DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investment and Aviation Chester Cooper. Photo: Dante Carrer
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Editor
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
TOURISM Minister Chester Cooper said Bahamians are “rightfully outraged” at a viral video of purported Carnival cruise line guests saying tourists are scared to leave the ship and have been warned by cruise lines that they could be robbed, drugged and raped in The Bahamas.
The Grand Bahama visitors suggested that Carnival staff had given them written notice of the dangers of leaving the ship.
Mr Cooper said the video was sent to him 171 times.
“I’ve spoken directly with the CEO of Carnival on this matter, who indicated that it is not something he tolerated,” he said. “He’s confirmed and affirmed our partnership and he has indicated that it is not something endorsed by Carnival and it is not the standard notice of Carnival. He’s provided me with those notices.”
Central Grand Bahama MP Iram Lewis later said in the House of Assembly yesterday that Carnival should issue a press statement distancing itself from what the tourists said.
This is not the first time Carnival has been accused of discouraging its passengers from engaging in certain activities in The Bahamas.
Last year, Port Lucaya Marketplace vendors said Carnival passengers were told vendors are unfriendly and visitors could be robbed of cash and jewellery.
Chris Chiames, Carnival’s chief communications officer, denied the claim.
“As a standard practice, we advise guests visiting destinations to follow well-cited travel advice and stay in main tourist areas, not carry large sums of cash they don’t intend to spend, and not wear lots of jewellery,” he said. “Our guests love visiting Freeport.”
Comments
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Chester Cooper is an astute businessman and it is shocking to say he is surprised to know that some of the cruise lines this government is most in bed with is hoggish sucking fish that are trying to take every dollar back that they cruise passengers bring here and otherwise keep every dollar from leaving the ship. And this is nothing new. Before Chester Cooper took office, another astute businessman, Dinonsio D’Aguilar, had to terminate an agreement where government was paying cruise lines millions of dollars annually for their cruise ships to come to The BaHAMAS. Imagine that The Bahamas is the most valuable port on a Caribbean cruise ship destination and the government was paying them to come here. And it should have been the other way around. And the day must come when cruise ships will have to bud fora contract to travel to The Bahamas and pay no less than 20 percent of the gross of that part of the gross to the Bahamian people bud a vis the government, there is an opportunity cost to the Bahamian people when cruise ships come here and there must and will be tangible benefits to Bahamians.
.AND PEEP THIS: some cruise directors have been telling cruise ship passengers; ‘ Do not go to the Nassau Straw Market! The straw products are contaminated with bugs and if you purchase anything, it will not be allowed on the ship .’ Why so much hostility and negativity against The Bahamas and Bahamians when our country is their bread and butter. .
The government MUST step up to the plate on this matter. It must communicate more with BAHAMIANS in the industry and STOP treating them as undesirables and outcasts. It must stop taking the word of the big and powerful players as gospel whilst they twist and turn Thr Bahamian tourist product into something foreigne and one that excludes Bahamians or benefit Bahamians whilst reaping unprecedented and windfall revenue and profits for them. Any tour or taxi driver or beach vendors can affirm the horrors stories cruise directors, especially are telling their passengers.
ExposedU2C 9 months, 3 weeks ago
ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz........
AnObserver 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Maybe you should focus on making sure that tourists don't get robbed, drugged, and raped. Then maybe people wouldn't be scared of getting robbed, drugged, and raped.
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Is that what is happening in Florida these days. Is that why Miami broke ranks with Spring Breakers after 780 arrests last year, over 250 weapons confiscated or impounded. THIRTEEN shootings on ONE beach in a single day, hundreds of thousands in property damage, public drunkenness and excessive drug abuse and nude and lewd behavior. You hit the nail on the head, white head.dred.
ExposedU2C 9 months, 3 weeks ago
The same goes for all of us Bahamians who are now living in fear as a result of this corrupt Davis and Cooper led PLP government's failure to do anything about rampant violent crime or anything else that might help make our country a safer place to live or visit.
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Unless you are an idiot, which may or may not be debatable, both Wayne Munroe and the Commissioner of Police besides the recent surges in murders were connected to one or two incidents and once the police penetrate these matters and arrest those responsible for those crimes ( murders) the incidences of murder bwill decrease. Thus far the words had held true and murders have subsided. In one instance those responsible bfor some of the murders may have not been all Bahamians and in another instance it may have been a teen terror , who was out on bail after being charged with FOUR murders, continuing to expedite a killing rampage.
