Belize, 3rd most violent in Caribbean

[clover]

Amazing


http://www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id=10128

[BettyJ]

Belize City just might self-destruct!  Scary stuff indeed!

[azbob]

Headline readers will sure get the wrong idea about Belize!

[peterbj7]

And that's a big problem.  Already many people in Europe won't come to Belize because they see it as too dangerous.

[clover]

On the contrary.  All the more reason to stay in San Pedro.  
I just had some friends go down for 10 days and they were planning to stay a couple of days in Belize City.  The first thing I warned them about was the propensity for crime of Belize City.  It would be a dis-service not to have warned them.  Nothing makes the headlines faster than American tourists being mugged or worse!

There's crime everywhere azbob.  If you had friends going to LA you'd probably tell them Compton and Watts are really not the place to be toruing through wouldn't you?  (the other board has this all wrong...honesty is always the best policy)      

[azbob]

Agee clover.  I meant if you just read the headlines then you think the whole country is crime ridden and not just one area of Belize City.  Yes people need to know what areas of any countryor city to steer clear of.

[clover]

That's a local Belizean newspaper....not CNN.  The chances of a tourist seeing that article on the internet are about the same as getting struck by lightning!
Lots of people go to Mexico.....not very many go to Tijuana....there's a reason for that      

[peterbj7]

the other board has this all wrong...honesty is always the best policy

How is it that so few of us seem to see this?  I know certain individuals, hoteliers mainly, who only frequent "the other place" who virtually throw an apoplectic fit when it is suggested that something bad that has just happened should be publicised.

[clover]

I don't get it either Peter.  The reason I've never encountered any bad karma, or even a shaky situation in San Pedro is because the locals have told me how to avoid them.  I have absolutely no fear in San Pedro.  I feel safer there than in my own town.  Not telling new tourists how to avoid trouble will certainly, in some instances cause the tourist trouble.
 
In most instances when I read the other board I keep thinking that its the government controlled media of Cuba.....honest.


I've sent lots of friends down there.....told them of the potential problems....they go...and then thank me for having a great trip.   I call it courtesy....others seem to think its bad press  

[deadserious]

Well, Jamaica and Trinidad, number one and two are not suffering in the tourism department.  If you have cheap airfare are a popular cruise destination, and catchy marketing, crime won't deter people from coming.  Unfortunately Belize has terrible airfare, few cruise arrivals and almost no marketing.

[BettyJ]

Agreed!  This is (at least partly) the reason that Peter put this forum together.  The fact that my posts were edited without any notification to myself or noted on the post infuriated me to no end....