Crime is a problem in many Caribbean countries, not only Jamaica, according to the Jamaica Tourist Board.

In the week that Sir Richard Branson began Virgin Atlantic flights to Kingston, the capital, the Jamaica Tourist Board has hit back at “negative perceptions” of the island.

Elizabeth Fox, the board’s regional director, says that British people have a tarnished view of Jamaica mainly because the media reports crime on the island more comprehensively than elsewhere in the Caribbean. “There are so many Jamaicans living in the UK,” she said. “So if something happens there, it is reported here. But other Caribbean islands aren’t any safer.

“Yes, there are naughty people, gangs and people getting up to no good, especially in certain parts of Kingston. But there is virtually no tourist crime at all – or only very insignificant crime.”

Fox says that the island’s reputation for dull, all-inclusive hotels is also unfair because there is “so much more to see and do” outside hotels. “People can go walking in the Blue Mountains, swimming with dolphins, go quad-biking or see cultural sights such as the Bob Marley Museum.”

More than 175,000 Britons visited Jamaica last year, up 7 per cent on 2005, and latest figures show a rise of 14 per cent this year – suggesting a growing trust among travellers about the island’s safety.

Latest Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice says that “most visits to Jamaica are trouble-free”. However, it adds that “there are high levels of crime and violence, particularly in Kingston” and offers a lengthy list of precautions for visitors.

These include being “alert for thieves”, not walking about or using buses at night, avoiding crowds (where robberies are more likely), not wearing “eye-catching jewellery”, and “varying which restaurants you use: frequenting the same place too often might make you a target for thieves”.

Branson told Times Travel that he hopes that Virgin’s flights to Kingston will open up tourism to the south of the island – most tourists fly to Montego Bay, visiting all-inclusives on the northern coast. Virgin’s twice-weekly flights from Gatwick to Kingston, which began this week, start at £403. It takes over from Air Jamaica, which was operating daily flights, but running at an annual loss of £15 million on UK flights.

Branson said: “Kingston is certainly worth a visit. There’s a lot of music history [particularly at the Bob Marley Museum] and a lot of culture.”

Last year Virgin began flights to Montego Bay, during which Branson posed wearing fake dreadlocks and holding what looked like a large marijuana roll-up. This caused furore on the island – where smoking marijuana is illegal – and Branson apologised to the Minister of Tourism.

Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Outpost, which runs several boutique hotels in Jamaica, said: “Crime will go down but it’s not going to happen overnight, it will take time. Ninety-five per cent of crime is among peole who know each other: domestic violence and a gangish thing. Every country in the world has this.”

Bruce Golding, Jamaica’s new Prime Minister, who took over in September, has made tackling crime a priority, but admitted that the problem cannot be solved overnight and that the police need to be “much better”.

Details: Jamaica Tourist Board (020-7225-9090, www.visitjamaica.com), Foreign and Commonwealth Office (0845 8502829, www.fco.gov.uk), Virgin (0870 3802007, www.virgin-atlantic.com), Island Outpost (www.islandoutpost.com).

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