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How to Avoid Harassment on
your Vacation to Jamaica
One of the worst things about
any vacation is being harassed by local traders. It's bad
enough when they shout at you as you walk by, not deterred
by your ignoring them they shout louder making a comment that
clearly identifies you in the crowd of other tourists, but
when if they follow you, or come up to you when you're clearly
not wanting to be disturbed, it's enough to make you wish
you'd went somewhere else! For the most part however, there
are some simple things you can do to avoid being constantly
pestered.
The first one is not to make
eye contact with any of them, especially if you see them trying
to sell to someone else. They are bound to take your eye contact
to mean that you're interested in buying from them, and will
come after you once they've finished trying to sell to the
people they're with. If you're in a market area, or even just
minding your own business on the beach, don’t stare
at anyone! You have to keep looking around, but don’t
look long enough in any one direction to give the hustlers
the wrong idea!
The next is simply to make
it a policy never to give money or anything else for that
matter to anyone who asks for it. If you are in an area of
high poverty, it's not easy to turn away from the children,
but the mistake that many tourists make is in giving something
to these children, and then more children arrive and the grown-ups
follow. As harsh as it sounds, for your own peace and quiet
you have to turn away.
Many hotels are situated on private land that they own and it is illegal for the hustlers to try and harass the hotel visitors. Find out the policy your hotel has on day 1, and if you are bothered anywhere within the confines of the hotel property, you can tell the vendor that you will report them to the hotel staff if they bother you again.
Last of all, and probably the
most wearing, but it will work is that the hustlers make their
living by harassing people. They hope that by persistently
dogging you, they'll wear you down and you'll buy from them
just to make them go away. Do so, and you're sending up a
flare to the other vendors! Be calm and equally persistent
in your right to ignore them. Eventually they’ll find
another tourist to bother and leave you alone – and
hopefully will get the message that they'll be wasting their
time with you and won't try again!