ExposedU2C 9 months, 3 weeks ago
ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz........ x 2
concernedcitizen 9 months, 3 weeks ago
You do realize our murder rate is something like 38 per 100,000 , while the U S is something like 4 per 100 ,000
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
I suspicious of your use if ‘us Bahamians’
ExposedU2C 9 months, 2 weeks ago
ZZZZZZzzzzzzz....... x 3
connalou 9 months, 3 weeks ago
we were robbed in our house several years ago, there are punks roaming the beaches looking for opportunity. i saw the kid a few days later and he smiled.
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
They found cocaine in the White House … supposedly the most secured property in the Free World, but can’t find out who it belonged too. You are not alone,
stillwaters 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Cruise ships try their hardest to protect their passengers, hence the warning. If only our government would be like them when it comes to protecting us, instead of ranting against the cruise ships. Say he's outraged....... suck teet
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
IF the cruise lines find so much danger in The Bahamas and the Caribbean for their cruise ship passengers, then why don’t they take their ships elsewhere? It’s purely and solely about greed. And this action of hoggish behavior and hogging the tourist will stop. FALSELY painting this picture of Bahamians being violent savages just to take bread out the mouths of babies will stop. This new generation will not sit idle and be hoodwinked and bamboozled… jus watch!
temptedbythefruitofanother 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Sadly, the evil jetski thugs have taken their criminal chaos beyond their normal Cabbage beach turf into other tourist areas where they rape, beat and rob unsuspecting tourists on a daily basis. These gangs operate with impunity on the beaches of Paradise Island and New Providence and are so out of control that tour guides and cruise ship operators are compelled to warn their clients about them.
Only in the Bahamas could a criminal gang control and pillage high end tourist areas while the authorities watch and do nothing
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
How many jet ski operators have had their lives destroyed and spent years in jail after being FALSELY accused of rape. Amongst the most recent is an 18 y/o who was falsely accused and charged with rape. Then after the accuser left the Bahamas, she posted on her Facebook page that itb as her idea for the young boy to take her to a nearby island and juice her in the sand. But when she returned to her hotel, the people who she was traveling with made her feel like she had done something dirty and nasty ( getting juice of tge beach in The Bahamas, and forced her to file rape charges
temptedbythefruitofanother 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Blaming the victim? Really? How charming!
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Which victims? Are you an idiot? Vuctthe young lady said herself is was her idea to go to the island and get juice in the sand. Yea they started on the sand, but ended up IN the sand. Hopefully it was wet because dry sand in da beach can get very hot. The ‘victim’ claims it was the ideal of the people she was traveling with to file rape charges against the young boy. They kept the case active for three years ( 2019!to 2022) to give her the opportunity to appear in court… but she didn’t.. and this is not just an isolated incident.
temptedbythefruitofanother 9 months, 2 weeks ago
No means no, under all circumstances. Get that through your thick head
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
People ask why Satan and those who choose to follow him are condemned to hell eternally. But God did give Satan the chance and opportunity to repeat and turn away from his wicked and rebellious and destructive ways. But whilst Satan was repenting with his mouth, he was plotting in his heart to be more devious and wicked. Hence God refused to forgive him again. I’m not calling you Satan, but you remind me of him.
temptedbythefruitofanother 9 months, 2 weeks ago
and you remind me of a moron
TalRussell 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Rather than have gotten his ministerial knickers in a knot, --- Comrade Chester, could've just gotten rid of the undies before each of the videos 171 got submitted and ministerial screened. --- Still has presumed that all 171 viewed contents received prior approval from the Film Control Board's viewing panel. --- You couldn't make it up, now, could you. --- Yes?
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Where are those two KENTUCKY Carrots not my description but that is what they are being called on social media) who claim they were raped at a resort in Freeport? Where are they? If they were so credible and their claims of rape so legitimate, then why have they gone into hiding. Why haven’t the FBI came forth and made public their findings. Obviously this was an orchestrated effort to crush and damage or even destroy the Bahamian tourist economy but it backfired. The backlash to those two plants ( ok carrots) was so great on social n media they bran for cover faster than a Potcake in Halloween when b fireworks gettin lick off! Dis da new generation. Did ain’t da era when you make false allegations of rape and cause Black men to lose their lives or even entire communities to get burned to the ground.
rosiepi 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Do you think the FBI owes the RBPF a report detailing their incompetence and their per usual attempts to persuade foreign visitors not to press charges? You actually wrote “juice her in the sand”, you’re complaining about women, ‘this generation’ and that men, Bahamian in particular are all victims to wanton women?? Don’t y’all know how to say no? We do, but y’all don’t have your listening ears on!
