Good on NCL for making a stand

This week in the cruise news hit the story with regards to the NCL Jade and the Tunisian Government. On Sunday 9th March the NCL Jade called into the port of La Goulette, Tunisia as scheduled,  only to have  been advised by the Tunisian Government that the Israeli passport holders that were travelling on board this cruise were denied disembarkation and had to remain on board for the duration of the port call.

In previous months Israeli Passport holders have been welcomed into the port and the country and been able to disembark and enjoy the port of call. But for some reason  which is still unknown the Tunisian Government decided to deny disembarkation.

NCL in response to this yesterday released a press statement which announced that NCL will now be cancelling any future ports of call to Tunisia and will dock in an alternative port or have a day at sea. They are also quoted the following: “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.”

The cruise line itself employs 90 different nationalities and actively welcome all nationalities on board their ships.

So just how much impact will this have on Tunisia?  Will other cruise lines follow suit? How will this affect the tourism for the port and for the country? Will certainly be interested to see what happens and if the Tunisian Government offer any sort of explanation as to their decision to disallow the Israeli passport holders, and also if they offer an apology.

Do you agree with the actions of NCL? Have you been on board a ship where passengers have been denied clearance for the port of call?