Coronavirus hits cruise sector
Coronavirus fears have been playing havoc with travel bookings and some cruises have been cancelled or are avoiding stopovers in China or Hong Kong.
Following the quarantine placed on the Princess Line’s Diamond Princess in Japan for 14 days, the vessel’s other sailings have been shelved until next month at this stage.
Several other Princess cruises have been canned or schedules changed, shifting port calls from Shanghai and Hong Kong to Japan or South Korea.
Kaiapoi couple David and Rae Prosser, who were due to board a Southeast Asian cruise aboard the Sapphire Princess in Singapore later this month, are relieved their trip has been cancelled. The Prossers tried to withdraw and get a refund on their trip from their insurer because of their concerns about catching the coronavirus in the close quarters of a ship. But they were turned down because they were not going to China, which is currently still the only place determined a no-go zone by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hong Kong, where they were flying to afterwards, is not off limits.
House of Travel’s Brent Thomas said agents were fielding a flood of inquiries from people due to go on cruises in Asia or who were transiting through Hong Kong. ‘‘There are a number of cruises that have had schedules changed so they are not pulling into certain ports or they will spend greater time in other ports or go to completely different parts than on their itinerary.’’
And there were issues with people joining cruises via Hong Kong, ‘‘because cruise companies are requiring people to not have gone through an infected area within a certain timeframe of entering on to the ship – which is totally understandable, given the circumstances we are in’’, Thomas said.
Travel agents were currently taking bookings for 2021, and even 2022, and while people might delay their departures, Thomas did not expect the cruise industry to be damaged long term.
‘‘Typically [the delay] happens for a six-week window. We have seen this going back all the way to Sars, terrorism in London and more recently, natural events as well.’’ Each booking had to be dealt with individually, because of the different policies involved.
‘‘It is a fluid situation and it is airline by airline, cruise company by cruise company, coach company by coach company.’’
The Prossers will receive a full refund and still hope to take the trip another time.