Three days after U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention issued new guidance to the cruise ship industry on Friday, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has come out with its response and called for lifting of the conditional sailing orders for the cruise lines.
CLIA represents 95% of global ocean-going cruise capacity and the largest network of travel agents and agencies specializing in cruise travel. On Monday, it reiterated its call for the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) to be lifted.
In its statement CLIA said, “We share the priority of the Biden Administration to control the virus—and commend the significant advancements made in the US that are a model for others. We also respect the authority of the CDC to implement measures in the interest of public health. However, the additional cruise industry instructions issued April 2nd by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the Framework for Conditional Sailing (CSO) are disappointing.
“The new requirements are unduly burdensome, largely unworkable, and seem to reflect a zero-risk objective rather than the mitigation approach to COVID that is the basis for every other US sector of our society. The effect of these new mandates is that nearly half a million Americans– from longshoremen and ground transportation operators to hotel, restaurant, and retail workers, travel agents, and tens of thousands of businesses that service cruise ships, are continuing to financially suffer with no reasonable timeline provided for the safe return of cruising.”
CLIA has further argued that the instructions are at odds with the approach the CDC and governments in other parts of the world apply to all other travel and tourism segments in mitigating the risk of COVID-19.
Interestingly, on the same day when CDC issued new onerous requirements for the cruise industry—five months after the original order—CDC contrastingly issued relaxed guidance for domestic and international travel due to vaccination progress and recognition of the improved public health environment.
CLIA said that nearly 400,000 passengers have already sailed from Europe and parts of Asia since last summer, following stringent, science-based protocols that resulted in a far lower incident rate than on land. The irony is that today an American can fly to any number of destinations to take a cruise, but cannot board a ship in the U.S. This deprives U.S. workers from participating in the economic recovery and does not recognize the public health advances that have been made over many months, including the ability to effectively mitigate risk on cruise ships.
With no discernable path forward or timeframe for resumption in the U.S., more sailings originating in the Caribbean and elsewhere are likely to be announced, effectively shutting American ports, closing thousands of American small businesses, and pushing an entire industry off- shore.
CLIA has urged the administration to consider the ample evidence that supports lifting the CSO this month to allow for the planning of a controlled return to service this summer. If anything, the announcement last Friday is a clarion call for closer cooperation and coordination among stakeholders to achieve the goal of reaching a ‘new normal’ by the Fourth of July.
Meanwhile U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow has also supported this call for letting the cruise lines sail. He said in a statement that, “The standard of evidence should be exceptionally high for rules that effectively single out certain industries as other parts of the economy are allowed to reopen. Restrictions have taken a disproportionately heavy toll on the travel industry and our millions of workers, and the rule preventing cruise operations is uniquely specific.
“It is economically imperative to find the pathways to reopening, and the evidence is clear that a layered approach to health and safety allows the safe resumption of travel. We join the calls to identify the way toward lifting the Conditional Sail Order and allowing the phased resumption of cruise operations as quickly as possible.”