Security minister moves to provide greater visitor assurance
MONTEGO BAY St James — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang has said that his ministry has intensified efforts to expeditiously provide greater visitor assurance in the wake of a recent damning travel advisory issued for Jamaica by the US State Department.
“The Ministry of National Security [has] had discussions with the police to examine our operational deployment on the North Coast area as we are going to examine how we can take steps to strengthen our position in improving our efficiency in some of the issues raised,” Chang told the Jamaica Observer.
At the same time the security minister said he has issues with the ‘broad brush’ nature of the advisory, arguing that Government does not countenance anything that threatens the tourism sector, which is vital to the Jamaican economy.
“Tourism is the bright spark of our economy and so we are not going to play with it at all. We are going to take anything that come across it seriously,” Chang told the Sunday Observer.
“We find some of the issues that were raised as a kind of broad brush treatment, and we don’t agree with that also because, certainly, we have had significant apprehension of individuals who have been reported on the issue of assault on our visitors, which we take very seriously.
“Some of the comments were a little bit broad but we are looking at all of it in detail to ensure we can take steps to (in terms of deployment and operations) to give even greater visitor assurance. As it is now, it is very low.”
The national security minister revealed that data showed that some visitors who are victims of crime are Americans with Jamaican roots.
“A number of the individuals who have been victims of crime are Jamaicans who have become American citizens and have local linkages, exposure problems, but we are going to take some steps to do whatever we can to impact the [negative] narrative in the near future,” Chang pledged.
He was speaking to the Sunday Observer last week while Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and a team were on marketing blitz in New York to help mitigate the negative impact of the travel advisory from the US State Department.
The US State Department’s advisory states in part “that violent crimes, such as home invasions, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and homicides, are common. Sexual assaults occur frequently, including at all-inclusive resorts”.
It also cited that “local police often do not respond effectively to serious criminal incidents. When arrests are made, cases are infrequently prosecuted to a conclusive sentence. Families of US citizens killed in accidents or homicides frequently wait a year or more for final death certificates to be issued by Jamaican authorities. Emergency services and hospital care vary throughout the island, and response times and quality of care may vary from US standards”.
Bartlett participated in a series of media interviews across the USA from the Ministry of Tourism’s public relations office in New York.
“We’re hitting the road to bolster arrivals from our biggest and best market, the United States. More than 74 per cent of our visitors come from the US — and we don’t take that for granted. We’re determined to future-proof the sector this summer, and meeting with our American partners is crucial to realising that objective,” Bartlett is quoted as saying in a release from the Ministry of Tourism.
As of May 10, 2023 Jamaica welcomed just over 1.5 million total visitors, with provisional gross earnings exceeding US$1.6 billion for the same period. The 2023 summer is gearing up to be the best summer in the history of tourism in Jamaica.