Freedom of the Seas. May 2010
This is my only photo of Labadee, Haiti apparently. I guess it all was pretty blurry since we were on a "party cruise". The question is - when has a person actually visited a country?
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines contracted with someone in Haiti and walled off a section of beach (think Guantanamo Bay) for exclusive use of its passengers. Labadee was an absolutely gorgeous beach with a zipline, a handicraft market, and a variety of bars and cafes. Everyone working there was "Labadeean" I guess? Nothing in the description of the cruise ever mentioned "Haiti". It might have been there in the small print, but Labadee was just promoted as "Labadee". No one wanted to visit impoverished and sometimes violent Haiti, but who would would not want to visit "slice o' paradise" Labadee?
The ship's crew told us that there was a huge security fence on the perimeter and prospective vendors and their wares lined up outside in hopes of being chosen to come into the handicraft market to earn a few desperately needed dollars. The very idea of part of a country being walled off to its own citizens! Perhaps Royal Caribbean could get away with the explanation that it was a private resort, but still - it felt incredibly unjust. Meanwhile, the passengers were all prisoners of Labadee, like Gitmo, except no one knew.
As usual, the experience reminded me of a similar episode earlier in life - Cebu, Philippines. When I lived in Japan in the mid-1980's, the Philippines was becoming an increasingly popular destination for Japanese tourists. Unfortunately, those were also years of great political turmoil in that island nation and sensational headlines scared off visitors. What was the answer? Start to market an island not the country. Suddenly all over Japan there was a "visit Cebu" campaign that never once mentioned the Philippines. It worked, too. Japanese went in droves to resorts on Mactan Island (even further removed being right off the coast of Cebu AND luckily hosting the Philippines' second largest international airport). Perhaps the visitors never realized they were actually in the Philippines until they passed through immigration? Very similarly, Royal Caribbean needed a cheap private beach and Haiti was desperate for hard currency. Labadee became a stop for all their ships (and it was beautiful) without ever scaring the passengers by letting on they were in Haiti.
My question: can I say I have visited Haiti?
Technically yes, but then again "no" as I never passed through immigration. It was more akin to an international airport transfer than a visit. What does it take to say a person has ACTUALLY visited a country? The passport stamp? a certain number of hours spent there? having used local currency? I have been on the Haitian part of the island of Ispayola (Creole for Hispaniola), but from my own perspective I have never really been to Haiti.
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