourism motivation and behaviour have not accounted significantly for the aspirations and experiences of ethnic minority groups living in metropolitan societies. This conceptual paper presents a case study of the UK black Caribbean community and seeks to indicate ways in which members of this community perceive places, spaces and destinations in Europe. Attention is directed to how black people's perceptions and experiences are influenced and structured by the social conditions of racialism and racism. The discussion considers how the incursive nature of the white gaze, and popular representations and stereotypes of black societies and cultures, contribute to black people's disengagement from 'tourism experiences'. Racialised experiences and encounters call into question an individual's right to adopt a tourist identity. As the discussion partly focuses on ways in which black visitors perceive 'white others', the work strongly implies that there is a fundamental need to remove the 'white gaze' as the only or dominant way to observe and make sense of the world. Given that this paper contributes to an understanding of how race relations are reproduced within tourism environments, it concludes with suggestions as to how future studies of ethnic minority tourism and travel might be conducted.