This past Sunday, the Tunisian government prevented a number of Israeli citizens from disembarking Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Jade while docked in Port of La Goulette, Tunis.
Many of the Norwegian Jade’s passengers and many throughout the cruise industry expressed anger and disbelief at the unexplainable actions of the Tunisian government. Today, Norwegian Cruise Line, in response to the Tunisian government’s actions, announced the line would be cancelling all future calls in the nation of Tunisia and will not return in the future.
“We want to send a strong message to Tunisia and ports around the world that we will not tolerate such random acts of discrimination against our guests,” said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line’s CEO. “We are outraged by this act and the fact that we were not notified in advance of this practice. We apologize sincerely to our guests who were affected and want them to know that we have taken the appropriate action in response.”
Norwegian Cruise Line also stated, “Norwegian Cruise Line employs more than 90 different nationalities and welcomes people of all nationalities aboard its vessels. The Company does not condone or tolerate discrimination of any type and with these cancellations hopes to send a message to those who do that such acts are completely unacceptable.”
The incident aboard the Norwegian Jade is the only known time Israeli’s have been prevented from disembarking from a cruise ship within the nation. No other major cruise line has announced plans to abandon calls in Tunisia. MSC and Costa are the nation’s two primary visiting cruise lines throughout the year.
