Cruise lines expecting a better 2021

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by Marlon Madden

After what turned out to be a daunting year for the cruise industry globally, tourism officials are hopeful of a turnaround next year.

In its 2021 State of the Cruise Industry Outlook, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) said one of the defining characteristics of the cruise industry was its resilience, adding that “despite a challenging year in 2020, there is reason for hope and optimism heading into 2021”.

CLIA said based on its 2020 trends, some 74 per cent of cruisers were likely to cruise in the next few years, two out of three cruisers were willing to cruise within a year and about 58 per cent of international vacationers who have never cruised were likely to cruise in the next few years.

“The industry is on a path to resumption in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and elsewhere in 2021,” it noted.

This is in line with what local tourism officials have reported. During the 2019/2020 cruise season, Barbados welcomed about 850, 000 cruise passengers, and officials were anticipating similar numbers for the 2020/2021 season between October 2020 and April 2021.

But that hope was soon dashed as the COVID-19 pandemic started to affect countries around the world by mid-March, resulting in the cruise industry being one of the first to come to a halt.

The CLIA estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in the loss of more than US$77 billion in global economic activity, more than 518, 000 jobs and US$23 billion in wages, between mid-March and September 2020.

Officials in Barbados have already indicated optimism about a rebound next year, with Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Geoffrey Roach telling a recent media conference that, “We don’t anticipate that cruising will be back in any meaningful way until about mid-2021”.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Minister of Tourism Senator Lisa Cummins told a BHTA online event that while the country had recently received a request for a “large” vessel to come to Barbados, no agreement has yet been made.

She explained then that the Americas Cruise Tourism Task Force, which is co-chaired by Prime Minister Mia Mottley and is made up of over 40 different Caribbean countries, has been examining various issues relating to the resumption of cruises, especially those originating in Europe and the US, and how the region can resume cruise tourism safely.

“One of the decisions we had to make about whether or not we were going to be in a position to receive cruises was about that balance about economic benefit and the relationship between Barbados and the cruise lines,” said Cummins.

Pointing out that a lot of the cruises that have begun so far were “bubble cruises” for people to remain offshore and not enter land, Cummins said this would not lend itself to significant economic activity for the country.

She gave the assurance that before cruise is resumed in Barbados, some careful considerations would have to be made.

“We have to be sensitive that we do all that we need to do to get the guidelines in place, have a harmonized regime that has arrangements in place that meet the requirements not just of cruise lines and governments, but the multiple agencies that are connected – not giving the cruise industry a further black-eye by prematurely resuming cruising, getting people filled with angst and then making it more difficult for you to receive your guests,” she explained.

“So we had to take that very careful position of walking that narrow line of protecting the industry while supporting it, by making sure we do not resume too soon,” she said, without giving a prediction of how soon the island was likely to welcome its first set of cruise passengers next year.

In its publication, however, the CLIA pointed out that cruises resumed sailing in parts of Europe, Asia and the South Pacific at the beginning of July this year, with there being more than 200 sailings between that time and mid-December.

“The success of these initial sailings demonstrates that the new protocols are working as designed – to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 among passengers, crew and the destinations cruise ships visit,” it added.

CLIA, which represents more than 13, 000 travel agents, 350 executive partners and 57 cruise lines, said its member passenger data suggested that the Caribbean was the number one cruise destination of choice for 2019 based on the volume of passengers, followed by Asia, Central and Western Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and Alaska, to round out the top six.

The research showed that the passenger volume for the region for 2019 was led by North America, followed by Europe, Asia, South and Central America, Australia/New Zealand/the Pacific, and “other”.