Uncovering Colonial Logics and their Embodiment in Bocas del Toro’s (Panama) Residential Tourism Development: A Feminist Political Geography Analysis
Mirjam Steiger creates an alternative travel guidebook and presents a political geography analysis on the colonial logics in the residential tourism development in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
Bio: Mirjam Steiger is a Geography postgraduate scholar at the Department of Geography, University of Zurich.
Created and written by: Mirjam Steiger
Cover Image: By Dronepicr used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Edited By Jasnea Sarma
Hey there, dear travelers and explorers! Have you ever been fascinated by the tropical image of empty beaches with palm trees, turquoise water and cute Caribbean cabanas with hammocks hanging right above the water? And have you ever been tempted by such imaginaries on Instagram and narratives in travel guides that you wanted to pack your backpack and experience this paradise at the next opportunity for yourself? Well, I have!
Two years ago, after completing my bachelor’s degree, I wanted to experience this tropical paradise for myself guiled by the sway in social media representations and popular brochures offering attractive tourism deals. So, I traveled to the Archipelago of Bocas del Toro (short: Bocas), a group of islands near to the shore of Panama’s northwestern Caribbean coast. And as you will probably guess, the landscape was gorgeous and the experience from a Western tourist’s point of view, for instance with the existing infrastructure, was incredibly comfortable – 10 out of 10 of a tourist paradise.
But the reason for this blog post is not to romanticize the allure of Bocas. Rather, as a sturdnet of critical human geography, I began to better understand the inequalities behind this glossy facade of picturesque travel destinations. It’s a story that often goes untold in popular tourism media – a story about colonial legacies and marginalized communities.
As part of a semester project in Political Geography and inspired by Sharlene Mollett’s political ecology research (see: Mollett 2023; 2022) and my own travel experiences in Bocas, I began to investigate the realities of the tourism development in Bocas del Toro. Together with a critical analysis to shed light on the often-overlooked aspects of tourism development that I discussed in a paper, I embarked on creating an alternative travel guidebook that goes beyond the glossy brochure’s narratives and imaginaries. This guidebook isn’t your typical tourist manual. It’s a critical exploration of the colonial history and present-day colonial logics that shape Bocas del Toro’s tourism industry.
The purpose? To advocate responsible and culturally aware tourism while making academic research accessible to everyone, not just scholars and academics. Creating this travel guide I aimed to better highlight the often marginalized voices from decolonial, black, and feminist literature and community initiatives.
One of the key insights of my research revolves around the development of residential tourism in Bocas del Toro. Once a neglected province, Bocas has transformed into a desirable tourist destination, driven by an influx of residential tourism developments since the 1990s, thanks to tax incentives for foreign investors. But behind the facade of luxury resorts and gated communities lies a complex reality of land dispossession and marginalization.
The history of Bocas and its native population of Indigenous Ngäbe peoples and Afro-Panamanians is deeply rooted in colonialism and imperialism. This history involves decades of exploitation of especially Black Panamanians as workforce to build Panama’s railroad and canal and later in the early 20th century to work on banana plantations for the United Fruit Company (UFC). After a fungus disease on the UFC banana plantations, the Archipelago of Bocas became geographically and socially isolated and characterized by a declining economy and segregation of the Black population. As a result of this history, the livelihood of the Ngäbe peoples and Afro-Panamanians in the 20th century was based on subsistence farming and fishing (see: Guerrón-Montero 2006 & 2011). Fast forward to today, and we see a continuation of various colonial legacies, as foreign direct investment and tax incentives drive tourism development and cause enclosures and displacement of local communities.
Here are some key findings of colonial logics embedded in Bocas’ residential tourism development that I discussed in the paper on which the travel guide is based:
- Foreign investment operates as a neo-colonial tool, prioritizing capital accumulation over the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous and Afro-Panamanian peoples (see: Devine and Ojeda 2017).
- Tourism narratives of Bocas as an exotic paradise serve to erase the region’s colonial past and perpetuate unequal power dynamics. These narratives can be described as so-called terra nullius logics and ‘Othering’ practice (see: Said 1979 & Radcliffe and Radhuber 2020).
- Racial geographies, unequal relationships of power and exploitation, and patterns of colonialism from the past (e.g. UFC plantation work) that are repeated and reproduced in recent tourism development (see: Pleasant and Spalding 2021).
- Applying a decolonial approach, proposed by Radcliffe and Radhuber (2020), can help uncover the prevailing logics of colonialism and coloniality of power and knowledge that are visible in Panama’s residential tourism development.
Further, I also delved into the intersection of gender, race, and colonialism, particularly focusing on the experiences of Afro-Panamanian women. By analyzing their roles as domestic workers in the tourism industry, I highlight how colonial logics are embodied and perpetuated through gendered labor relations. Especially Sharlene Mollett’s research points out how Afro-Panamanian women, also with higher education, are often naturalized as domestic workers (mainly maids working for foreigners) and are exposed to extreme demands and undignified conditions, including sexual assaults (see Mollett 2022; 2023).
Ultimately, I aim that these insights spark conversations and inspire a deeper understanding of the complexities of tourism development in Bocas del Toro, beyond a Western romanticized paradise imaginary. By shedding light on the racial and colonial dimensions of this popular destination, I hope to encourage more mindful travel experiences.
So, the next time you’re planning or dreaming of a tropical getaway, remember to look beyond the postcard-perfect beaches and delve into the untold stories of the places you visit. And if Bocas del Toro happens to be on your radar, why not consider consulting my alternative travel guide! The critical insights and recommendations are a starting point for a more responsible and decolonial approach to travel.
Bibliography
Devine, Jennifer, and Diana Ojeda. 2017. “Violence and Dispossession in Tourism Development: A Critical Geographical Approach.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism 25 (5): 605–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2017.1293401.
Guerrón-Montero, Carla. 2006. “Tourism and Afro-Antillean Identity in Panama.” Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change 4 (2): 65–84. https://doi.org/10.2167/jtcc074.0.
Guerrón Montero, Carla. 2011. “On Tourism and the Constructions of ‘Paradise Islands’ in Central America and the Caribbean.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 30 (1): 21–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1470-9856.2010.00453.X.
Mollett, Sharlene. 2022. “Swiss Human Geographies Lecture 2019 Tourism Troubles: Feminist Political Ecologies of Land and Body in Panama.” Geographica Helvetica 77 (3): 327–40. https://doi.org/10.5194/GH-77-327-2022.
———. 2023. “Racial Geographies of Land and Domestic Service in Panama.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers 113 (7): 1573–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2022.2150596.
Pleasant, Traben, and Ana Spalding. 2021. “Development and Dependency in the Periphery: From Bananas to Tourism in Bocas Del Toro, Panama .” World Development Perspectives 24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2021.100363.
Radcliffe, Sarah A., and Isabella M. Radhuber. 2020. “The Political Geographies of D/Decolonization: Variegation and Decolonial Challenges of /in Geography.” Political Geography 78 (April). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.POLGEO.2019.102128.
Said, Edward. 1979. Orientalism. 1st Vintag. New York: Vintage Books.