Does Crime And Violence Affect The Tourism Industry Tourism Essay

This group assignment will discuss the impact of crime and violence on the tourism industry in Jamaica using statistical data such as graphs, charts and figures to support our factual findings. The purpose of this report is to show whether crime and violence will affect Jamaica potential investments in the near future or in the present, also if this factor affects the different sectors of tourism which include entertainment, sports, health, and food amongst others. These facts and statistics are taken from a variety of sites, which include the Gleaner, Statinja and other sites stated in the reference of the report.

What is Crime and Violence?

There are many definitions for both ‘Crime and Violence’. What is crime? Crime is a harmful action, omission or an activity considered to be evil shameful or wrong which is against a person or a country. It is also an illegal act which or can be punished by law.

What is Violence? Violence is a behaviour that involves the use of physical force which unlawfully exercised towards property and or persons, situations like these; may cause intentions which may lend to the killing or hurting of someone.

What is Tourism?

Tourism is an activity which an individual or a group of individuals, that leads to the movement from one place to another within a country, or from one country to another. This happens due to the performing of specific tasks or the awareness that the particular place have to offer like its civilization and culture and also the increase of knowledge about the country and its culture and history.

The different types of Crime and Violence

When it comes on to ‘Crime and Violence’ there are many different types because every day there is something new that doesn’t falls under the previous types of crime and violence.

Let’s starts off with the different types of Crime. There are many but just to name a few:

Crime against Persons -includes rape, robbery and murder etc.

Crime against Property- this is self-explanatory, theft of home without harm such as body burglary larceny and etc.

Crime against Morality- may include illegal gambling, illegal use of drugs.

White-Collar Crime- committed by people in high social status against people of the same status like embezzling (stealing money from employees)

The type of Violence:

Physical Violence- is the intention with the use of physical force which in the ended injury, harm, death or even disability may occur.

Sexual Violence- takes place without consent or understanding.

Psychological/Emotion Violence- may involve trauma of a victim cause by threats of acts.

Domestic Violence- is this self-explanatory violence within the home, family or between spouses.

Types of Tourism and if Crime and Violence has an Impact on them

There are a lot of different types of tourism in Jamaica, just to name a few we have:

Eco tourism/ Nature

Sports

Heritage/ Cultural

Adventure

Leisure

Business

The ones that crime and violence will most likely to affect is Adventure tourism and Leisure tourism.

Visitors who come here for adventure are more likely to go out on their own without any form of trained tour guide, trying to learn about the country and its history and sometimes fall prey to those out there looking for trouble and trying to cause problem for other people.

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The ones, who come for leisure, relax and party. Especially when they go out o party they might hook up with people that they don’t know, just wanting to have a good time and end up being robbed or taken advantage of or worst.

Does Crime and Violence have an Impact on the Tourism Industry?

Tourism in Jamaica is seen as the primary foreign exchange industry. This industry has a few negative impacts attached to it, such as theft, murder, scams, harassment amongst others. Since the Norman Manley International Airport is a form of entrance and exit point for visitors and it is located near some of the volatile areas of Kingston such as Bull Bay, Rock fort and others; it puts them at risk for violence to be perpetrated against them. According to the Jamaica 2012 crime and safety report, these are the following set of crime and violence that impact tourism, they include:

Theft (robbery -jewellery, money, credit cards etc)

Murder

Rape/ Sexual Violence

Fraud (Lottery scam, credit card fraud)

Extortion

Kidnapping

Harassment (Craft Vendors, Street Sellers or Rent-A-Dreads)

The report states that there is no evidentiary support that criminals are targeting U.S. citizens directly, but it further states that skimming which is a type of fraud is becoming popular among the Jamaican employees in restaurants, hotels, resorts and villas. These persons are capturing visitors’ credit card information and utilizing it for their benefit by stealing money out of the visitors’ accounts. The report also states that tourists are becoming a target for pick pocketing and petty cash crimes. To support these findings, below is table and graph to illustrate.

