Holidays and the UK Afro-Caribbean community

This paper considers the factors in modern society that will have a significant influence upon holiday-taking by a UK community of West Indian origin: the Afro-Caribbean community. Research on holiday-taking has tended to overlook the ethnic dimension with the result that the extent, form and direction of holiday-taking by this community are largely unknown. The paper examines the factors that are likely to influence holiday-taking by this particular community: economic, social and cultural and product-related. It is concluded that holiday-taking as experienced by the majority white population is unlikely to be evident in the Afro-Caribbean community; the extent of participation may be much lower and the form may be very different. It is suggested that ‘the holiday’ is culturally discordant and does not feature prominently in cultural priorities.