Tourism Geographies, Vol.1, No.3, pp. forthcoming (return to Table of Contents for Vol.1)

Fall of Beauty: the Story of A Jamaican Waterfall. A Tragedy in Three Acts

Brian J. Hudson
School of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Surveying, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Abstract

The story of Dunn's River Falls, a famous Jamaican beauty spot, illustrates Butler's tourist area cycle of evolution, and shows how excessive development of a scenic resource can threaten its sustainability. These cascades rose to prominence after the implementation of hydroelectric power schemes destroyed other waterfalls which had long been well known to lovers of landscape beauty. Now marketed as one of the island's main tourist attractions, Dunn's River receives nearly a million visitors annually, many of whom make the much advertised waterfall climb. The crowds and the commercial development, together with other environmental problems which affect the area, now threaten the sustainability of this scenic resource. With excessive exploitation of Dunn's River, the falls are beginning to receive bad publicity, and other Jamaican waterfalls, less spoiled by commercialization, are attracting increasing numbers of visitors. There are plans for rejuvenation, but for success a radical approach may be necessary. This paper proposes a solution which involves the construction of an artificial waterfall, a simulcrum that would be in keeping with the exopolis now developing on Jamaica's north coast.

Keywords: waterfalls, Jamaica, tourist area cycle, scenic resources, sustainable development