Cruise Ship Passengers Declining in Aruba and the Caribbean … Are Reported Tourism Numbers Accurate?

Some tourism numbers were reported in Aruba indicating a treading water trend in the hotel occupancy rate; however, cruise ship passengers were down significantly. The decline of cruise ships in the Caribbean is a trend that is occurring creating a Cruise ship Blues for many in the Caribbean. However, one wonders when a country is so dependent on one industry like tourism, are the numbers reported accurately?

Available data show that the average occupancy rate of hotels for April 2007 edged up by 0.7 percentage point to 81.8 percent, after falling slightly by 0.5 percentage point to 82.0 percent for March 2007. The Aruba Tourism Authority has not yet published the data on tourist arrivals and nights spent on the island for March and April 2007.

Since February 2007, the number of cruise passengers has been declining. This number fell again in April and May 2007 by, respectively, 17.3 percent and 25.8 percent, in spite of a 3.4 percent rise in ship calls in April 2007 and a notable 75 percent hike in May 2007. A major factor for this development was the cancellation as of January 2007 of the weekly visits of the Carnival Cruise Lines to Aruba. (Central Bank Aruba)

Of course that is if we are to believe that Aruban officials are actually reporting the actual numbers and not using creating accounting. It is hard to believe from actual pictures of few tourist on the beach, people’s accounts who have visited Aruba and common sense crunching of numbers that what is being presented is 100% accurate. We posed the question to Jossy Mansur of Diario, what is tourism really like on Aruba? Its hard to believe that it is close to pre-Natalee missing numbers as we have seen then decline in large numbers since and only increase in some months by small amounts. Does Aruba really provide accurate numbers when reporting?

Tourism hasn’t fared well lately. The hotels are operating with a below normal occupancy for this time of year (we are in the off-season now). The figures published by the government are not reliable. They tend to present favorable numbers that will make them look good, but that do not reflect the reality of the industry. Numerous factors, including the Holloway case, have contributed to the noticeable drop in tourism. Lack of an integral plan, lack of funds, lack of an effective and all-encompassing publicity campaign in the traditional markets, renewed competition from some of the other more aggressive and well-funded islands in the Caribbean, are some of the contributing factors. (Jossy Mansur)

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Daily Commentary – Wednesday June 27th, 2007 – San Francisco Wants People Off The Bottle To Stop Global Warming

Dana discusses why:

• San Francisco Wants People Off The Bottle To Stop Global Warming

WWE Wrestler Chris Benoit … Roid Rage? Strangled Wife, suffocated Son and Hung Himself

When Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son Daniel were all found dead in their Fayetteville County, GA home in suburban Atlanta, the speculation began of murder – suicide and whether steroids could have been a factor. Today we learned the tragic story that Chris Benoit strangled his wife, suffocated his son and then took his own life by hanging himself.

(Benoit Residence)

Autopsies showed all three died of asphyxiation, Pope said.

Benoit’s wife, Nancy, was killed Friday in an upstairs family room, her feet and wrists were bound and there was blood under her head, indicating a possible struggle, Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said.

The son, Daniel, was likely killed late Saturday or early Sunday, the body found in his bed, Ballard said.

Benoit apparently killed himself several hours and as long as a day later, Ballard said. His body was found in a downstairs weight room, his body found hanging from the pulley of a piece of exercise equipment. (Breitbart)

Investigators did recover anobolic steroids from the Benoit residence. The question remains and will be speculated for some time, did steroids cause Chris Benoit become unhinged and kill his family and himself due to ROID RAGE?

Investigators found prescription anabolic steroids in the house and want to know whether the muscle man nicknamed “The Canadian Crippler” was unhinged by the bodybuilding drugs, which can cause paranoia, depression and explosive outbursts known as “roid rage.”

Short term effects of steroids

Long term effects of steroids

It would appear that Vince Mc Mahon and The WWE is in cover their ass mode as they lash out at the media for speculating that steroids had anything to do with the double murder – suicide. 

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) issued a strongly worded statement Tuesday night condemning media speculation that steroids had anything to do with the homicides and suicide. (Fox News)

Oh yea Vince, like wrestling and the WWE doesn’t have a track record of athletes that have died of complications to steroid use. All in the name of sports entertainment so that the WWE and you can make millions. That’s entertainment.

“In World Wrestling Entertainment, a lot of these athletes are dying at six times the rate of other human beings, most of them from cardiovascular disease,” Goldberg said. “There’s a bunch of them who died at young ages, in their 30s and early 40s.”

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More Heart Warming Stories from the Cruise Ship Industry … Cruise Ship Charged $30,000 in Medical Fees on Passengers Credit Card

Here is an amazing, touching, caring and heart felt storing coming from the Cruise ship and credit card industry. Your compassion is overwhelming. However, in this case the cruise industry may have been trumped by an even bigger bunch of corporate pirates.

A woman became severely sick, went into a coma while on a cruise. The cruise ship charged her $30,000 in medical fees and put it on her credit card account. One can only imagine the care she was provided by “Doc” from the Love Boat provided; however, the woman’s medical bills were covered by her insurance carrier. Did we also mention that the woman that was billed $30K also died?

Question: My mother got severely sick and went into a coma on a cruise and then died. The cruise ship charged her $30,000 in medical fees and put it on her credit card account. However, her insurance paid the $30,000 and the credit card bill for the medical expense only, but it took a few months and the credit card company hit her account, although they knew she was in a coma and subsequently died, with over-limit fees, finance charges, etc. She has no estate that needed to go through probate. Am I, as her daughter, liable or not?
- NINA (The Daily Breeze)

Enter the credit card industry and wanting to get blood from a stone. Trying to get over limit fees and finance charges from the dead. That’s about right for the credit card industry these days. Wait until they call you threatening that your mother will have bad mark on her credit report and it will affect future purchases.

By the way, the answer is no as long as one was not a joint card holder.

Aruba: Lorenzo Van Rijn & Suspects Custody Extended … One Happy Drug Bust

ARUBA … One Happy Drug Bust

Last Wednesday, the team of special projects of the police corps arrested the five men, L.R, J.V., R.V, D.W., and M.W. and confiscated 898 hemp plants, two live cartridges, five firearms, cars and money, during house searches in several homes.

Amigoe: June 26, 2007: Suspects’ custody extended    

A lot of bags were needed for carrying off the almost 1000 confiscated marijuana plants.

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