The Lasting Impact of a Year With No Cruises
Photo Credit: The overwhelming majority of cruise ships stood moored for the past year as the pandemic took its toll on the industry. Getty / Allen Allnoch
Skift Take
The world’s three largest cruise lines are desperate to stop their $60 billion financial bleed. Destinations have experienced life without megaships for more than year. Is this the end of mass cruising as we knew it or can cruise lines find a place in a more balanced and diversified tourism economy?
A year into the unprecedented global pause of the world’s largest cruise lines, no other segment of travel faces a more uncertain future, nor as much of a massive transformation to its business model. Beyond the ship's decks, far-reaching implications loom for those destinations with an outsized dependence on large cruise ship tourism and its ripple effects.
Megaships remain synonymous with risk in the eye of an increasing number of consumers as the industry struggles to regain its clout. The public relations scar might run deeper than the industry likes to admit. A recent survey of 600 cruisers and non-cruisers in the UK and Australia, for example, revealed that 47 percent did not trust cruise lines to look after them if something went wrong during a voyage, while a staggering 67 percent were less willing to cruise because of the pandemic.
The livestreams and news images of last year’s Covid debacle at sea remain etched in the minds of travelers — customers
