The overall findings of the research, through the analysis of the content in both quantitative and qualitative frameworks show themes that this legacy is perpetuated. The three major themes that were established were the constant portrayal of white guests, positive employee expressions, and exclusive settings within the resorts. The first theme, being the most apparent, is a clear advertisement for who the resorts are created for, and who the target demographic is. The literature on Caribbean tourism identifies this using language with vocabulary such as ‘luxurious,’ or “avoiding the harsh winters at home.” (Cocks 2007: 222) These terms bear a sense of privilege that only wealthy white tourists are perceived to have.
Moving to the second theme of positive employee expressions, the legacy of race relations is seen here as well. Not only were most of the workers observed black or had dark skin, but the number of workers in total accounted for less than 20% of total people pictured. In images that show both employees and guests, the positive expressions carry a mantra of the ‘happy slave’ that is born into the working class to serve the wealthy white guests that populate the resorts and prolongs the legacy of the colonial motif established earlier.
The last theme established within the research is the depiction of private guest areas like pools or beaches. This theme promotes the idea of exclusivity that is granted to the tourist but is not accessible to the inhabitants of the area. Once again, this kind of consistency in advertising places the tourist in a class of their own above the native lower classes who work to serve them.
The colonial motif that was observed in this project is not only perpetuated by the resort advertising itself, but also the people who run these large corporations. The top three largest being Marriot, Hyatt, and Wyndham, and each of them have a Board of Directors who are mostly white and lack racial diversity. In this light, it can be noted that the colonial motif is continued throughout the operations of these companies, who share a likeness with the European colonizers who set the precedent before these corporations were formed. It would benefit this stance to continue research within the Caribbean resort advertisements to establish a larger collection of data to formulate a significant statement. The research conducted only looked at five of the 13 Caribbean Islands and would have stronger stance given more content from other places. Another avenue for further research would be to investigate the employment demographics of these resorts in order to see if the depiction of workers is accurate according to the real population of people who are employed there. Ultimately, the research conducted in line with the guiding research question establishes three themes that coincide with the literature’s background of European colonization based upon the representation of race among Caribbean resort websites.