Encouraged by the United Nations and World Bank, many governments in the Caribbean encouraged tourism beginning in the 1950s to boost their third-world economies. The Caribbean Tourist Association was founded in 1951.

Caribbean tourism began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, evolving from "health-seeking" trips and colonial steamship routes. Initially, wealthy North Americans and Europeans visited islands like Jamaica and Barbados to escape harsh winters, often staying in sanitariums or elite coastal estates. The real catalyst, however, was the launch of Pan Am Airways in the late 1920s, which transformed the region from a weeks-long steamship journey into a viable short-term destination. Following World War II, the rise of commercial jet travel and the "fantasy" marketing of the 1960s—pushed by leaders like Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic—turned the Caribbean into a mass-market "idyllic playground." By the 1970s, the modern cruise industry took hold, solidifying the region's total economic dependence on international leisure travel.