For Stuart Leven, Royal Caribbean Group’s vice-president of government relations, a key takeaway from the summer summit was “never send anything to the government unless it’s got a pretty picture and an arrow on it. Don’t expect for one second they know everything about our industry.”
Marella Cruises managing director, Chris Hackney, said that the government needed to give the cruise industry a timeframe as to when the resumption of cruises would be possible. “We’re hopeful there will be further clarification around the timelines [for restarting] which are very vague,” he said.
Mr Hackney went on to criticise the FCDO advice against ocean cruising: “The challenge is that we need more concrete action from the government – while we welcome the conversations and collaboration, we need the advice to change so we get the consumer confidence back.
“We’re coming into a key sales period and consumers want some certainty to make that decision about booking for 2021.”
It’s a stance shared by Mr Stace, who used the virtual showcase to slam the UK cruise ban, calling it “a tremendous block” that’s potentially devastating to the sector and its staff.
Adam Goldstein, CLIA’s global chair, echoed his sentiments and said it was “disappointing” that the FCDO’s advice “continues to be as severe as it is”, stating: “Nobody who is in the cruise community wants to be so singled out in this way.”
Mr Stace revealed that the cruise industry had reached an agreement with the Department for Transport for a phased return to cruising. He said: “The first phase is demonstrating we can stay within British waters and travel safely. Then you can move into phase two which is leaving from UK ports and returning to UK ports but staying within Europe and then phases three and four continue beyond there.”
The goal is to “slowly but surely give confidence that cruising can return in a manageable way. We are utterly confident that we can.”
