Abstract

We discuss here the tourism industry and its relationship with demographic changes, occupational distribution, socio-economic stratification and ethnicity in Rapa Nui. We maintain that the Rapa Nui economy and ethnicity are closely related, and that all this has consequences in the production of economic differentiation and internal social inequalities. Several milestones are recorded. First, the development of urban infrastructure and services, air transport, cabotage and communications, directly dependent on public investments that made tourism possible. Second, the promotion of the tourism industry where the State, together with a very active Rapanui interest, played a decisive driving role. Demographic changes are presented, considering a broad temporal perspective, highlighting the rapid growth of the island’s population, paying attention to the considerable flow of continentals that settle, finding jobs in State services, public investments and, above all, in the development of facilities and services for tourism. In public employment and tourism, the Rapanui have come to have a substantial presence, coupled with considerable influence, in one case, and control, in the other, of these two main sources of income on the island. The Rapanui maintain a dominant position in the tourism economy and in the ownership of a large part of the independent companies and activities associated with it, while the continental ones, settled or with temporary stays, have a position, in general, very numerous but subordinate to salaried jobs and minor self-employment ventures. For the rest, it is an economy dominated by family units, especially in the housing sector, with a predominantly female occupation.