Cruise line sets date to get back on the water
Norwegian Cruise Line has set a date to resume sailing innewzealand waters and says restless travellers from this region are showing unprecedented interest in cruising here.
The company, the third biggest cruise line in the world by revenue, will deploy the fully refurbished Norwegian Spirit here for the first time. It hopes the 75,000-tonne ship willmakeits debut out of Timaru next December 23 as part of an Australasian cruise.
Cruises have stopped around the world as Covid-19 devastated the $212 billion industry, of which close to$600million a year was spent here. While somehyper-local small ship voyages have resumed, the timing of a return to international cruising remains uncertain.
Norwegian says it is working closely with the Uscenters for Disease Control (CDC) onhowto safely resume sailing, but the health agency’s latest advice is to avoid cruising. Thecdcand the industry are doing work on a phased restart.
Norwegian Cruise Line vicepresident and managing director of Asia-pacific, Ben Angell, toldnew Zealand journalists this week there was optimism the industry was turning the corner, especially in this part of the world.
“We’re seeing more signs of positivity and restlessness and demandto get out and explore the
world again,” he said.
“There seems to be a belief that with the advances in therapeutics and vaccines, that by the end of next year the world will be back to a closer to a normal state.”
Asked whether Norwegian will follow plans by Qantas to impose a “no vaccination, no travel” rule, Angell said it was being considered but the issue was complex.
“It’s a really tough one. It’s probably easier for an Australian brand to publicly take that stance, given all the research out of Australia shows that there’s a real openness to take the vaccine, but that’s not true in every other market. We’re not hearing the same thing out of theus and we’re not hearing it out of the UK, and I’m not sure about Europe,” he said.
“There’s still a longwayto gowith negotiations with thecdcand the protocols to resume sailing. It’s [a vaccine requirement] definitely something that is being considered — we’ll just have to seehowit unfolds.”
Cruising is one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, with hundreds of ships, representing tens of billions of dollars, parked up. Dozens of older ships have already been scrapped or are heading for the scrapyard.
Marketwatch this week reported that Norwegian Cruise Line shares fell after it announced another extension of its suspension of voyages given safety concerns amid the pandemic, this time for another twomonths.
While the stock has rallied 35 per cent over the past three months, it has tumbled 60.7 per cent in the year to date.
By revenue, Norwegian sits behind Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean.
In August, Kpmgsaid that until recently cruises were the fastest growing sector of the travel industry.
Statistics show that in 2017 about 26.7 million people went on a cruise, followed by 28.5 million in 2018 and an estimated 32 million had been hoped for in 2021, before the pandemic struck.
But as a result of Covid, the industry has been hardest hit and shutdownsooner than most travel sectors.
Norwegian’s 17 ships are anchored in storage, although Angell said he was hopeful of a phased restart in the “not too distant future”.
In a baby step, this week Royal Caribbean is operating its first revenue cruise.
Quantum of the Seas sailed from Singapore on December 1, the first in a series of three- and four-night “cruises to nowhere” open only to residents of Singapore, and with no port stops.
Atentative resumption of cruising in Norway was hit by an onboard Covid outbreak, in a setback to the industry.
Angell said pent-updemandfor safe cruising was big innewzealand.
“There is increased focus on our ownbackyard in the current environment— we’ve seen unprecedenteddemandand have had the largest booking days and largest booking weeks for close-tohomecruising,” he said.
Fly-cruise has been the mainstay of Norwegian’s market and it was still hopeful that passengers from Britain, Europe and the United States would be able to travel here, but as a contingency it was pushing harder locally as well.
The 53-year-old company had spent well over $140m refurbishing the Norwegian Spirit, which at full capacity and double occupancy could carry just over2000 passengers.
It is not knownhowsocial distancing requirements would affect this, and although promotional rates are being offered, if there are fewer spots available, like other travel suppliers the company would be forced to put up prices.
The 12-day Australasian cruise next Christmas would include Napier and subsequent voyages would call at Gisborne, Dunedin and Auckland.
In partnership with Royal Caribbean, Norwegian’s “Healthy Sail Panel” has developed 74 health and safety protocols.
It is also offering more cancellation flexibility, and passengers with embarkation dates from January 1, 2021 to October 31 next year have the flexibility to cancel their cruise 15 days before departure and receive a future cruise credit.
There is increased focus on our own backyard in the current environment — we’ve seen unprecedented demand . . .
Ben Angell, Norwegian Cruise Line