At the moment the travel advice seems a bit poorly interpreted by some media outlets. The FO advice is not as hyped as saying do not leave your high security gated resort except to go to the airport:
A State of Emergency has been declared in St James Parish which includes Montego Bay. This will lead to more intensive law enforcement activities in response to recent violence including shooting incidents. You should follow local advice, including restrictions in selected areas. You should limit your movements outside of resorts in the area at this time, and exercise particular care if travelling at night. Travel to and from the airport or for excursions should be undertaken with organised tour operators, and transport should be arranged or provided by the resort hotels.
Cruise ships are still docking at Montego Bay and the associated daytime excursions are operating as normal, as are daytime excursions from resorts in Montego Bay area. What will be cancelled is trips from Montego Bay across the centre of the Island to Black River, for example, as there are major Police activities in the Cambridge area.
So although you would sensibly give the Hip Strip a miss as a night out it will be full of tourists shopping during the day but best to go in via an organised shopping trip instead of hopping on a local bus this trip. Trips from your hotel to go on Catamarans (perhaps excluding sunset cruise), Dunns River, Dolphins etc will all still be running right up until the point that the tourists stop booking .... but obviously this is not a sensible time to hire a car and drive yourself randomly around the back streets of Montego Bay after dark.
I was in Montego Bay for two weeks in October and there was already heightened police activity then as the murder rate was up around 20% year on year .... I still hired a car as I normally do but did not drive after dark (even on the coast road) like I normally would have done on previous visits just because the porter at the hotel said it was a bit tense in some of the small towns after dark.
Your resort is well outside the trouble spots so you are right to be slightly concerned but on current situation you shouldn't be alarmed into thinking you're heading into Kabul. Best advice is to keep close tabs on the FO website in case advice changes and cancellation is then an option (and keep contacting whoever you booked through in case they do start offering alternative destinations in lieu of cancellation) but if your trip does go ahead I would not panic and simply follow the latest local advice once you get there from your tour rep and hotel reception.
