Curbing tourist harassment

THE EDITOR, Sir:

IT IS no surprise to me that more and more cruise ships are pulling out of Jamaica. Last year I along with my family stopped in Ocho Rios, and we were pretty annoyed at the behaviour of the taxi operators, peddlers and the entire cast at Dunn's River, to summarise, very pushy and rude.

Lucky for us we had some friends and family who met us, thus avoiding this. To be quite frank Jamaica is not that different from the Mexican in their zeal to do business, except that we are aggressive, and have some beliefs about visitors that needs to be changed.

Most visitors to Jamaica are like my family, hard-working, saved for their vacation and on a budget Jamaicans MUST change their concept of visitors all being RICH with the ability to patronise every one that they come in contact with. They are not older women ("grooves" according to one of the tour guides at Dunn's River) looking for younger men, they are not younger couples looking for drugs, and not all naive travellers at the mercy of natives.

I am etc.,

PATRICK A BECKFORD

E-mail: pbeckf01@yahoo.com

County Line Rd

Branchburg, New Jersey

Via Go-Jamaica

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