SPECIAL REPORT Travel Weekly Insight Annual Report 2020-21: Leading figures from the UK cruise industry outline
Dingle warns of threat to capacity of UK cruise sector
T
he UK cruise sector will shrink without a swift change in Foreign Office advice against sailings as
cruise lines will deploy ships away from Britain. That is the view of Carnival UK
chairman David Dingle who said: “We have to get the Foreign Office advisory changed. It’s critical for us.” Dingle described the government’s
Global Travel Taskforce recommen- dations in December as “extremely disappointing”, saying they “meant nothing but inertia” for the sector. The taskforce report gave no indi-
cation of when cruising might restart from the UK and Dingle said: “We’re bleeding cash at an enormous rate.” He told a Travel Weekly Insight
Report launch event in December: “We’ve worked really hard with the Department for Transport [DfT], with the Foreign Office and with
Chief executives in
Miami will look at the UK as not a good place to do cruise business
Public Health England to create an operating framework, to manage every aspect of Covid. It has been endorsed by the DfT. It’s got approval from the Health and Safety Executive. “But when we try to work with
the Foreign Office to lift its advisory against cruising, we cannot get it lifted. This is a travel advisory not about a destination but about a means of transport, which is unprecedented. “The foreign secretary [Dominic
Raab] seems to have reservations about our ability to repatriate any British cruise passenger affected by Covid. We don’t know why. “Despite Public Health England
being alongside us in developing the framework and having told us everything they’re concerned about and us answering those concerns, they apparently won’t recommend to the foreign secretary that we can restart. The chief medical officer doesn’t seem willing to tell us what his reservations are. “It’s critical for us because 35% of
all cruises are booked in January and early February. If we lose that period, our 2021 results will be catastrophic.” Dingle warned: “That won’t
necessarily send the UK cruise industry to the wall, [but] it means the global corporations whose chief executives sit in Miami and look at where they are going to deploy their fleets will look at the UK as not a good place to do cruise business. “We’ll see the UK cruise industry
shrink because ships will steadily be deployed elsewhere.”
‘It will take more than vaccines to restore travel confidence’
The availability of Covid-19 vaccines is “no magic bullet” and it will take more to restore consumers’ confidence to travel, according to a leading health and safety expert. Callum Irvine, health safety and environment practice
lead at Deloitte, said global standards to tackle the coronavirus remain crucial to restoring travel demand. He noted: “Polls show an all-time low
in consumer confidence. A VisitBritain poll showed three-quarters of consumers didn’t expect to travel in the near future. “So we’re preparing the industry [to
restart] but consumer confidence isn’t there yet. Could the vaccine bridge some of that gap? We hope so, but there are a lot of other factors at play. “The UK has a vaccine, but if it
doesn’t exist in destinations, and those 12 7 JANUARY 2021
Callum Irvine
countries are nervous about putting more burden on their health systems, that will have a bearing.” Irvine told a Travel Weekly Insight Report launch
event: “There is no magic bullet. No 100% vaccine is going to be rolled out. So we need other things to help. “The most important is the work towards a global set of standards. It’s important there is a broadly level playing field we can all understand and work with – a rule set that everyone can understand.” He added: “I hope in the longer term
that work on common standards around Covid could bleed into other parts of risk control in travel. For example, work needed to be done pre-Covid to achieve global standards on fire safety, on Legionella and on all those normal risks.”
Rzymowska says cruise secto
UK cruise leaders remain frustrated at the lack of progress on restarting the sector. Celebrity Cruises UK managing director
Jo Rzymowska said: “We’re fed up being commended for our collaboration and our approach. We know there is a pandemic. We know what is going on in the world. But cruise should not be singled out with everything we’re doing, saying: ‘We recommend you don’t take a cruise’.” She described the wave booking period in
January as “critical”, but insisted: “This is not about immediate sailing but making sure we can resume from UK waters in spring.” Rzymowska said: “There is a lot of work
going on. We have significant protocols in place, way above anything hotels have had to
David Dingle
Produced in association with
travelweekly.co.uk
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