John 9 months, 2 weeks ago
The Royal BaHAMAS Police Force is a member in INTERPOL and when there is a crime committed by someone who is no longer in the jurisdiction, the local police have the privilege of reaching out to police in the jurisdiction and asking for cooperation and assistance. Just like the DEA and/or other authorities in the North S can ask for drug suspects in other jurisdictions to be extradited to the US, provided there is an extradition treaty. In the instance of the two visitors from Kentucky, they made unsubstantiated accusations of rape against two Bahamians. And instead of cooperating with authorities ( who someone told them to call corrupt) they left The BaHAMAS, also refusing to cooperate veith Carnivals ship staff and using a rape test kit. So YES, the FBI now has a duty and obligation to inform Bahamian police if a double rape had actually occurred against two Americans citizens or if their accusations weee false.
John 9 months, 2 weeks ago
And as for your spin in my reference to visitors getting juice ‘in the sand’ the crude description was used intentionally to mock you ( Tribune trolls of how you refer to Bahamians in the most crude and degrading beat… thugs, rapists, drug abusers etc. why, what have any Bahamian done to you to carry and expose so much hatred and despise for them? Yet you ( collectively) call me a bigot and a racist and a communist. Now you try to say I have a problem with women but I won’t even your imagination. But I will say a young male working on the beach with female guests are vulnerable, yes to sexual seduction also. And exit surveys confirm that many women come to The Bahamas and the Caribbean looking for sex, even in the sand. And so now most young men working in the industry have to compete a Bahama Host program where they are taught’ the tourist are your customers. And you should NOT be having sex with them! And some of the hotels and resorts go even further and tell their employees ‘when you expose yourself to the point of having sex with the guests or even going to their rooms, you also expose the property to potential liability
ExposedU2C 9 months, 3 weeks ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
And it was Americans who stood up the strongest against the State Department’s travel advisory and the US media’s miscarriage of the facts or exaggeration of real crime situation in the BaHamas. It was the regular visitors to The Bahamas and some recent visitors and some who were at the resort at the time the two Kentucky burbons claimed they beer raped that doubted their story. And a number of them posted videos to discredit the two women’s claims.
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Tribune still gat dese old trolls on here with dem poison pens spreading false ilies and innuendo. To the four or five fateful who is waste time digging in tgevdeeer.
ExposedU2C 9 months, 3 weeks ago
You ChiCom trolls are all alike and much too easy to identify.
themessenger 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Nah, john ain't a Chicom troll, he a genuine dyed in the wool black Bahamian bigot and racist who's fondest wish is the ethnic cleansing of the white people of the world, particularly white Americans.
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
White peoples are the least of my worries and that includes you! As long as you all bon here spewing v elephant sh!t about Bahamians and/or Black people in general it’s ok. But the minute someone challenge you , on your posts filled with hate and lies and false information then we are communist or racist or bigots. Nothing new . So what does that make you to come to your audience if four … spilling poison and hate and fake news? Loosers!l. Y’all efforts to destroy the Bahamian tourist economy during Spring Break failed. The lies and false information that was spread made the tourist product even stronger
ExposedU2C 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Yup....John's a bonafide ChiCom troll. LOL
concernedcitizen 9 months, 3 weeks ago
John I,m not going to list the numbers for you , like 10,000 people when 4 ships are in spending 85 dollars each on Bay Street , that 850,000 dollars a day ,,add that with the departure tax , usage tax etc etc per passengers the cruise industry puts close to a billion dollars a year in our economy ..Big players get to have bigger voices thats how capitalism works .Also the cruise line warn guest not to go in certain areas to protect them from liability .
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Two points NO BAHAMIAN, NONE, had an issue with the US State Department putting out warnings or travel advisories to US citizens to keep them safe and away from potential danger. Do you know that because of the wars in UKRAINE and with Hamas, there’s a worldwide travel advisory for Americans? They didn’t hype it up like they did for The BaHAMAS and got Jamaica so most people are not aware of it, Secondly, YES and of course cruise have a likewise duty and obligation to keep their passengers safe and out the way of potential harm and danger. But that effort must be genuine and not be based on lied and nfalse information to hype the fear factor and driven by the cruise lines only intention to Hogg the market at the expense of Bahamians. Thirdly so cruise ship passengers spend close to a Billion in The Bahamas annually, according to your calculations, BUT do you knew Royal Caribbean’s annual revenue for the Caribbean alone was $24 BILLION in 2023? And how many other cruise lines are there? So you saying The Bahamas, the major destination for Caribbean Cruises, should be comfortable grossing less than $2 Billion on what is easily Nam $80 Billion industry?
concernedcitizen 9 months, 3 weeks ago
You say 24 billion revenue for Royal Caribbean , how much profit ?? Those ships cost a fortune to build and I,m sure it takes decades to get that cost back ..Talk profits not gross revenue .
