Looking back at over three decades of travel, I have seen first Kingston then Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and now Negril transform into harassment zones for tourists. Anywhere wealth congregates then you find people who are prone towards easy money harassment techniques instead of taking the time to come on easy and friendly to make an honest dollar.
Sometimes we are our own worst enemies with the way we spread around our money by giving it to people without requiring some "Respect" or some equivalent quid pro quo in exchange. Sometimes we are too casual to bestow the term "friend" to people we casually know and that level of openness can become our Achilles Heel.
I live in and love Jamaica but I have weaned myself away from tourist areas for just this reason. I don't get this harassment problem where I live. When the Jamaican dollar was strong, it was a better place to vacation and harassment was not so common. We can hope that Jamaica will overcome its economic problems and that will result in the pressure being lessened between locals and visitors.
Peace and Guidance