04-06-2017, 09:53 AM
Interesting thread! Me and the boss lady just turned 43 last month. We have been going to Negril since we were 36. Did first two trips on A/I (Couples) and then started staying at the little beach hotels and have never looked back. We meet very few younger people on our trips. We always meet some, but just not a lot. We have discussed many times that Negril is so niche that it will just never be a huge tourist spot in our opinion. The couple that went with us on our first two trips have moved onto Punta Cana, they prefere the Las Vegas like glitz of those resorts and the over the top restaurant offerings and such.
It takes a special kind of person to vacation Negril. It is as much an exercise in tolerance at times with the waiting on food, hustling, haggling, watching for traffic, etc. as it is a pleasurable trip. We call it our adventure vacation. I used to vacation Las Vegas 3x a year for about 6 years, I noticed a lot of folks go to LV get skinned really good, feel hustled and never go back. I have talked to people that visited Negril and had same experience, they get turned off by something and never open enough to see the good or talk to the people and understand the culture and thus understand the experience.
We do 5 or 6 vacations a year including two cruises. We talk to a lot of vacationers and we always mention our favorite spot, Negril. We hear many, many bad views from folks, most who have never been. If you peruse all that is Carnival Cruise online you will see Ocho Rios is consistently one of the lowest rated ports. Folks complain about the aggressive begging and they go no further into the Country.
I hope Negril flourishes in a good way, but honestly in my lifetime I don't expect much growth, maybe even a bit of a pull back as the older folks quit going. As others have said you meet so many that have been going for 20 or 30 years and I don't see them all getting replaced.
So many folks just want an easy vacation and to be led by the hand everywhere they go and their asses constantly kissed, that isn't Negril, and I am glad it is not!
It takes a special kind of person to vacation Negril. It is as much an exercise in tolerance at times with the waiting on food, hustling, haggling, watching for traffic, etc. as it is a pleasurable trip. We call it our adventure vacation. I used to vacation Las Vegas 3x a year for about 6 years, I noticed a lot of folks go to LV get skinned really good, feel hustled and never go back. I have talked to people that visited Negril and had same experience, they get turned off by something and never open enough to see the good or talk to the people and understand the culture and thus understand the experience.
We do 5 or 6 vacations a year including two cruises. We talk to a lot of vacationers and we always mention our favorite spot, Negril. We hear many, many bad views from folks, most who have never been. If you peruse all that is Carnival Cruise online you will see Ocho Rios is consistently one of the lowest rated ports. Folks complain about the aggressive begging and they go no further into the Country.
I hope Negril flourishes in a good way, but honestly in my lifetime I don't expect much growth, maybe even a bit of a pull back as the older folks quit going. As others have said you meet so many that have been going for 20 or 30 years and I don't see them all getting replaced.
So many folks just want an easy vacation and to be led by the hand everywhere they go and their asses constantly kissed, that isn't Negril, and I am glad it is not!