Crime Dampens Tourist Flow To Jamaica

Tourist arrivals in Jamaica dropped 8.5 percent for the second quarter of this year, according to the Jamaican Tourist Board, and crime - especially crime against tourists - is getting the blame.

Visitors have long been warned about crime in the country's capital, Kingston. But as serious incidents have spread, so has dependable tourist volumes.

In June, a well-known community worker from Orlando, Fla., Lee Norris Rayam, was slain in the villa where he and his wife were staying on Jamaica's north coast. Late last month, his widow, Orlando TV commentator Lisa Myers-Rayam, sued the tourist board, contending that it deliberately withheld information about crimes against tourists.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Miami says the board deliberately withheld information about rapes, murders and assaults and implied that Runaway Bay, where two men burst into their villa, was safe.

An 18-year-old U.S. visitor was shot and killed on July 3 in central Jamaica, and on July 4 a 15-year-old American was raped at the Trelawny Beach Hotel resort, where her family was staying near Falmouth. Earlier this year, two Pennsylvania tourists were shot and robbed in front of 25 other horrified tourists while rafting the Rio Grande. And two young British girls were raped by security guards at a north coast hotel.

Responding to the lawsuit, the tourist board replied in a written statement that "Jamaica's current advertising accurately reflects the spirit and diversity of her people, and the Jamaica experience."

Jamaica has tried to beef up security in resort areas but is restrained in part by its economic problems. Tourism authorities also are trying to fight the problem by paying for tourists to return to the island to testify against their assailants.