Travel advisories issued for Bahamas, Jamaica
The U.S. State Department has issued travel advisories for citizen traveling to the Bahamas and Jamaica.
After two Carnival Cruise Line passengers were allegedly sexually assaulted in the Bahamas amid travel warnings, some travelers may be wondering whether they should visit ports with active advisories.
The guests, two women from Kentucky, said they were drugged and raped while ashore on the island of Grand Bahama. Bahamas police arrested two men last week on sexual assault charges.
The U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas issued a security alert in late January warning of recent murders in Nassau, and the State Department has had a Level 2 advisory in place for the popular island nation since 2018, urging travelers to “exercise increased caution” due to crime. But those kinds of warnings don’t necessarily mean it’s unsafe to visit.
“It all comes down to personal risk assessment,” said Jared Feldman, owner of travel agency Jafeldma Travel. “It’s not intended for you to abandon your travel altogether, either. It’s just what it is: It’s an advisory. Be aware.”
Is it safe to go on cruises to places with travel advisories?
Cruise operators monitor for potential safety issues well before departure. “Security is top of mind for cruise lines, and they’re constantly looking at areas of concern,” whether due to terrorism or other threats, Feldman said.
Feldman said cruise lines also generally distribute warnings about safety matters to guests through onboard announcements, for example, or in notes in the daily planners they distribute to passenger cabins.
Nicholas Gerson, an attorney for the Carnival guests Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson, told USA TODAY last week that his clients did not know about the Bahamas warning at the time and were “not aware of any warnings given by Carnival.”
Carnival spokesperson Matt Lupoli said in an email on Tuesday that the line’s “shipboard team routinely shares guidance with guests on keeping safe while ashore,” though he did not comment specifically on Gerson’s statement.
That’s not just a voluntary move, according to John H. (Jack) Hickey, a maritime trial attorney in Miami. Cruise lines are legally obligated to warn guests of dangers “about which the cruise line knew or should have known.
“They have a duty to their passengers under the maritime common law to advise the passengers of these risks,” he said. That includes any hazards during port stops, which Hickey said are “part and parcel” of a cruise.
However, travel advisories are “fluid.” They may change depending on geopolitical developments, the environment and other factors, according to Carrie Pasquarello, CEO and co-founder of Global Secure Resources Inc., a company focused on risk mitigation and threat assessment planning. They may also be more nuanced than a single number can show.
Mexico, for example, has varied warning levels for different states. “There’s a lot of different risks in Mexico, and yet, so many people are traveling to Mexico and having excellent, successful excursions and vacations,” Pasquarello said.
The Bahamas, for its part, has also pushed back on the crime alert shared by the U.S. Embassy, with the Office of the Prime Minister noting that its Level 2 rating did not change. The Bahamas has been listed at Level 2 since the start of the travel advisory system in 2018 (it was temporarily raised to Level 3 in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
The office said in a statement that the incidents described in the crime alert – warning of nearly murders in Nassau since the beginning of the year – “do not reflect general safety in the Bahamas, a country of 16 tourism destinations, and many more islands.”
“Our law enforcement agencies are taking rigorous steps to maintain our well-earned reputation, including an enhanced police presence and additional police resources (including facial recognition CCTV surveillance technology) and…
This article was originally published by a www.usatoday.com . Read the Original article here. .