State Dept Warning

[Corey K]

What I've noticed is a higher prevalence of younger Jamaicans that some are describing as scammas staying at some of the moderately to lower priced hotels on the beach than the past. There has been a large group of young local males that stayed in a condo at NBCC awhile back. Some were driving flashy cars and were loud in public areas but for the most part they didn't interact with tourists too much. I try not to pass judgement on people but some locals told me that they are in fact scammas and to steer clear of them. None of them seemed too interested in tourists and I think their game probably was more along the lines of internet and phone phishing scams. That has become fairly common in Jamaica. What is a lot different now than say 10 years ago is that when there is a local dispute we are seeing some of the violent reactions occur in areas that tourists are at where that used to be very uncommon. There was a shooting at a local wedding not too long ago at Shields Hotel which is right next door to Travellers. Also I noticed that Jamaica Tamboo Hotel seemed to have a lot more unsavory characters hanging around its grounds too. It's still very rare for a tourist to get caught up in it unless they are involved in some type of illegal activity themselves. Just my two cents of viewing things change in Negril over the past few years. I'm heading down shortly and am not overly concerned.