Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2021

6 5 morning somewhere. Like everyone else we are working with fewer staff and resources – our team is constantly working and our days are filled with meeting with and connecting members, stakeholders, government officials, and experts to advance the responsible resumption of operations. All the while, we have continued to keep our eye on environmental sustainability, destination stewardship, workforce development, social and economic impact, and of course, health and safety. What have been the challenges and frustrations along the way? Repatriating passengers and crew was one of the earliest and toughest challenges. The next challenge has been working with governments around the world to establish a framework for restarting operations when the public health landscape and knowledge about the virus was continuously evolving. Different countries have varying policies – keeping up with those policies and continually positioning the industry as leaders in responsible tourism has been an immense challenge. I would also add that the outsized attention the industry has received is a challenge that we continue to face. I firmly believe there is no other industry in the world that has gone to such lengths to prioritise the public health of customers, employees, and the public. What role has CLIA played in helping members to establish new health and safety protocols? CLIA and our member lines dedicated the time during the pause in operations to invest in research, worked with global experts, and closely cooperated with national and regional health, transport, and safety authorities in specific regions to develop world-leading health and safety protocols. In addition, CLIA representatives have worked in public-private partnership with several governments to support the development of region-specific frameworks that have paved the way for some sailing to return as early as last summer and continue this summer in Europe, South Pacific, parts of Asia, the UK and parts of North America. CLIA launched a Ready, Set, Sail campaign in the USA that helped pave the way toward resuming operations in late June. Following the success of this campaign, we launched the Ready, Set, Sail campaign in Australia which generated over 40,000 messages to local members of parliament and key ministers highlighting the impact the suspension has had on Australian businesses and workers. How is CLIA helping members to resume operations in various markets? We have been actively engaged in dialogue with health and government officials around the world to develop frameworks for the resumption of cruising. As a result of the protocols that have been adopted since resumption began, the incidence rate of Covid-19 onboard is far lower than practically any other setting – a remarkable