Cruise & Ferry Review - Spring/Summer 2021

1 4 KEYNOTE Arnold Donald is optimistic that heightened health and safety protocols, vaccinations and better Covid-19 treatments will make it possible to put all ships being back in service by early 2022 ways of working,” says Donald. “We’ve analysed every area of the business and decided that we don’t want to automatically revert back to what we were doing before. Carnival Corporation is a federation of nine brands and each one is more successful as part of the whole than it would be if it was operating on its own. We’re exploring how we can leverage the skills and competencies of each brand to create shared services that will benefit everyone when we resume sailing.” Operating as a federation of nine brands targeted at different source markets will also be beneficial when it comes to restarting cruises, predicts Donald. “We were never going to be able to suddenly resume operations on all of our ships and sail itineraries to all 700 of our regular ports of call at the same time,” he says. “Countries worldwide are still struggling to contain the transmission of the virus and strict travel restrictions are still firmly in place in many of our source markets and the destinations we visit. However, as we saw in Europe and the Mediterranean in summer 2020, some destinations have been able to safely open up to limited numbers of cruise guests. The only reason we were able to capitalise on these regions opening up was because AIDA and Costa primarily serve the local drive-to-cruise markets, so guests didn’t need to travel to/from another country to embark on their ship.” Donald is hopeful that the advances in Covid-19 treatments, the increased availability of low-cost and accurate testing, and the global roll-out of multiple vaccines have taken the cruise industry one step closer to resuming operations. “Although we’re looking at a staggered resumption, I’m optimistic that most, if not all, of our vessels will be back in service by the end of 2021 or early 2022,” he says. “However, while we’re eager to welcome our guests back to our ships, we won’t act prematurely and will only resume services when the time is right in conjunction with advice from the CDC and others. “The long-term future of the cruise industry won’t be determined by whether we restart by those dates, but rather whether we can successfully survive the financial impact of the crisis to resume sailing in a way that allows us