Views on Queer Tourism
JET Magazine article regarding "gay tourism" in Key West
The articles about the impact of the AIDS epidemic on Haitian tourism were written in 1981 and the article about the investment on "gay tourist" in Key West was written in 1982. These articles show a stark contrast on the way queer tourists were viewed and talked about during that time period (the first case of AIDS in the US was diagnosed in 1979). Haiti's tourism decreased due to the presumption that more Haitians than any other group carried the virus and the Haitian government tried to rebut the stigmatisation by putting the blame on American tourists. Meanwhile, in the Florida Keys, "gay businessmen are out" to get the "gay dollar."
Here Comes the Sun does not feature any queer tourists but it does feature queer characters and the attitudes of the locals around them that reiterate that queer people are not the ideal tourist most of these ads are looking to attract. The way people in River Bank treat Verdene is one example of the unwelcoming environment for queer people. The most important example, however, is Miss Novia Scott-Henry. She is treated like a prime ambassador for the island when she is the winning beauty queen and becomes manager of the hotel; but when she is framed to be seen as queer she disappears and falls form everyone's grace in the blink of an eye. If a former beloved beauty queen can lose her status so instantly over a rumour that she is queer then locals like Margot receive the message that they are unwelcome, unsafe, and unwanted, in the tourist industry and the community as a whole.