Table showing crimes reported over the last seven years against U.S. citizens

Type of Crimes

Reported Amount

Murders

7

Rape/ Sexual Assault

12

Aggravated Assault

9

Robbery

37

Kidnapping

1

Domestic Violence

5

Child Abuse

3

Also, the report states that the hotels and resorts employees have brought sexual violence towards the visitors in a number of hotels not named which are located on the north coast. On the other hand lottery scam as become prevalent on the Jamaican north coast (Mobay, Trelawney and Hanover) concerning the U.S. citizens. The criminals set up legitimate companies to defraud these Americans, the criminal element convince these persons to send large amount of money to specific account or fraudulent name here in Jamaica. They do this by telling them that they either won some bogus prize or a all expensive paid trip to Jamaica. This resulted in the closing of Grace remittent service areas which further cause a decrease in remittance in those areas.

However these problems are been recognized by the government of Jamaica and they are taken steps to prevent these crimes from happening. These steps include more policing by foot and bicycle patrols in cruise ports and tourist areas, also an upgrade in training on how to deal with these types of crimes. For example the state has taken serious measures to clamp down on the lottery scam on the north coast; there has been numerous arrest and seizures of high end vehicles over the past year. Therefore, all of these factors mentioned above prove that crime has an impact on Jamaica’s tourism industry.

Facts and figures derived from the Jamaican Constabulary Force about the latest crime figures in Jamaica.

J.C.F. latest homicides figures of 2012 January-February

Type of Crime

Places/Parishes

No. of Deaths

Murders

St. Catherine North (Spanish Town, Bog Walk)

25

St. Catherine South (Portmore, Old Harbour, Central Village)

13

St. James

22

Clarendon

13

St. Andrew South

10

NB: a comparison of murders/ homicide cases for 2011 and 2012

In the period of February 11, 2011 murder cases stood at 114 compared to the same time period for 2012 it has risen to 137.

J.C.F statistics show there was 536 murders between January 1 and June 23 of 2012, 32 more than last year.

Statistics for the hot spot parishes of Jamaica according to the Gleaner news paper and the Jamaica Constabulary Force

Hanover: 22 murders, a 267 per cent increase when compared to last year

St. James: with the lottery scam 79 murders, the highest of all 19 divisions

Kingston Central: 117 per cent increase when compared to last year

St. Andrew North: 76 per cent increase compared to last year

Kingston Eastern: 42 per cent increases compared to last year

St. Andrew Central: 33 per cent compared to last year

Other graphs to show that crime has an impact on the tourism industry in Jamaica

Bar chart showing total number of drug crimes between1995 to1999http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQePxuzlRIHxO6746D_DvaHX9KrcVMO4XNuadeDVdZ8tN5yXnsdUA

Crimes committed over the Period of 2003 to 2012 in Jamaica’s North Coast Area

Montego Bay

Year

Type of Crime

2003

Murder

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Fig 1 Table showing the crime figures from 2003 to 2012 for Montego bay

Trelawney

Year

Type of Crimes

2012

Carnal Abuse

Rapes

Shooting

Robberies

Larceny

Fig 2 Graph showing crime figures for Trelawney in 2012

St. Ann

Year

Type of Crimes

2010

Murders

Rapes

Shooting

Larceny

Recommendations to Improve Crime and Violence in Jamaica tourism Industry

1. Develop special legislation to address acts of terrorism.

2. The political leadership in the country must recommit to a set of values and a code of conduct consistent with the vision of a safe, peaceful and prosperous Jamaica so that tourist can feel safe.

3. To encourage visitors not to wonder into unknown territories unless they are being accompanied by a tour guide or someone recommended by the hotel or by the JTB.

4. When travelling to other areas in Jamaica it is better to drive or get a shuttle than walk on the road so that they won’t be harassed by some of the locals.

5. Since 1956 the tourist industry has been regulated by the Jamaican Tourist Board (JTB) which greeted tourists, provided courtesy police, trained workers to help keep our visitors safe and happy and from being harassed. Most harassment stemmed from frequent peddling of goods to tourists, at times incessantly; this peddling most likely reflected the high unemployment rates. Tourists were also approached to purchase drugs, primarily marijuana, colloquially called “ganja.” 

Conclusion

It has been concluded that crime and violence has its tool on tourism. Due to the crime and violence such as scamming, theft etc. But it still hasn’t stop visitor from to Jamaica, because at the end day crime and violence happen all over the world but it’s just up to the government to control the crime rate. Hence the crime and violence will have a lesser impact on tourism.