Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2020

2 1 8 INTERV IEW Working round the clock Resuming operations during the coronavirus pandemic involves a dedicated team addressing a myriad of details on a daily basis. Susan Parker speaks with Michel Grimm of CroisiEurope O n 15 July CroisiEurope resumed river operations. Botticelli set sail again on the Seine. Before the month was up, she was joined by eight more vessels, followed by another 15 in August. The French, family-owned company has a fleet of more than 50 ships, two of which are small ocean-going vessels that accommodate 130 to 198 passengers. It plans to return a further four ships to service in September and October, bringing the total to 27. On a normal year it carries about 200,000 passengers, 50 per cent of which are French and the balance international, mainly from the UK and Europe but also the US, Canada and with the market now growing in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. However this year will be mostly about French, Belgian, Swiss and German passengers, as those further afield will be more affected by travel restrictions. International sales director Michel Grimm is just one of a team of about a dozen, who are working “every day in checking on what is going on in every ship in every country”. Back in March about 90 per cent of the staff, including the crew who are all CroisiEurope employees, were furloughed. However, since May there has been some return to the office, mostly from the sales team. “We work on numbers but also we have to work on the rules/processes that we have or want to apply onboard,” he explains. “For example the technical people on where we can cruise, the services onboard people regarding the numbers of passengers vis a vis the new rules and the sales team because, for example, 90 per cent of passengers are confirmed here and 40 per cent there, so which cruise do we go with? “Every cruise is a journey. Every ship is a floating hotel. We decide cruise by cruise,” says Grimm, pointing out that there is a benefit to being a French company under French law in the present situation. Furlough in France means that once CroisiEurope knows how many passengers are booked on specific cruises, it can activate crew on one cruise but not another which has too few bookings. Grimm says: “We study case by case, ship by ship. “We have a clear vision of what we are going to do in the next four to six weeks but, for example in a month or two this could be more or less. We have