I've always shied away from resort holidays offering me the opportunity to 'experience' the 'real' local culture because it sounds like a con that disrespects the tourists and the locals and locks both into a Disney Land dynamic where 'the locals' are as authentic as Mickey Mouse.
This book gives me a view of how a resort works that re-inforces my prejudices:
Event Management at the resort curates the presentation of a fictional island and fictional islanders to the tourists, creating a narrative around 'Natives' welcoming Columbus when the islanders are all descendants of African slaves and the original islanders were long ago sent to die working in silver mines.
Here's how our main character, Myrna, describes her work at the resort:
'My ID tag said nothing but "Maid" but it was also my job to be silent and visible only when the tourists wanted to see me. "At work2 meant not just a place or a time. A being. A not being.'
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