Jamaica may be the birthplace of Bob
Marley, but it's the Bahamas that's generating the Marley
news these days.
TC hears that
Marley's former summer home on Cable Beach in
Nassau may reopen as a small, upscale hotel and spa,
bearing his name.
After Libya
opened, then abruptly closed its doors to U.S. tourists,
one tour operator wondered why other tour and cruise operators were
still advertising it.
"I'm shocked they
are not taken to court for advertising a country you can't even get
a visa for," the operator said to TC. "People get on cruise ships
and don't see the small print that says they may not be
able to get a visa. They land in Tripoli, and there's an
announcement that all the Americans have to stay onboard while all
the Europeans go hopping off."
TC's no
investment analyst, but man, is it impressed with
Ambassadors International's third-quarter 2007
comps -- the company increased its net profit by 1,800%. But what
about a repeat performance? In 2006, the firm started a cruise
division, which became the largest producing of its three
divisions, and it made $7.6 million in the third quarter. To match
that growth rate in third-quarter 2007, Ambassadors would have to
generate $136.8 million in income.
The welcome
basket in the room at an upscale Caribbean resort included
the usual tins of peanuts, an assortment of fresh fruit, bottled
water, sunscreen, chocolates and a small, round, metal tin
discreetly labeled"Intimacy Kit."
With a reporter's
instinct, TC eyed it and opened it, noting it included condoms,
plastic-wrapped towelettes, a package of lubricating jelly and a
note containing the Web site address of the distributor. Although
the resort's front desk declined to give specifics on the number of
kits sold (at $9 per), a housekeeper told TC that she had to
restock the item quite often.
TC
overheard one Cruise Holidays agent report having sold a
five-day cruise out of a northern Florida port for $199, which,
after deducting the cruise's noncommissionable
portion, left $40. The agent got a $12.80 cut.