An ethnographic study of ‘touristic escapism’ and health vulnerability among Dominican male tourism workers

ABSTRACT

Health research on tourism has expanded over the past two decades, focusing on understanding how the social, economic, and political configuration of tourism zones might contribute to health vulnerabilities among the diverse populations that interact in these areas. While there are few studies of HIV and drug use interactions in the region, research has indicated that these two outcomes are often interwoven in tourism zones, potentially producing ‘syndemics’ of HIV infection and problematic drug use. One framework that has been used in public health research on tourism is one that we refer to as touristic escapism or situational disinhibition that may be heightened for some tourists while on vacation, potentially leading to the abandonment of normative constraints on behaviour and contributing to health risks such as unprotected sex or binge drinking. In this article, we draw upon tourism theory and ethnographic research with male tourism workers employed in two popular tourist areas of the Dominican Republic to explore whether touristic escapism offers insights in understanding health vulnerabilities within tourism spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism escapism
• tourist workers
• tourism and health risk
• Caribbean tourism
• Dominican Republic

Acknowledgments

We want to thank the participants of our research project who shared with us their experiences and hopes for a better life in the Dominican Republic. We also want to thank our field collaborators, Francis Taylor (may you rest in peace), Antonio de Moya (may you rest in peace), Begoña Gómez, Erika Suero, Melissa Dotel, and Doña Leda Herasme. In addition, we want to thank the following colleagues that contributed in the coding and analysis of the data: José Eduardo Velázquez, Dali Santos, Carolina Martinez, Nayibe Tavares, Adrian Puello, Karina Livingston, Carolyn Parker, Vanesa Leon, David Robles, Claudia Uribe, Melisa Scott, Jack Vertovec, and Maria Baylon. Additionally, we want to thank the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center (KG-LACC) for all the administrative support and accommodations in the Center.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Politur was replaced by CESTUR. Many interviewees continue to use the former name.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA 1R01 DA031581-01A1; PI: Mark Padilla), a K02 award for Nelson Varas-Díaz (1K02DA035122) and a Supplement to Support Diversity in Health-Related Research for José Colón-Burgos, (3R01DA031581-03S1). Additionally, the time invested in the analysis and writing of the article for José F. Colón-Burgos was supported in part by Award #S21MD010683 and by the Research Center in Minority Institutions at Florida International University (U54MD012393), both from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institute of Health. The content and views expressed here are solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIDA, NIMHD, or the National Institutes of Health.