Carnival says cruises for 2021 a hard sell

• April 10 2020
• http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-report/carnival-says-cruises-for-2021-a-hard-sell_191753

Carnival, the world's largest cruise company, in its latest assessment of operations, said that amidst the ravaging effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on global tourism, they have found that even cruises scheduled for next year are proving to be a hard sell.

The popular cruise company said that they have realised that customers have become skittish about booking a cruise, even if it's for next year — even if prices are lowered.

“In the first two weeks of March, bookings for 2021 cruises were considerably worse than a year earlier, and bookings for the rest of 2020 are meaningfully lower, despite major price cuts,” Carnival said in a regulatory filing last Friday according to Bloomberg news.

“The outlook suggests the cruise industry will have a tough time bouncing back from its coronavirus shutdown,” the news report further stated.

Carnival halted new sailings in mid-March after a series of outbreaks at sea raised concern about the safety of the voyages. Since then, the company has expressed that it has been a struggle for them to get some ships back to port because local authorities are worried about passengers spreading COVID-19.

“Carnival still has thousands of passengers on ships at sea, according to the company, but plans to get them home by the end of April,” the Bloomberg report said.

Several governments in the Caribbean through the imposition of bans on cruise ships said that they have taken such precautions as a mitigating factor against preventing the transmission of the deadly virus through their ports. Outside of this, many of the countries in the region have also had to grapple with significant downturns in tourism [a major revenue earner for most Caribbean countries via their strong tourism product] as the COVID-19 pandemic continues its onslaught on several industries.