Carib Mark
02-19-2009, 06:53 AM
The following are excerpts from a report today (2/19/09) in the Associated Press that may concern anyone planning to visit Martinique or Guadeloupe in the immediate future. Please do not take this as a warning, an affront or blessing of the situation from me, just something to help you make your own decisions. These are beautiful islands with wonderful people and hopefully the French Govt will find a resolution quickly.
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FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique (AP) — Thousands of tourists looking for fun in the sun have canceled vacations to a pair of French Caribbean islands, where violent strikes have left one man dead, piles of smelly uncollected garbage in the streets, and stores looted and burned.
Protesters in Martinique and Guadeloupe have persisted with a work stoppage to demand higher salaries and lower prices, hurting scores of businesses including restaurants, hotels and car rental agencies during the islands' peak winter tourist season,
Guadeloupe's strike, waged by residents struggling with soaring living costs, has persisted for almost a month. Martinique's is in its third week. A protester was shot dead late Tuesday on Guadeloupe as youths went on a rampage, looting 15 businesses and burning seven. Twenty-one cars were also torched. Looters were blamed for Tuesday night's shooting — the first fatality in the unrest.
"People are scared," said Laetitia Delaprade, a spokeswoman at Voyages Antillais, a Paris-based travel agency that specializes in French Caribbean vacations. "They do not want to travel to the Antilles now."
All of Fort-de-France is closed and dirty," Grandmaison said. "It is not reasonable to tell cruise ships to come."
Six of seven cruise ships that were expected to arrive in Fort-de-France between Feb. 7 and Friday are docking elsewhere, de Grandmaison said. The "Bleu de France" and its 90 passengers will dock in Martinique, but at a southwestern town instead of the capital
THE FOLLOWING IS A LINK TO A MARTINIQUE TOURISM Q&A: READ CONSIDERING THE SOURCE : http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090218006320&newsLang=en
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FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique (AP) — Thousands of tourists looking for fun in the sun have canceled vacations to a pair of French Caribbean islands, where violent strikes have left one man dead, piles of smelly uncollected garbage in the streets, and stores looted and burned.
Protesters in Martinique and Guadeloupe have persisted with a work stoppage to demand higher salaries and lower prices, hurting scores of businesses including restaurants, hotels and car rental agencies during the islands' peak winter tourist season,
Guadeloupe's strike, waged by residents struggling with soaring living costs, has persisted for almost a month. Martinique's is in its third week. A protester was shot dead late Tuesday on Guadeloupe as youths went on a rampage, looting 15 businesses and burning seven. Twenty-one cars were also torched. Looters were blamed for Tuesday night's shooting — the first fatality in the unrest.
"People are scared," said Laetitia Delaprade, a spokeswoman at Voyages Antillais, a Paris-based travel agency that specializes in French Caribbean vacations. "They do not want to travel to the Antilles now."
All of Fort-de-France is closed and dirty," Grandmaison said. "It is not reasonable to tell cruise ships to come."
Six of seven cruise ships that were expected to arrive in Fort-de-France between Feb. 7 and Friday are docking elsewhere, de Grandmaison said. The "Bleu de France" and its 90 passengers will dock in Martinique, but at a southwestern town instead of the capital
THE FOLLOWING IS A LINK TO A MARTINIQUE TOURISM Q&A: READ CONSIDERING THE SOURCE : http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090218006320&newsLang=en