Bad reputations are hard to shake. And when it comes to international travel, it can take years, or even decades, for a country to recover from perceptions of widespread violence. Do travel warnings help tourists at the price of hurting their destinations?
Whenever a government agency issues a travel warning about visiting another nation, it can create a ripple effect that could potentially impact a country’s reputation for years. Travel warnings, like travel boycotts, can have far-reaching effects, for better and for worse. Just look at Medellín, Colombia, as an example—the city was labeled as the “murder capital of the world” in the early 1990s when thousands of people were killed in the span of just a few years. Even as the city rapidly got safer, it took decades for it to recover from that reputation into the booming tourist hotspot it is today.
So you can understand why Jamaica and The Bahamas are pushing back against recent travel warnings from the United States. The US State Department issued travel warnings for both countries due to recent homicides and increased risk of sexual assault in both countries, adding that in Jamaica, they “occur frequently, including at all-inclusive resorts.”
“Notwithstanding the advisory, Jamaica remains not only a desirable destination but a safe and secure destination for international visitors,” Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett told the Miami Herald. “Sometimes, the unintended consequences of policies is they cause great harm and damage to the stability and safety of other countries.”
In 2023, tourism brought an estimated 4.1 million visitors to Jamaica, who spent about USD$4.3 billion, according to Travel Agent Central. That’s about 15 percent of the country’s overall GDP. So, if travel warnings were to dissuade significant numbers of visitors, it could have a devastating impact on small businesses and tour companies.
The US State Department operates a four-level travel advisory system, and the risk levels of both countries remain unchanged—The Bahamas is listed as a ‘Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution,’ and Jamaica is listed as ‘Level 3: Reconsider Travel.’ The warning for Jamaica cites ineffective government responses to serious crimes, and advises travelers to avoid public buses and keep a low profile. The warning for The Bahamas, in addition to referencing elevated crime, claims that recreational boating activities may not be adequately regulated for safety.
Travel warnings can be political, and may cover a much wider area than is actually plagued by crime. Often when violent crime is in headlines, it doesn’t involve tourists.
“[T]here are very distinctly defined areas within Jamaica that the advisory cites as having high risk for crime, so the majority of the island’s tourism product remains unaffected,” the Jamaica Tourist Board told NPR in a statement. “Overall, the crime rate against visitors to Jamaica remains extremely low at 0.01.”
Ultimately, it’s up to individual travelers to decide whether they want to heed such warnings. Reading local news sites could help you get a better understanding of what’s actually happening in the specific place you want to visit.
A senior intelligence director at travel security firm International SOS told the Washington Post that travelers in Jamaica and the Bahamas have not been targeted by violent crimes. Many of the murders in the Bahamas earlier this year were gang-related, and while Jamaica recorded 65 homicides last month, that’s actually down from 81 in January 2023.
Travelers should take such warnings seriously, Michael Rogers told the Post, but travelers are more likely to experience petty crimes like theft. “From our perspective, we would more likely encourage our clients to, rather than avoid travel, instead to travel safely, or travel smartly,” Rogers said. “We’re not necessarily seeing this affect resort properties or anything of that nature.”
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Kassondra Cloos is a travel journalist from Rhode Island now living in London. Her work focuses on slow travel, urban outdoor spaces and human-powered adventure. She has written about kayaking across Scotland, dog sledding in Sweden and road tripping around Mexico. Her latest work appears in The Guardian, Backpacker and Outside, and she is currently section-hiking the 2,795-mile England Coast Path.
