{"id":39134,"date":"2013-09-10T08:44:09","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T12:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=39134"},"modified":"2013-09-10T08:44:09","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T12:44:09","slug":"trouble-in-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/09\/trouble-in-paradise","title":{"rendered":"Trouble In Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Bahamas\u2019 largest resort is \u201cvery concerned\u201d about the crime warning sent to all its passengers by Carnival Cruise Lines, its top executive urging this nation to avoid suffering reputational damage similar to Aruba.<\/p>\n

George Markantonis, Atlantis\u2019s top executive, told Tribune Business that it had taken \u201ca long time\u201d for the Bahamas\u2019 fellow Caribbean territory to recover its reputation in the aftermath of Natalee Holloway\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n

The Brookfield Hospitality president and managing director, though, pledged that Atlantis and other tourism operators were working \u201cvery aggressively\u201d to deal with the issues that seemingly prompted Carnival to warn its thousands of passengers not to carry large sums of cash when disembarking in Nassau.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re disappointed that the cruise lines may be discouraging passengers from venturing off the ship,\u201d Mr Markantonis told Tribune Business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to work with the Government on the crime problem. It\u2019s an issue. We are very concerned about it, like the rest of the Bahamian tourism sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take a lot to get us in the same situation that Aruba found itself in. It takes a long time to restore your reputation. We\u2019re working aggressively on it, as we should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Markantonis\u2019s comments are likely to add new impetus and urgency to the combined government\/private sector response to Carnival\u2019s warning, which many observers had seen coming for months, due to increased robberies and other crimes being committed against visitors in tourist areas.<\/p>\n

Cruise passengers, who visit Atlantis\u2019s water-based theme park, casino and other attractions on day passes, after being ferried across the harbour from Prince George\u2019s Wharf, have become an increasingly important segment of the resort\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

Mr Markantonis confirmed that Atlantis could accommodate up to 4,000 cruise passengers per day, so any warning by Carnival could have a dramatic negative impact on that business.<\/p>\n

David Johnson, the Ministry of Tourism\u2019s director-general, confirmed to Tribune Business that the Government was working to address both Carnival\u2019s concerns plus the anger expressed by Bay Street merchants over the letter\u2019s impact on their business.<\/p>\n

Agreeing that it sent a negative message about Nassau to potential visitors before they even set foot in the city, Mr Johnson disclosed that the letter was being left in cruise passenger cabins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on that, and communicating with all stakeholders,\u201d Mr Johnson said. \u201cI expect we will have an arrangement that all parties can live with very shortly as it relates to that problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery passenger receiving a note like that, even before they arrive at the destination, that\u2019s not what we would wish to see. We want to optimize the tourism dollars businesses are getting, so we\u2019re very concerned about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Neil Hartnell<\/span><\/em>
\nTribune Business Editor<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlantis, the Bahamas\u2019 largest resort, is \u201cvery concerned\u201d about the crime warning sent to all its passengers by Carnival Cruise Lines. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}