Building the future
By Virginia López Valiente
Managing Director of Cruises News Media Group and Editor of CruisesNews magazine
Editorial from CruisesNews magazine no. 55 – December 2020
Like many other sectors, the cruise industry has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A lot has happened in the nine months since the service pause: cruise cancellations, fleet reductions, policy adjustments, the introduction of new protocols, and even a slow restart for some cruise lines.
As a result of all this, and despite the damage suffered, the industry rallied, and its efforts led to the establishment of expert-designed health and safety protocols, the presentation of recommendations and best practices, and the sharing of technological advancements and lessons learned. All of this benefited passengers, crew, and port communities worldwide. The cruise industry emerges stronger and even safer, but while vaccines will bring peace of mind, the cruise industry will have changed forever. It is essential to recognize that while other tourism segments or sectors will restart their business where they left off, ours will have significantly improved in prevention, ensuring that what has happened to us never happens again.
All eyes are on 2021 as a big year for the launch of new ships and a wide range of options for travelers, including those that have been postponed, those originally scheduled to launch in 2020, and those that have been completed but have not yet been inaugurated.
Of the more than 20 new ships available for 2021, some highlights include the Celebrity Apex, P&O's Iona, Enchanted Princess, Costa Firenze, Silver Moon and Origin, MSC Virtuosa, Carnival Mardi Gras, Viking Venus, Ritz Carlton's Evrima, Royal's Odyssey of the Seas, Sea Cloud Spirit, etc.
Bookings for 2021 and 2022 show that cruises will quickly become a part of vacations for travelers of all ages. This year has amply demonstrated that consumers have incorporated travel into their lives and are not willing to stop. There is still a year of readjustment ahead; the sector will not recover the glory it enjoyed in 2019 until 2022. However, there is no room for leaps of faith. Cruises will resume in 2021 amidst vaccines, testing, and the urgent and necessary adaptation of all members of this industry: suppliers of goods and services, ports, destinations, and the passengers themselves, who will form this new industry not only better equipped but also better prepared to face health challenges.
I hope that the role we have played at Cruises News Media Group in shaping, informing and organizing some of the most important events for analysis and knowledge dissemination during this dark period has contributed something to this duty of positioning the industry at the forefront of responsibility in tourism excellence.
