Chances are, if you visit a Caribbean island, the money from your hotel, meals, cruises, flights and excursions doesn’t stay in the land you visited. This is despite tourism’s dominant economy throughout the Caribbean. In fact, the region is the most tourism-reliant in the world, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Two daughters of the region are reclaiming those tourism dollars and ownership of the Caribbean’s economic narrative through their groundbreaking project, The Caribbean Green Book. Fiona Compton and Jadine Yarde co-founded this resource to make sure tourism dollars stay where they are generated. Compton says she was researching an unrelated topic when she came across a startling statistic.
“It said that as much as 80% of hotel accommodation was foreign-owned in the Caribbean – I was mind-blown!” she says. “Then, researching more, it just got worse and worse when I found out 90 cents from every dollar spent in Saint Lucia on tourism does not stay. I couldn’t believe it!”
Part of the name might sound familiar. “The Negro Motorist Green Book” was a guide to help travelers find safe lodging and services during the Jim Crow segregationist era in the United States. But Caribbean Green Book is more than just a free online travel guide. It showcases Caribbean-owned businesses to empower local economies. Type in where you are heading, and you’ll find a growing list of locally owned places to stay, play, eat and shop. You’ll also find experiences curated by Caribbeans who live there.
With Compton’s background in creative arts and digital storytelling through Know Your Caribbean—her platform dedicated to amplifying Caribbean history and culture—and Yarde’s deep-rooted expertise in travel and entrepreneurship through her Limitless Concierge Service, the duo decided to do something.
“We are receiving emails from both potential travelers and business owners saying they are interested or that they’ve received bookings from the platform and that is the purpose, so we are happy to see that,” says Yarde.
Compton and Yarde’s backgrounds tell a common, broader story of the Caribbean diaspora.
“Home for me is Boston and Grenada,” says Yarde. “My mother is from Grenada, my father is from Barbados, and my maternal grandfather is from St. Vincent.”
Compton adds, “Home for me is Saint Lucia, which is where I’m currently based. I was born and raised in Saint Lucia, but my family comes from all over. I have strong roots in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, my father was born in Canouan, yet I have family in Barbados too. My father worked in Curaçao, my godmother [is] from Jamaica. And if I get into aunts and uncles, it’s best I list the whole map of the Caribbean!”
Their shared love for the Caribbean, their heritage and a passion for travel laid the groundwork for their collaboration. Compton says travel was a big part of family life due to her father’s work. She says, “Sometimes, he would take us with him. Sometimes, I would wake up one morning and ask where my father is and [mother] would respond something like, ‘He is in Korea, he will be back next week.’”
Yarde adds, “I spent many of my early summers in Barbados, which may have inspired my love for travel. I have lived in Europe and the Caribbean and have visited so many beautiful countries around the world.”
Her travel experiences led her to co-found Limitless Concierge Service in 2018 with her cousin, Shari Yarde. The company focuses on authentic travel experiences in Barbados, Grenada and St. Kitts and Nevis. Yarde is also the founder and CEO of J. Ventures International, a business development consulting agency.
Meanwhile, Compton lived in the United Kingdom for more than two decades working as a photographer, visual artist and filmmaker.
“Navigating through a white, male-dominated environment was a lot, so often I reduced myself next to them, doubting my own skill set,” Compton says. “In these rooms, I was so often the only woman, only person of colour and only person of Caribbean heritage. Then one day, I said, ‘Fyah for all of dat! Why am I molding my aspirations to Europe?’”
Collaborating for Change
Yarde and Compton met when Compton put out an ad on her platform for a manager. They connected and have been working together ever since. This teamwork has paid off, but the journey hasn’t been without hurdles. The Caribbean Green Book started out completely funded by Compton and Yarde. Then, the previous website draft didn’t work. Despite minimal support from local governments, the founders remain undeterred due to the great response from local businesses, and those businesses need a lot of support.
Compton says, “Some of the best locally owned businesses in the Caribbean do not have social media [or] professional photographs. They survive on word of mouth, especially if they are from an older generation. Translating this digitally has been a challenge that we hadn’t considered before.”
Yarde adds, “If there is a local business owner that doesn’t have high-resolution photos or doesn’t quite know how to navigate the registration form, that may be viewed as a setback. However, we are trying to grow our team so we can get someone to work alongside the business owners to upload their information.”
The Caribbean Green Book also partners with Indigenous communities in the region. “Their under-representation is, of course, disheartening, until you see just how many wonderful things they are doing,” Compton says. “Then, you feel so encouraged to support, as our history books were wrong. They are still here, and most of all, they are the communities we should support the most.”
Traveling to the Caribbean? Support local businesses by visiting the Caribbean Green Book website. Caribbean tourism business owners can go to the Caribbean Green Book and complete the ‘Register Your Business’ form to get started: Caribbean Green Book
Photo of stone villa courtesy of The Caribbean Green Book
READ MORE
Where Are You From?
Doctor Marie Léticée-Camboulin: An Afro Caribbean Woman Who Knows Her History
Cristiano Berti’s ‘Boggiano Heirs’ Unearths the Pains of Afro Cuban Slavery During Italy’s Pro-slavery Era
