I'm always wierded out by going to resorts like the DR, Jamaica, Cuba (Haiti has a few resorts too) because of the class/race issues. I do feel uncomfortable being waited on hand and foot by someone who makes in a year what I make in a month (and I'm a grad student!). Even if I do my research and find a hotel or resort with good labor relations, I can't escape the issue.

However, I also recognize that tourism is a really important part of these countries' economies and working in a resort or a hotel is one of the better jobs in these places. My money does a lot more good if I spend it there, rather than going to, say, Miami or Orlando.

It's not just in the advertising.

I went on one cruise whose brochure actually specified (and my experience onboard confirmed) that the officers were all German or English. Employees in service roles (waiters, cabin stewards) were all Indonesian or Filipino. Employees at the customer service desks were all female, both white and Asian.

Meanwhile, the maintenance workers, who were supposed to be invisible (even declining to make eye contact while all the other workers smiled and spoke) were white, black, Asian, whatever.

I realized they were really selling a colonial experience.

"Haha were going to stab you with our spears!"
"Just kidding were friendly aboriginals!"

native adults catering to privileged children

I think there is a split second where you can see a white person serving the parents, at the right corner of the frame, putting on the face mask... But that's a drop in the ocean, so to speak...

This theme also plays out in the real world. I went on vacation back home (I'm Kenyan), and my wife and I (I'm black, my wife is white) stayed at a game resort. For 3 days, other than the staff, I was the only black person, but I was not dressed like the staff.

One day I had an older white woman get angry at me because she barked at me to "fetch her some coffee" and when I told her I didn't work there (my first instinct was to tell her to go F herself), she wouldn't believe it. Stuff like this has happened to me in the U.S, but it's extra-painful when it happens in my home country.

I remember going to a job interview for a cruise company. And they asked me if i'd ever been on a cruise.

The following comment may have cost me the job, but apparently they didn't think i had 'the personality' for the job anyway.

Interviewer: Have you ever been on one of the cruises we sell?

Me: Really? No. The cheapest one i see advertised is £10,000. I'd barely clear that in a year.

Sigh.

Absolutely amazing how they still think that this is a good idea. It probably still works too, which is even scarier

Reminds me of the philanthropist who was motivated by the realization that all the holidaymakers in his exclusive resort were pretending to enjoy themselves, while all the staff were pretending to enjoy their jobs. I forget who it was.

I do not find the ad offensive. It is somewhat reflective of labor hierarchies at the work place in real life. Would you rather that they weren't advertized in a way that offends sensitivity? It is better that we know which organizations practice these kind of policies. Cruise ship jobs are often some of the worst out there..it is natural that less privileged classes will be forced to consider them as options.
I have often found liberal white people particularly offended by reminders of a colonial past, exhibiting a remorseful guilt, almost apologetic at the first sight of any evidence of it. Meanwhile, for a non-white person like me, it is simply what reality is. In business it is often these differences that sell. And as long as indigenous people get some part of the benefits of such "colonial luxury seekers", it is not so bad keeping up the act.

So because they are white and on a cruise ship they are privileged? Maybe they are a lower middle class family who won Wheel of Fortune. Maybe they just spend their money on different things. Whos to say that the non-whites did not make enough to do whatever they wanted? Maybe the non-whites dont want to go on a cruise and want to go skiing instead where white people can wait on them.

This about accurately describes the one cruise I've been on...the guests were all white, the waiters and the people who cleaned the rooms were mostly Philippino, and the only white people working on board were the ship officers (the ship's captain was from a Nordic country IIRC) and the entertainers (comedians, musicians, the cruise director, the chef who ran the cooking classes, the lady who ran the art auctions, etc.). If there were Black people on board I didn't see any. It was pretty weird...although fabulous to be able to visit several Mediterranean countries in a short period of time.

I'm Australian and have been on two holidays with P&O cruises - our honeymoon & 5th wedding anniversary. Not everyone on the ship is privileged. There were many families who had saved for years to have one of the cheapest all inclusive holidays you can have. I was surprised myself, but most people were the kind who would usually holiday at a caravan park, not five star hotels.

And honestly, that ad reflects the reality on the cruise ship. I don't remember seeing any passengers that weren't white while only a small amount of the staff on the ship - some entertainers and the ship's officers were white. It's almost impossible for an Australian to get a job on the ship (that's not in entertainment) because of they source their staff from countries where they don't have to pay the rates they would to Australian people. Also, some of the 'cultural experiences' offered in New Caledonia & Vanuatu do look like they do in the ad.

I think it's worth noting that the ad is part of a promotion asking people to send them photos of their cruise experience. If you were to look at the ad as a series of photos, they would be a realistic reflection of a families cruise.

Saying this, there is a lot to say about the interaction of cruise ship passengers and native populations in the South Pacific, but criticising this ad is not a fair and accurate way to do it. As part of our cruise we went on a blue lagoon tour in Vila where we learnt a lot about what life is like now for people in Vila and the surrounding islands - rich, poor, native & white. It's complicated, cruise ships are the only source of income for many island groups, though islanders only need money to send their kids to school and for medical care (which is not available on the islands and isn't something you'd subject your dog to in Vila). Their biggest problems since independence are unemployment, education and kava abuse - now they also have problems with crime and marijuana, it sounds a lot like the issues in South Africa with the divide between the minority of mostly white wealthy people and the vast majority of people who surround them.

There were many people on the ship that took school & medical supplies that they donated to various places along the way. Many people also donated clothing, gave cash and organised to send people things like radios. I'm not sure if these things are necessarily positive for the locals - eg cute kids walk around collecting donations instead of going to school; but I'm sure they do benefit in some ways. P&O also do a lot for the local populations including offering onboard training for hospitality students. I guess what I'm saying after all of this is the ad is honest but there are many issues involved in South Pacific cruises worth discussing.

