From: GLNMonTV Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 20:42:20 EST Subject: Cayman Islands refuses to let gay cruise ship dock Cayman Islands refuses to let gay cruise ship dock By Dale K. DuPont (Knight-Ridder) MIAMI- A gay cruise to the Caribbean this month is being forced to bypass the Cayman Islands because it's government refused to let the group's ship dock, saying it didn't expect appropriate behavior from the passengers. Gay and civil rights groups Tuesday criticized the snub, which changed the itinerary of the Norwegian Cruise Line's 910 passenger Leeward. Atlantic Events of West Hollywood chartered the ship for a seven night cruise leaving Miami on Jan 30. One of the stops was to have been the Caymans. The 900 gay men on board were going to shop and go diving for seven hours. But the British territory's government had other plans. “Careful research and prior experience has led us to conclude that we cannot count on this group to uphold the standards of appropriate behavior expected of visitors to the Cayman Islands,” tourism Minister Thomas Jefferson said in a Dec. 8 letter to NCL, “so we regrettably cannot offer our hospitality.” The tourism department's only response Tuesday was a reiteration of the letter to NCL and a timeline of the denial dating back to June 1997. The ship will now stop in Belize as well as Cancun and Cozumel. The snub has reverberated throughout the gay community. A major gay travel association is talking about a boycott, which could cut the tourist dependent Cayman Islands out of more than $1 billion in gay tourism. From Cayman web site http://cayman.com.ky/tourism.htm Tourism is the lifeline of the Cayman Islands, providing thousands of jobs locally, and in 1996 contributed over $250,000,000 to the local economy. Promoting these islands to potential visitors is officially the responsibility of the Department of Tourism, and to their credit a milestone was crossed in 1995, when over one million visitors came to these islands. In 1996 there were a total of 1,144,313 visitors to these islands, a combination of 373,245 arriving by air, and 771,068 arriving by cruise ship, an increase of 100,022 over 1995 figures. Of the total air arrivals for 1996, USA visitors exceeded by far any other country, accounting for almost 3 out of every 4, and although no figures are available for cruise ship passengers, most of the cruises originate from the USA (Florida), and USA citizens again make up a large percentage of the total.