UPDATE 1-Royal Caribbean suspends cruise visits to Haiti's Labadee amid gang violence
(Adds details from email sent to travel agents in paragraph 6, analyst comment in paragraph 7)
March 14 (Reuters) - Royal Caribbean Group has suspended cruise visits to Labadee, a secluded peninsula in Haiti, for the next seven days following months of escalating gang violence in the country, a senior company executive said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The company will continue the suspension as required with three days advance notice to guests sailing on impacted itineraries, Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley said.
Violence by powerful armed gangs had gripped Haiti, causing thousands to flee their homes, after anti-government protests broke out early in February.
The violent clashes in the capital Port-au-Prince had damaged communications and led to prison breaks, culminating in the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Royal Caribbean's global security team "is closely monitoring the evolving situation in Haiti", a company spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the temporary adjustments to sailings resulted from "an abundance of caution".
The company told travel agents in an email seen by Reuters that itineraries with stops in Labadee will be replaced with a stop in Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas or an extra day at sea.
Labadee, which is leased by the company, represents a fraction of deployment to the region so the cancellations should not have a significant impact, Morningstar equity analyst Jaime Katz said.
Royal Caribbean said the civil unrest in Port-au-Prince is 128 miles south of Labadee, or about six-and-a-half-hour drive.
Rival Carnival Corp does not have any cruise stops in Haiti. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru and Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Shounak Dasgupta)