Maybe this is why there is such a low amount of people of color who travel, especially internationally, as opposed to white people? Obviously socioeconomics have a lot to do with it, but I can't imagine feeling very welcome to travel if people similar to me (either because I share their heritage or simply because they are similarly not white) get treated that way. Even though I'm half black, I think I do receive a lot of white privilege from the way I was raised, and I do travel a lot. On most of the study abroad trips I've been on, I've been the only person of color, and my peers have often said similar things to what was in this post. Not only is it awful, but I wonder whether it's more or less awful that they don't feel the need to hide their prejudices in front of a person of color.

Awhile back, in the post "Danish Women as Tourist Attractions," Gwen took umbrage with a stealth tourist ad presenting an attractive, sexually liberated young woman as a representation of the "local people." I thought it was actually a change for the better over ads like this one; its actress gave us a character with an actual voice, complex thoughts, and genuine personality to communicate an idea about the destination's spirit, rather than simply appearing as a split-second background detail serving the whims of the visitors. I wondered what a tourist ad might be like if the same humanity were granted to nonwhite locals, or to people in a less wealthy destination.

Here, I can certainly see how the racial aspect of the images provokes discomfort. It reminds us of a deeply entrenched existing order that a lot of people would rather pretend is a thing of the colonial past. But all the same, it encapsulates pretty well what this kind of cruise experience offers - a floating bubble of class privilege in which the sorts of people who can't afford it appear only as smiling servants, and brief, unchallenging "cultural encounters." The ad must appeal to people who want this sort of thing; there are certainly other and cheaper ways to travel for those who want a different kind of experience.

I have to wonder - would the ad be less objectionable if it misrepresented the racial/ethnic dynamic that's endemic to the real product for political correctness' sake? Is it the ad that's the problem, or the thing being advertised?

I went on one cruise to Alaska, which, in itself, should say that they weren't trying to give any "authentic native" experience. However, the staff was a lot of colored people, with a few whites as entertainers, and the crew (like the captain and other people at the bridge, and steering and what not) was mostly whites. It didn't feel uncomfortable or offensive, however I have to admit that I am quite colorblind a lot of the time and only realize this kind of stuff when it is mentioned later on. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But either way, as mentioned in a lot of the comments above, it's just cheaper to hire from smaller countries and minorities for the staff, and you don't come across that many colored people (forgive me for using the word colored, because I think it's a bit of a round-about-way of saying things, but I have to include "brown" people as well) that have a degree in nautical engineering and experience in steering giant cruise liners. If they could hire them to increase the "diversity" of the ship, they probably would.

I don't know why people are surprised about this advertisement. We all now race is highly correlated with income, and cruises aren't cheap so we can make a safe bet the majority of people on cruises are white. And from the advertisement it looks like families are big consumers of the cruise ship experience (or at least the target for this ad).

Also, this whole advertisement is shot from the parents' point of view (specifically the dad's, look at who's holding the camera). As a parent your child is going to be the center of your family vacation, and you want to have the staff care for them and offer them exciting, "exotic," and fun adventures (i.e. visiting the aboriginals, the water falls, etc.). So it makes sense the children are catered to and are the center of the ad.

And, I wouldn't act surprised about the race of the people working on the boat. Has anyone been to Chicago O'Hare? Everyone getting on a plane is white and everyone working at the airport is black. This is just a representation of reality.

In reality this advertisement is rather well done, the market researchers did a great job of identifying their target market (and what they want to see), the idea of using a series of photos from the dad's point of view to create the ad is very smart (and looks very cool), and the advertisement really imitates life. It's disappointing that the world is structured along race lines, but it is a fact.

The only objectionable part would be using the natives as a representation of the exotic and adventure. To exploit a culture for our own gain is wrong, but then again who is to say anthropologists/ethnographers haven't been exploiting natives (natives can be aboriginals, members of the ghetto, etc.) for their own sense of adventure and gain under the disguise of science. I wouldn't be the first to throw stones, and I know some of my adventures into the unknown and different have been done under a thin veil of science.

The race differences in the customers and servers is unfair, but thats the way it is. An advertisement or corporation is not going to change the world. You are only shocked at this ad if you are blind to the world around you, if you want to change this ad, change the world.

Uh, dude...you know that most cruiselines hire international staff to save money, right?  And that since white people are largely a minority in the world, the majority of their staff isn't white?

I'm all for calling out racism, but this seems far less intentional and sinister than you make it out to be.

Ironically i found this article by trying to do the opposite, i am looking for a cruise ship that does not have non white servants. Does anyone know if any of the lines still have white stewards. When i was younger cunard and holland america had excellent staff as did the Ill d france, from what im told these days its horrible all sorts of wogs, dont these companies understand money isn't everything.

There are so many cruise trips to different parts of the world. I’ve seen “Black Cruises” advertised. If white people had its own cruise trips we would be called “racist”. So, why is it that “Black” cruises are everywhere but not ONE WHITE cruise! I wish there was one! It would be nice to be around well behaved educated white individuals. NOT loud complaining people! They chew with their mouth open, have absolutely no manners and want everyone to hear and see them eating. Smacking their lips, its completely disgusting! You can also imagine them filling their plates with as much shrimp and seafood as they can and they don’t think about others. They are loud, rude and unruly. On holiday I don’t want to be disturbed by them let alone see them in a foreign environment. Also, these people say they can’t swim so what the bloody hell are they doing on a freaking cruise ship? If the ship starts to sink they would all die because they don’t know how to swim. It’s as though they are afraid of water, that’s probably why they don’t shower and wash their hair often and always smell! Please just stay home and BBQ, it’s what you do best. Plus they can use their food stamps to buy the meat they bbq!!!