RSSUS Travelers are Warned … More US cities are catching wind of the impact of crime on tourism in Caribbean countries
The word is out there to potential Caribbean travelers … More US cities are catching wind 
of the impact of crime on tourism in Caribbean countries. Once petty crimes seem to be increasing and escalating from “aggressive soliciting, muggings and purse snatchings” to “armed robberies, burglaries and sometimes assaults”.
Some American dailies as well as the US State Department have warned travelers about possible dangers they could encounter traveling to the region. Different types of accommodations are also susceptible to specific types of criminal behavior, according to warnings.
According to a Washington Post report, properties that offer a romantic and isolated get-away are sometimes easy targets for criminals because there is either little or no security. There have also been more small hotel and motel break-ins, and thieves have hit vacation rental spots, the report noted. Another trend reported is hotel room break-ins while guests are in them. (The Nassau Guardian)
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6 Responses to “US Travelers are Warned … More US cities are catching wind of the impact of crime on tourism in Caribbean countries”
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That’s what I hear also. It is not just Aruba. It is ALL of the caribbean.
Within the last couple of months there was an article in our local paper about travel advisories for Mexico. Apparently drug dealers are fighting for turf and there has been increased violence and even beheadings – even in Acapulco. The increased violence is said to be because the drug trade that used to just be a transit to the US is now selling their wares to a larger degree within Mexico, so drug wars are heating up.
It’s just a matter of time that USA will issue a travel warning/alert to all Caribbeans, Mexico and South America.
Hopfully sooner than later on the Caribbeans.
dkpen, I hope they do it BEFORE someone else goes missing. It is very dangerous on those islands. They also want to keep it quite so they don’t hurt tourism.
The reporter who wrote the Washington Post piece was Gary Lee. A while back, incensed by some of his typical tourist-garbage “tropical paradise” writings about Aruba and Curacao (where Amy Bradley vanished from the ship in 1998 as it was docked in port), I took umbrage and wrote some e-mails to Lee.
He replied, saying (accurately enough) that if he didn’t write about places where there was crime, he couldn’t write about anywhere.
My response was, well, of course, but look at what is really going on in the Caribbean, and look at how the governments of those islands try to perpetuate the myths that gullible tourists will believe.
The cruise lines do exactly the same thing, of course.
Anyway, I’m not taking the credit for Gary Lee’s possibly taking a harsher line with articles like this … I don’t think the leopards change their spots, and almost all “travel journalism” has commercial motives behind it (wanting to induce people to get off their butts and buy a two-week ticket to Outer Mongolia, or wherever) … but maybe it helped a bit.
Let’s try to keep the pressure on travel writers. Whenever we see the “tropical paradise” BS being spouted, let’s notify each other and get the computer fired up.
I’m not claiming to be a great writer … but every letter that we send helps keep Natalee’s cause out there. And our silence is what Aruba wants.
Oh goodie – One of Agatha Christie’s mysteries featuring Miss Marple makes the Front Page!
The referenced article is in the Murder & Crime thread, I think on Page 10, and of course msmarple has written to the author, Gary Lee, at The Washington Post.