Tourism Minister invites ideas!

[hackwriter]

Agree with everyone else about trash and vendors. My late husband and I stopped going to 7 mile beach because of the vendors, once he learned who the "designated guy" was at each hotel (and there always seems to be one). We'd have our wrists grabbed and reggae bracelets tied on them, then money demanded. This is a hold-up, not a vendor. This MUST be enforced. It is no longer "local charm." And we went to Negril 13 times.

I would like to see government subsidies and education for hoteliers to bring their properties up to minimal 1st world standards. This doesn't mean everything has to be lavish. It does mean air conditioning (mini-splits make this easier), clean rooms, towels in decent condition, adequate hot water and water pressure, keeping bathrooms in good repair and eliminating mildew in bathrooms as much as possible. We used to go to T-Water in the early 1990s and that is my idea of the perfect hotel -- friendly staff, good food, clean comfortable rooms -- at a good price. I know it's hard keeping up a hotel in the tropics. But with Cuba about to become serious competition, Negril has to decide what it is and find a balance between the boho vibe of yesteryear and what today's consumers want. All I can do is tell you what would bring me back to Negril, even alone now...because Negril always healed my soul. A week of sitting under a tree, looking at the water, drinking Ting and Dirty Bananas, eating ackee and saltfish with dumpling for breakfast and grilled snapper with cabbage and rice and peas, sleeping in a cool, comfortable room with the sound of the tree frogs outside my door, a pool for when I get too many jellyfish stings, the soft Caribbean water, and sunset at the end of the day...I would go narcoleptic...go to sleep at the drop of a hat, because I always arrived in Negril exhausted and always came home healed.

I want to be able to take a beach walk alone without being hassled by rentas seeing a 61-year-old overweight woman and thinking dollar signs or vendors seeing vulnerability. I want to be able to sit at a bar and have a drink and chat with friendly locals and tourists without worrying about having something slipped into my drink. I know I am not "yardie." I know I'm a tourist, and I treat people well when I'm there. All I ask is that I not be taken advantage of.

There's a lot that the government could do to help business owners on all these fronts.