Cruise ban is crazy. You’re now safer on our ships than on shore
EVERYTHING was looking shipshape. Last week, we in the British cruise industry were talking about sailing dates, itineraries and recalling thousands of staff from furlough – just, we imagined, as the Government wanted us to do.
We have worked hard to make sure our ships are safe and we were ready to relaunch our £10 billion-ayear industry. Then the Government blew up the whole plan.
With the signature lack of consultation, planning and analysis that has characterised Whitehall’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, t he Forei gn Offi c e s uddenly advised holidaymakers not to go on a cruise. At a stroke, the dreams of the two million Britons who go on cruise holidays every year were holed below the waterline.
Were we in the industry warned or consulted? No. Was there any sign the Government had bothered to read the European report published last week which lays out a framework for the return of cruise ships? No.
The Government likes to repeat the mantra that it is following the science, but there appears to be no science to a decision to shut an industry that employs 400,000 people, directly and indirectly.
Nameless Whitehall spin doctors have briefed that cruise ships could be ‘floating petri dishes’ for Covid19. This appears to be based not on any rational estimation of risk, but on the case of the cruise ship Diamond Princess, which was quarantined in Japan in February.
That occurred when few people understood Covid-19, particularly asymptomatic transmission. There were no procedures in place, no effective treatments and no one was allowed ashore, even if they needed emergency care.
But the Diamond Princess incident needs to be viewed in perspective. Cruise ships don’t figure in the list of the top-50 Covid-19 infection hotspots. Indeed, P&O, which carries more than a third of British cruise holidaymakers, operated with full complements of passengers throughout January and February. Not one contracted Covid-19.
Nevertheless, the cruise industry has not been idle. We know our ships have to be safe and have spent a fortune to achieve that goal. Entire ships can now be cleaned every night with anti-viral ‘ fogging’ machines that can cost more than £1,000 each and disperse a fine disinfectant mist that sanitises every surface and leave liners as hygienic as hospital wards.
Cruise ship staff stay aboard for the entire season, are tested for coronavirus before coming aboard and regularly tested on the ship. Passengers, too, will be screened before boarding and regularly tested for high temperatures – which takes seconds. What bar, shop or restaurant on the High Street could make that boast?
There will be no more buffets. There will be waiter service at restaurants and bar tables will be more than two metres apart. Payment will be contactless and the onboard boutiques and shops will be following the same – or better – safety guidelines as those ashore.
So we can’t understand why the Government has suddenly closed down our industry without apparently making a proper analysis of the infection risk.
The cruise industry makes billions for Britain and is vitally important at ports such as Southampton, where enough fuel, luxury food and drink, clothes, jewellery, perfume, is loaded to last thousands of people three weeks or more.
The European Union recognises the economic importance of tourism and last week published a report laying out a protocol for the return of cruise ships.
In addition, cruise operators and tourist destinations such as Venice, which are keen to bring business back, have new agreements in place that guarantee that patients will be taken ashore for treatment in the case of a Covid-19 outbreak.
THE Government could have used all this as the basis for a similar pathway. Instead, it has decided to shut down cruise ships while allowing holidaymakers to fly to European resorts with no safeguards whatsoever. It beggars belief.
Clearly the Government has calculated the risk is low because Europe has lower infection rates than Britain. But with the new safeguards, cruise holidays will be safer than buses, shops or restaurants in Britain or in the crowded hotspots of the Med.
The people who will benefit most from this flight to the sun are the hoteliers and bar owners in Spain and Greece, rather than the hundreds of thousands of British workers in the cruise industry.
So instead of closing us down, why not work with the industry to agree what we have to do? Why not take on board the EU’s recommendations to its cruise lines with a view to restarting cruise holidays in a matter of weeks or months?
It would, after all, be merely following the science.