U.S. Cruise Ship Operators Cancel Tunis Port Calls
Fourteen U.S. tour operators have canceled cruise ship calls to Tunisia after people furious at a U.S.-made film mocking Islam attacked the American embassy earlier this month, port officials said on Friday.
Operators including Holland American, Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise scrapped plans to make port calls at La Goulette-Tunis, which had been planned from now until the end of December.
The cancellation means that around 40,000 holidaymakers from 14 ships will not be landing in Tunis, and is a blow to tourism, said the head of the La Goulette-Tunis port authority, Sahbene Ben Fadhel.
"We were surprised by the increasing number of cancellations that were announced consecutively," Ben Fadhel said.
An attack by hardline Islamist radicals on the U.S. embassy in Tunis on September 14 left four people dead and dozens wounded.
Washington evacuated non-essential staff from Tunis and warned its citizens against traveling to Tunisia in the aftermath of the attack and an assault on the American school in the capital.
Tourism represents seven percent of gross domestic product in Tunisia and the sector employs directly, or indirectly, 400,000 people.
Violent rallies against "Innocence of Muslims," a low-budged U.S.-made that mocks Islam, have taken place around the world since mid-September and dozens of people have been killed in the unrest mostly in Muslim nations.
A September 11 militant attack on the U.S. mission in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi killed four Americans, including the ambassador, Chris Stevens.
Source: Agence France Presse
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