All eyes are on the travel industry, and we are waging a yearlong battle with not only our own health but the health of our clients, our travel agencies and our supplier partners. As a former employee of a major cruise line, and a current travel agency owner, I wanted to take a moment to voice my concern with the lack of progress we are making in the cruise sector and the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cruise industry is either on the brink of a comeback or on the cusp of a North American exit. While I know that the CDC has our best interests at the center of everything they do, the perception is that they have not been treating the cruise industry equally. It's like we are all a music group on the ropes.
For months, the cruise industry could not receive any guidelines, and now they have significant rules in place with no true start date in sight even if they meet those rules. But yet, as we speak, we can pack onto airplanes without testing; we can file into theme parks and fill baseball stadiums without testing or massive regulations.
A few cruise lines have been forced to look elsewhere and sail tens of thousands of guests with minimal health incidents in other countries. So much so that Singapore, one of the healthiest countries during the pandemic, has become the world leader in cruise departures. It's problematic that we are losing business not because people don't love cruising, but because we cannot get on the same page from a regulation or health standpoint.
With that being said, let's talk about how we move forward. We are all operating in silos right now. We have travel agency organizations, cruise line healthy sail panels, local/state/federal governments, Youtubers and customers all shouting in different directions, but collectively they are not talking to each other on the same frequency.
If we are all talking to the wall, at the same time, then we are not going to achieve the goals we need to accomplish this efficiently. We need leadership to set differences aside; we need communication channels to open up, and we certainly need timelines. Lawsuits may be an immediate answer, but it is a damaging route to take for us all long term. Why? Because we could be stuck in litigation or caught going back and forth for some time, and that helps no one.
My ask of all of us is that we better focus our efforts collectively as a cruise industry to define what re-opening in North America looks like. We need either solid decisions based on science across all of tourism or better transparency from the CDC on what the actual issues are so that they can be resolved on a timeline. It cannot be solved only by the cruise lines and the CDC. We have all been affected adversely by the challenges of COVID-19, and the answers have eluded those in leadership for over a year.
Let's move out of our silos, talk to each other with a consolidated voice and find a healthy sail solution that works for everyone. Cruise lines going elsewhere and the lawsuits flying around are breaking up the band. I'd like to think that if the Beatles were around right now, they may have sung, let's come together, right now, and get to sea. We can make sweet music together as an industry, and right now we need to stand up, make a plan together, set our future tour dates and get back on tour, safely.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
