Travel Weekly published an article today entitled The New Wave of Attacks on the Cruise Industry. It was written by a contributing editor, Richard Turen, who runs a travel agency and a marketing group.
Its an interesting article which discusses who Mr. Turen views as the critics of the cruise industry.
He discusses cruise expert Ross Klein, a professor in Canada, who has testified before Congress several times about man overboard cases and crime against children on ships. Dr. Klein also operates the website CruiseJunkie which is the definitive compilation of most everything which goes wrong while cruising.
He also discusses me and rewards me as the "king of anti-cruise tirades" and the "most visible critic of the industry."
Here are a few sentences from Mr. Turen’s article:
"To give you a flavor of Walker’s site, let me quote some of the reasons he does not recommend cruise vacations:
- ‘Cruise lines are a perfect place to sexually abuse children.’
- ‘Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL are corporate felons.’
- ‘If you are retired or a child, the cruise line considers your life worthless.’
Jim Walker has appeared on every major news outlet and frequently testifies before Congress. So his impressive background and litigation record against cruise lines must be taken seriously. His goal is clearly stated on his website:
‘If travel agents are going to hawk cruises by advertising all the reasons why you should take your family on a cruise, trust us that we will provide you with the other side of the story.’
Check back on our blog later this afternoon. I’ll publish my response to Mr. Turen’s article and place some of his comments in context and perspective. He has raised some interesting issues which deserve discussion and a larger audience.
January 24 2014 Update: Don’t miss reading our response to the Travel Weekly article.
Photo Credit: Travel Weekly