BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – EXECUTIVES of a number of cruise lines have given the assurance that those cruise ships which had cancelled calls to Port St. Kitts would resume their schedule as from this weekend.
This pronouncement was made last evening (Nov. 19) by Marketing Communications Manager of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority, Saju Ng’alla in an interview with SKNVibes.
“There will be no more cancellations; all the cruise ships previously destined for Port St. Kitts will be arriving on their pre-scheduled dates. Executives of the cruise lines have given the Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Richard ‘Ricky’ Skerritt, assurances that there would be no cancellations based on Sunday’s incident.
“Furthermore, all the cruise ships have reinstated all tours to Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, including the Caribbean Journey Masters tour,” Ng’alla said.
He also said that Minister Skerritt had been working tirelessly around the clock with the cruise line executives to ensure all of their concerns were addressed and questions answered.
On Sunday, November 14, 17 tourists (including a baby) aboard a coaster tour bus were held at gunpoint and robbed of an undisclosed sum of money, jewellery, cellular phones and other personal items while on their way to visit the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park.
This unprecedented and callous act resulted in nation-wide condemnation and a call for swift solvability by the police. It had also led to the cancellation of two cruise ships’ calls to Port St. Kitts on Tuesday (Nov. 16) and the following day.
However, following a joint operation mounted in the Sandy Point area by members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force and the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force, searches were conducted on homes, persons and vehicles and resulted in the arrest of four suspects.
The four men, Elroy ‘Stanny’ Williams (29), Devon ‘X Man’ Hodge (28), Grenville ‘Rogie’ Rogers (20) and Junior ‘Q’ Sabratie (24) as well as a fifth suspect, 27-year-old Admenston Lewis (all of Sandy Point) were formally arrested and charged with armed robbery on Thursday, November 18.
