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Norwegian Cruise Line cancels booking from far right group
Norwegian Cruise Line has cancelled a booking from a far right group after pressure from a anti-racism group.
Rebel Media, which has been called a ‘neo-Nazi’ organisation, was planning to hold a week-long conference on a Norwegian cruise out of Miami in November.
But campaign group, Hope not Hate, became aware of the plans and urged the cruise line to cancel the booking.
Norwegian later issued a statement saying: "We recently became aware that one of several affinity groups that booked space on an upcoming sailing was associated with and espoused views that are inconsistent with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings core values.
“The company has therefore exercised its right to cancel this group’s reservation and provide a full refund. As a matter of policy, the company neither discusses nor discloses the identities of our individual guests or groups."
Hope not Hate said the decision is ‘most welcome’ and said Norwegian should be ‘congratulated for taking this stand against racism, sexism, homophobia and hatred of all kind’.
“In the current climate, this is a valuable example that companies have the choice to act responsibly and to refuse to allow their platforms to be vehicles for the normalization and mainstreaming of bigotry,” it said.
The headline speaker lined up for the so-called ‘Rebel Cruise’ was Gavin McInnes, known for his extreme online content and the leader of the alt-right linked ‘Proud Boys’.
The cruise line’s decision comes after riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week led to violent clashes and the death of an anti-racism campaigner.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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