The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is removing liquor dispensers from guest room minibars at its resort in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic, the general manager of the resort told CNN.
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino decided last week to remove the liquor dispensers and hopes to “provide more tranquility for guests,” GM Erica Lopez said. The decision to remove the dispensers was made independently and not as a result of the two deaths that happened at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino at Punta Cana, Lopez added.
The decision follows a series of American tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic, some of which may have involved liquor.
At least 10 American citizens have died after an apparent sudden health issue in the Dominican Republic since June 2018, according to information from the State Department, family members and the resorts involved.
But officials in the Dominican Republic and the United States have not said the deaths are connected. A US State Department official said Friday there has not been a unusual spike in reported deaths from the Dominican Republic, and the State Department has not issued a travel warning about trips to the country specific to these deaths.
The Dominican Republic’s top tourism official also downplayed what he called “exaggerated” reports about the deaths.
“It’s not true that there has been an avalanche of American tourists dying in our country, and it’s not true that we have mysterious deaths,” Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia told reporters.
Two deaths at Hard Rock Hotel
Two of the deaths occurred at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana.
David Harrison, 45, of Brandywine, Maryland, died at the hotel in July 2018, according to his widow, Dawn McCoy. They were celebrating an ann