Beyond the Beach: Why Job Quality in Caribbean Tourism Matters More Than Ever

Tourism is more than an industry in the Caribbean; it’s a way of life, an economic backbone, and, for many, a ticket out of poverty. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism contributed an average of 11.4 percent to the region’s GDP in 2023 and supported over 2.75 million jobs, accounting for 15.1 percent of total employment in the Caribbean. It also plays a pivotal role in driving employment for women and youth. In St. Lucia, for example, more than 55 percent of young workers (ages 15-24) are employed in tourism. Women in the Caribbean account for 57-70 percent of the workforce in accommodation and food services, well above the global average of 54 percent.

Despite its scale, the sector does not always live up to its potential to provide high-quality, inclusive, and resilient employment. Although the number of jobs matters, so does their quality.

The Job Quality Challenge: How can tourism create more and better jobs in the Caribbean? 

A recent World Bank report, Rethinking Caribbean Tourism: Strategies for a More Sustainable Future, uses a multidimensional Job Quality Index (JQI) to assess tourism jobs in Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, and St. Lucia. The JQI measures job quality across four key dimensions: earnings, employment benefits, job stability, and working conditions.

The analysis reveals important nuances in the quality of tourism jobs in the Caribbean. While tourism jobs tend to be of higher quality than those in the primary sector, they generally lag the quality of jobs in industry and other services sectors. Saint Lucia stands out as an exception, with tourism jobs ranking highest in overall job quality across all sectors. 

Jobs in tourism tend to offer similar working conditions (except in Dominican Republic) and more benefits than those in other sectors (except in Barbados). However,  tourism jobs are less stable than those in other sectors. This reflects the sector’s exposure to seasonal shifts and external shocks. 

The quality of tourism jobs varies across population groups and locations. For youth, tourism often provides jobs that are comparable or even superior (in Barbados and Saint Lucia) to those in other sectors, suggesting its potential as a meaningful entry point into the labor market. However, across all sectors, young workers still hold the lowest-quality jobs compared to older age groups. 

Despite being overrepresented in the sector, women consistently face lower job quality than men, with wider gaps in tourism compared to other sectors in Grenada and the Dominican Republic. A marked urban-rural divide also persists, with tourism jobs in rural areas offering lower quality than those in urban centers, a disparity that is more pronounced than in other sectors.

So, while the tourism sector offers broad employment opportunities, especially for first-time job seekers, the nature of these jobs, including insecure employment, makes it difficult for workers to move up the economic ladder or build resilience against shocks. Often, the sector functions as a revolving door: high turnover, low retention, and few long-term career pathways.

The Job Quality Index was estimated by staff at the Poverty and Equity Global Department following the methodology proposed by Hovhannisyan et al. (2022). Country microdata has been gathered and harmonized from Household Budget Surveys/Surveys of Living Conditions. Countries were included in the analysis based on data availability. 

Rethinking Caribbean Tourism for Better Jobs

The pandemic exposed the tourism sector’s deep fragility, with over 700,000 jobs lost in the Caribbean in 2020 -a stark wake-up call. Countries must now look beyond visitor numbers and focus on the sector’s real impact on jobs, incomes, and livelihoods. That starts with putting job quality at the center of tourism policy. 

To unlock the sector’s full potential, Caribbean governments can pursue a range of actions. This includes offering incentives for formalization, such as simplifying business registration and providing tax relief for tourism enterprises, especially small and community-based operators. Strengthening labor inspections and promoting responsible tourism standards are also critical.

Investing in tourism-specific training is paramount. The pandemic accelerated a shift towards sustainability and digitalization in tourism, opening job opportunities in areas like sustainable tourism, IT services, remote customer support, and digital platforms. To meet these evolving industry demands, training is needed. Policies include updating vocational training curricula and creating clear career pathways to retain talent. 

Strengthening local economic linkages is essential to making tourism growth more inclusive. This involves connecting tourism enterprises more closely with domestic supply chains —such as local farmers, artisans, and service providers.

Finally, effective public-private partnerships are crucial for creating better jobs in the sector. In Saint Lucia, where the overall job quality is the highest, there is active private sector engagement through the Tourism Enhancement Fund, a voluntary initiative led by the Saint Lucia Hospitality & Tourism Association, which supports projects in community development, environmental conservation, and workforce training.

The Caribbean has an unmatched advantage: stunning natural beauty, cultural richness, and proximity to key markets. Tourism can still be the region’s most powerful engine for development, but only if it better serves the people who sustain it.