It has survived norovirus, SARS and MERS, as well as regular outbreaks of gastroenteritis and legionnaires’ disease. But coronavirus has dealt the cruise ship industry what looks like a crippling blow.
Travel and tourism businesses are under immense pressure ahead of the crucial summer season in the Northern hemisphere. And even though the cruise ship companies have an unusually loyal customer base, eager to travel again, the risks of catching coronavirus and the added impact of social distancing rules at sea place an unusual burden on operators.
Its sister ship the Grand Princess was later held off Oakland, California, with 78 passengers testing positive for the virus, while other ships, such as the Holland America Line’s Westerdam, were forced to bounce between ports as country after country refused to let potentially infected ships reach land.
“This caught everyone by surprise and there was limited scientific data and guidelines to work off but yet you are made to be the scapegoat,” says a senior executive at one of the biggest cruise companies. “It has been difficult to move away from situations that are very media sexy.” But despite adding an estimated $150 billion to the global economy, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, only a relatively small number of travellers choose to cruise — under 3 per cent the world’s 1.1 billion tourists last year.
And unlike peers in the hotel and restaurant sectors, cruise lines — which are mostly registered in tax havens such as Panama and the Bahamas — are ineligible for the U.S. government’s US$3 trillion aid program. In 2016, Carnival was found guilty by a Miami court on seven counts of environmental negligence including dumping oil, sewage and dirty water at sea. It was its third conviction for the same offence since 1998. Both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian have also been fined for their environmental records.
Robert Kwortnik, associate professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, says that registering in tax havens keeps costs down: “The operational model is more efficient because you can save costs in terms of labour. Will we see a wholesale change in that model? I don’t know if it will happen immediately, but it could be better for the industry.”
charlesadler I don’t want them back till they clean up their waste dumping systems. That they are allowed to dump w/o consequence Is appalling and make big $$ doing it
charlesadler How do you feel about subways? Public transit? Cities in general?
Both the airline and cruise industries have been torpedoed and will take both several years to recover 🏴🇨🇦