ExposedU2C 9 months, 2 weeks ago
You're either drinking the wrong kool aid or somehow financially benefitting from the cruise ship industry's rape, pillage and plundering of our nation's most precious resources with a helping hand from some of our most corrupt government officials.
John 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Until The BaHAMAS is reaping at least 10 percent ( 8 Billion) of the Caribbean Cruise industry annual revenue, then all you described above refers to those who exploiting The BaHAMAS and the Bahamian people. You more likely to be one of those Higgs who benefiting than me. That’s why you so defensive and passionately ANGRY!
TalRussell 9 months, 3 weeks ago
The US State Department relies on diplomatic cables containing highly classified information gathered and compiled by their own local embassy officials having conducted a raw look at what's happening on and about the islands. -- And has had [a Level 2 advisory] in place] for the popoular islands colony [since 2018]. --- Urging its traveling citizens' to “exercise increased caution” due to crime --- [Whether cruising, flying or swimming into the colony] --- The minister, needs to stop complainng and get busy with his team so as dodge a [Level 3 DO NOT TRAVEL.] to that island colony..--- Yes?
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Again the issue was not with the US State Department issuance of travel advisories against The Bahamad. They have been doing that yeard prior to 2018 and those who understand how diplomacy works have no beef with it. The concern was the fallout that came after, due to the exaggerated reporting and false information put out by the international press. Notice how quickly they left the country after they found out there was really no elephant in the he room. The story/joke is told about how after the twin towers were attacked and they were trying to revive the airline industry. The tale is that Bahamasair was one of the few airlines traveling with near full capacity. Bahamians decided not to allow terrorist to interrupt their live of traveling to Florida and Americans who just needed to get away still came to The BaHAMAS. NAnd they felt it was safer to travel on Bahamasair at the time, than on An American airline.
DillyTree 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Maybe Carnival is just feeling skittish after the two Kentuckly moms claimed to have been raped in Grand Bahama.
Oh, and what has become of that big media outrage?
The 2 men have been released and not charged, and it's all gone quiet. What actually happeed? Has the FBI issued a report? If the women are found to have lied, will that same media circus correct their stories? Will Carnival and the US State Department continue issuing fear-mongering warnings? Why aren't those same warnings being issued for US ports?
Why must we always soffer when the US decides to talkign foolisheness?
John 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Two Canadians and a Jamaican were arrested driving downtown town with high powered weapons in the ge bright of the day. What were their intentions and why didn’t this make the front page of The Tribune or it’s sister print! We’re they agents intending to creat havoc in downtown Nassau and further damage this country’s tourist product? And if you read the history of the CIS, be lucky to find one good deed.,!Just one jred
jamaicaproud 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Hey brah chill. 3 nefarious Bahamians came into our country recently by boat supposedly to 'Have fun" and were caught. We did not blame Bahamas for our plight. Look within and stop blaming outsiders for your problem.
If you are an adult you will know that gangsters hire people from other locales to do dirty work sometimes . So the source of the hit would be your local folk
The same travel advisory was issued for Jamaica but everyone knows that regardless of our problems, tourists to Jamaica have zero risk, unless they #ill themselves by speeding or other nefarious behavior.
rosiepi 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Ole Chester is head of this country’s most important industry yet he’s not talked to a tourist in at least 20 years. For that’s when I first heard tourists/cruisers tell that same tale which they ignored to venture forth and explore!
TalRussell 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Comrades, it's not tourism false disinformation that for years we've been signaling not to come to The Colony - [Or come ashore] --- If it's local culture and entertainment by natives' that you wish to experience. --- These were decisions[ taken locally, by natives'], --- Yes?
zemilou 9 months, 2 weeks ago
The finger pointing, whether it be at the cruise lines, government officials, or the United States is unsettling. The disturbing thing is that when a fellow Bahamian is murdered in Nassau (which has one of the highest violent homicide rates in the world), there are not nearly as many comments/discussions about what violent crime is doing to our people.
Yes, we need to be concerned about negative publicity surrounding the tourism industry, but our greatest concern and empathy should be turned inwards. Somehow Bahamians, particularly residents of6New Providence, need to work collectively to make the island a safer place for ALL people, especially our youth and, particularly, our young men.
jamaicaproud 9 months, 2 weeks ago
Naw man, just blame Jamaicans and Haitians for everything. and when its a Bahamian, he is really a Haitian
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