A nice article. The chamber of commerce and the small hotels have to band together to figure out how to get the US and Canadian millennials out of the AIs and down the beach or the Negril we love will die out in 40-50 years and 7 mile beach will just be all AIs (the only time it seems that you see younger US tourists in the boutique hotels now is with families, rarely on their own).
Maybe something like reduced pricing for kids 18-25 with some special ID card that the boutique hotels can give out to their young guests?
Last edited by ukran1ans; 02-28-2020 at 10:08 AM.
Go Bills!
Maybe something like making Jamaica a safer destination to go on a family vacation.Originally Posted by ukran1ans
Just a thought.
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
Love this article. I brought my family at Christmas - 2 adults, one teen, a 12 year old and a 10 year old. I had them staying at Golden Sunset where I stay. It is NON A/I and has a kitchen so they were all happy. They got to wander around and meet people. The 12 year old made a friend of one of the local boys and they were inseparable. It was a great time and one which they would have missed in an A/I.
Irie Sue
Surprised to hear that coming from you, I have been taking my two little boys for seven straight years now. I feel very safe on the beach up until 11 pm, later if I'm with my group of friends who meet us. the day time 0 problems, I've started to let them wander a little distance on their own. We stay at Idle awhile beach, they are allowed to go down to Margaritaville and up the other way to about where the pattie lady is, it become to adult any farther for them. Accompong you usually just preach common sense will get a tourist far.
of course we are from Baltimore MD, and our town ain't no picnic.
Last edited by Caferacer59; 02-28-2020 at 03:16 PM.
Making Jamaica safer for Jamaicans would be a good start. I know two couples who bailed on Jamaica this and last year because of the SOE - and they have always stayed at AIs and never left the property. Partially because they already paid an exorbitant amount to include all of their food and drinks, and fear-mongering by the AIs. I think the AIs are very bad for the local's economy. The local cab drivers, restaurants, trinket vendors, markets, and live entertainment venues don't get any play from AI visitors.
@ukran1ans: The last time I remember Negril being filled with 18 to 25 year tourists I was one of them! That was a long time ago. It seems like most of the tourists these days are in the 40 to 60 year old age range. The past 5 years I have noticed more families with young children and even a few toddlers on the beach. Hard to say what could spur tourism. The US state department' stupid travel advisories don't help.
When you take my reply in a quote and don't reference what I was referring to in the quote, it doesn't follow in context.
I do believe that common sense will get a tourist far. What I don't believe is that without addressing the escalating crime problem, getting people off the AIs and skipping an AI all together is a too heavy lift (In my opinion).
I admit that since I no longer stay in Negril, I come at this from a more "island" point of view than you do staying on the 7 mile beach. Maybe I see more of the crime problem while living essentially "embedded" in a local neighborhood. In any regards, I think we both can agree that expanding the All Inclusive "experience" at the expense of the small accommodation providers is a net negative.
Again.....This is just my opinion.
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
i don't think it will take that long. i've only been visiting jamaica for 25 years (which isn't that long, compared to some folks on this board) and how it is there today is very different from what i experienced on my first trip.
back in the 80s i i knew a lot of people who used to go to negril and the type of trips they were able to do back then were getting harder to do by the time i made it there.
i can't imagine these days you'd be able to find a camping spot on the beach for $5 bucks a night (what my friends used to do) and i definitely would not expect to see a rando tourist roaming around bloody bay wasted drunk and naked, with his penis poked through a seagrape leaf (a very mild example of the things i'd encounter all the time in negril).
i'm pretty sure the inevitability is that it's heading towards AI only with a few miami-style boutiques sprinkled in, and it won't take 40 years to get to that point.
EDITED TO ADD: from what i remember, the 90s were a pretty bad time for drugs and crime in negril (and JA in general), but that didn't seem to stop younger people from coming to party. are drugs and crime actually worse now? it doesn't seem like they are to me.
i think the problem is jamaica on a whole hasn't found a way to attract younger travelers- both first timers and returnees. it seems like it's been coasting on the demographic that started visiting in the 80s and 90s and, now that that crowd is thinning, is now saying "fk it," and selling itself off to AI developers.
Last edited by mwenvlay; 02-29-2020 at 03:46 PM.
We stay both AI and non-AI most every trip. One thing for sure is we meet a lot of return guests at both type places and all are happy with their choice. The people at the AI's really love that type of vacation and IMO there's a low probability of success pulling them away. If Negril outside the AI is going to survive they need to attract and grow their crowd by appealing to people that aren't looking for an AI. Two different styles of vacation that are competing for the same real estate but not necessarily competing for the same customers.
Posting Permissions
