Cruise & Ferry Review - Spring/Summer 2021

1 6 1 Cruises to destinations like Edinburgh, Scotland, are expected to be popular with UK guests when ships start sailing again health and regulatory bodies and key stakeholders in all of the destinations we visit. When we return to service, we want to make sure we’re in alignment, and that we have all agreed to practices and layers of protection that will enable us to host a safe and comfortable experience. We continue to work in close collaboration with local authorities and tour operators to ensure the enhanced health and safety measures onboard are maintained ashore, and destinations can feel assured that best practices of health and hygiene are always applied. Furthermore, by leveraging our OceanMedallion technology, we are transforming the embarkation process. The OceanMedallion, which was designed to create seamless cruise experiences for our guests, now lends itself well to travelling in a socially distanced world. In future, guests will be able to select their arrival time at the terminal, helping to stagger boarding and avoid crowds. As operators like Princess Cruises plan for the safe resumption of cruising, it’s important to note that the industry is a vital artery to national and local economies across the globe. In the UK alone, our industry generates £10 billion ($13.9 billion) for the economy every year and supports over 88,000 jobs across a wide ecosystem of industries and sectors. Many small to medium- sized businesses rely heavily on cruise for income. CLIA’s 2021 State of the Industry report found that passengers spend an average of £282 ($394) in their port of embarkation and £73 ($102) in each destination they visit during their cruise. While the return to cruising is not going to be like flipping a light switch, the implementation of strict health and safety measures, combined with the accelerated distribution of the vaccine, means we can be hopeful that by summer we will begin to see the successful and safe restart of operations around the world. And, when the time is right for cruise operations to safely resume, cruising will be an important contributor to fuelling the global economic and societal recovery. CFR Tony Roberts is vice president of Princess Cruises UK & Europe, and chair of CLIA UK & Ireland