Three more cruise lines canceled Coki Point Beach shore excursions in St. Thomas, in response to the gang-related shootout on Monday, during which a teenage passenger from the Carnival Victory was killed by a stray bullet.
Carnival also has canceled Coki Point Beach tours.
NCL’s Norwegian Epic, which was in port in St. Thomas on Wednesday, canceled tours to the Coki Point area for "the safety and security of our guests." NCL said passengers could cancel any shore excursion on St. Thomas on Wednesday without penalty.
The Celebrity Solstice, also in St. Thomas on Wednesday, canceled its Coral Land and Coral Sea shore excursion, which passes through the area where the incident took place.
"We also suggest that guests who planned independent activities in St. Thomas avoid Coki Point and Coral World," said a Celebrity spokesperson.
Princess Cruises said it suspended tours to Coki Point "pending further investigation by the local authorities." Princess suspended tours for the Emerald Princess on Thursday and the Caribbean Princess on Friday.
Tourism officials scrambled to do damage control with cruise lines and to assure visitors that they are not targets of warring gangs.
Cruise tourism is big business in the U.S. Virgin Islands, bringing in more than 823,000 passengers from January through April, a 16.7% increase over the same period in 2009, according to Caribbean Tourism Organization figures.
Beverly Nicholson-Doty, the USVI’s tourism commissioner, said, "This isolated incident against one of our visitors is not at all representative of our destination. The destination remains committed to ensuring a safe environment for guests to the territory."
Meanwhile, the main suspect in the crime turned himself in to police on Tuesday, according to police reports. Three persons of interest picked up at the crime scene Monday were released, but police expect more arrests.