The chairman of the Hard Rock resort chain is now claiming that “different water” may have accounted for the mysterious deaths of 13 tourists in the Dominican Republic, including two who died at his hotel.

“The reality is that when people travel abroad, people get sick simply many times by just drinking water that’s different here than what we are used to in the United States,” the hotel owner, Jim Allen, told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday.

Some victim family members have countered that their loved ones fell ill from alcohol in their room minibars.