Top Executives Believe Cruise Industry Will ‘Come Back Strong’

Officials at cruising’s four largest companies acknowledged the COVID-19 pandemic’s devastation of their industry Tuesday, yet expressed optimism regarding its short- and long-term future. They said their collaborative approach to testing and protocols and implementation of science-based practices to address coronavirus position cruise companies to benefit from continued strong demand.

Speaking at Seatrade Cruise Virtual’s “State of the Industry” panel, moderated by Cruise Editor Anne Kalosh, the chief executives of Carnival Corporation & plc, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean Group each described industry-spanning efforts to establish effective coronavirus health and safety procedures and protocols.

Immediately prior to the panel, Kelly Craighead, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA)’s president and CEO, announced member lines will require all passengers and crew to be tested for COVID-19 prior to boarding any ship.

The panelists highlighted Craighead’s announcement in describing measures they’ve undertaken to safely return ships to international waters. “The industry has been working diligently for many months now to understand, with the rest of the world, COVID-19 and secondly to determine what our response would be,” said Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corp. & plc.

Operators are “just collaboratively coming up with what makes sense to make certain we’re all operating in the best interests of public health,” Donald said, “and at the same time, giving people the opportunity to pursue livelihood, and of course for our guests to have a fantastic experience.”

“I think we’ve all worked very collaboratively,” agreed Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, using a word that was mentioned frequently during the discussion. “All of us have relied on experts and consulted with the leading figures in the medical field and in public health,” he said. “I’m really quite pleased to see how much the industry has found ways to learn from the science as we’ve gone forward.”

Fain added he was “very pleased” with the health and safety recommendations developed by the Healthy Sail Panel. “I do think it helped us as an industry because we were so transparent about it,” he said. “All of these things are coming together. I’m optimistic and looking forward to expanding on the work we’ve done starting up in Europe.”

MSC led the cruise lines’ relaunch of European operations aboard 4,842-passenger Grandiosa in August. Vago said “the biggest issue” involved in re-launching operations following the pandemic was “to engage with all of the authorities at all levels.”

Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC’s executive chairman, described working simultaneously with the European Union, the Healthy Gateways program, port and municipal authorities and regional governments in countries including France, Greece and Spain to restart cruise operations.

“It was an incredible task, but with the [COVID-19] curve in Italy having lowered, we passed,” he said. “But it takes time to re-start operations. We started much earlier without even knowing if the Italian government would give us the OK. They gave us the OK on August 10 and we re-started operations on August 16.”

Indeed, while each of the panelists expressed optimism their companies would offer cruises from U.S. ports before the end of 2020, the timing of the return will likely be on a case-by-case basis. Late last week, Norwegian Cruise Holdings officials announced the company was suspending cruises through the end of November, days after CDC extended the “No-Sail” order through October 31.

“It takes time to stand up a ship, especially ships that have now been laid up for several months,” said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. “We have to repatriate crew [and] install the different technologies in compliance with the 74 recommendations from the Healthy Sail panel,” he said.

“This is not a race,” Del Rio said. “We will cruise when we think it’s healthy to cruise again. The primary obstacle we have to get over is the No Sail order, but there are others.”

Should CDC allow operations in November as many presume, “It’s literally impossible for us to operate in the month of November,” cautioned Del Rio. “Perhaps others can or will. We’re looking at post-November as a potential start date if everything else comes along.”

As did his fellow panelists, Donald expressed confidence the industry would in time return to its record-setting passenger growth of recent years. Nevertheless, he emphasized the industry’s ability to operate against hinges on government approvals.

“There’s constant dialogue with various parties,” said Donald, “and we are optimistic that we’ll be in a position as an industry, in collaboration with CDC [and] in collaboration with the Administration to resume cruising sometime this year, but we have to work that out. But we are definitely cautiously optimistic.”

Establishing proper procedures and protocols transcend any competition among the lines for cruise passengers, the panelists agreed. “This is not an area where we are competing,” said Fain. “We’re all working for the health and safety of our guests and the communities that we serve.”

Fain added, “Cruise ships have the ability to control the environment as no one else can do. The cruise industry has agreed on 100 percent testing of everyone who boards a ship. No other industry in travel does that, not airlines, not hotels. We can do that because of the special features of the cruise ship. In Europe, we are getting exceptionally high ratings from our guests even with all of the protocols in place.”

“No industry has taken it on the chin from COVID-19 more than the cruise industry,” Del Rio said. “But this is a bump in the road. Cruising is going to come back strong.”