These are unfortunate incidents that can occur with one bad apple in Jamaica. They put a dark cloud over all of the great people and wonderful things that are there to enjoy. This is especially lousy if the Jamaican police (she didn't say if they were Negril Police or not) are uninterested in doing anything about it as one of the ladies claimed was the case with her.
These incidents reminded me of 2 friends of mine who now refuse to set foot in Jamaica again (after many trips there in the past) because their room was vandalized and things were stolen while they were away from it and partying on their last trip. These kinds of crimes are petty in the overall scheme of things and they are very rare. But they are really, really bad for tourism because they violate the tourist's sense of the innate safety and security of the accommodations there and the trustworthiness of the drivers upon whom they must depend to get back and forth to the airport.
I hate to even mention these incidents here for fear of scaring away some of you who are looking for information about taking a vacation in Negril. However, I do it to be completely honest with you about your safety in Negril. But at the same time I want to mention that after having taken many trips to Negril and other places in Jamaica myself, I know that a little extra cautiousness on any tourist's part can prevent these kinds of things from ever happening to them.
We have had great times in Negril and elsewhere on the island and we've never had any incidents of vandalism in all of our trips there because we are cautious. But we are cautious at home in Chicago too and my wife and I both feel that Negril is a whole lot safer than many areas here. We live in a very decent, well lit neighborhood on Chicago's far north-side and yet our 20 year old grandson was robbed by 2 punks early one evening when he was entering our condominium's secure entrance gate! So to us this incident proves that no place anywhere is totally safe and so we are very careful whenever we travel.
Tourists need to understand that Jamaica is in many areas a third world country and although the people there are so very wonderful and so extremely friendly, they are mostly poor and there are very few opportunities for them to advance themselves. So a few of them will turn to scamming and petty crime to try to make what they think is some easy money for themselves.
What they don't always consider when they do this is that if or when they get caught violating a law, the Jamaican legal system can put them away for an awful long period of time in a miserable third world jail! Therefore, very few of those who realize these consequences actually turn bad this way. Still, in both of these cases some did and bad things from them happened to each of these tourists.
Now because of these 3 petty crimes alone, 6 tourists who have each spent many, many thousands of tourist dollars vacationing over the years in Jamaica are never going to do it again! And they're also going to tell all of their friends and relatives about what happened to them when they were there so they might not go to Jamaica either! What a pity! In these tough times when every tourist dollar counts, at least 6 (and probably a few more) of those who can afford it will no longer vacation there because of a couple of bad apples and their petty criminal activities!
I just want to finish this post by reassuring everyone that Negril is really a very, very safe place. It has an adequate police force and an on foot tourist protection force and nearly every resort has some level of security to protect its own patrons. Because of these measures, unfortunate incidents such as these are really a rarity and should only be viewed as a caution, not in any way as a deal breaker for a vacation there.
The following are some links to further information about these and related issues which are present already within our Negril Jamaica Tourist Vidia and within this blog.
