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Cruise travel banned until October amid Government repatriation fears over stranded sick passengers

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Cruises face a Government travel ban until at least October, a minister has warned, amid fears that reviving the industry now risks a repeat of the Foreign Office having to repatriate sick passengers.

Caroline Dinenage, a Culture minister, defended the Foreign Office’s new advice against all cruise travel as the industry attacked the “vague” guidance and warned of thousands of job losses from delays in resuming tours.

She said: “We have at the moment dissuaded people from going on cruises, probably until October, just because of the situation that we were in when the crisis hit when we had to repatriate people from all over the world on cruise ships.”

The Foreign Office had to repatriate 19,000 British travellers trapped on cruise liners at the start of the pandemic  in more than 20 locations.

There is concern that between February 4 and June 8 more than 40 cruise ships globally had on-board infections, with the worst, the Ruby Princess, which has been linked to 22 Coronavirus deaths across Australia from the 2700 passengers who disembarked from the ship.

Government officials in multiple nations want the industry to show it has established effective onboard quarantine after apparently struggling to cope with the level of medical need. The largest ships have more than 2,000 crew in shared cabins, many from high-risk Covid-19 countries.

Most major countries including the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all advise against cruise travel, with the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention warning “all people defer travel on cruise ships including river cruises worldwide...because the risk of Covid-19 on cruise ships is high.”

The Government’s edict will deter cruise lines from visiting Britain while making it difficult for those wishing to join an overseas sailing to find travel insurance.

Debbie Marshall of Silver Travel Advisor, which organises holidays for older travellers, said: "There is no logic in now making this a blanket extension and we hope that it will be revised before the cruise lines look to resume operations." 

Some river cruise firms in Europe have already restarted sailings, with stricter hygiene protocols and social distancing measures, while Norwegian operator Hurtigruten was planning to offer a voyage around the British Isles, only for UK passengers, in September.    Marshall added: "The Government should have more confidence that the cruise industry knows what it is doing and it would be better if they worked on a collaborative basis with the industry rather than throwing carefully laid plans into disarray."

Phil Evans, owner of booking website Cruise Nation, said: "The update from the FCO is lacking in information and we need clarity on it. We also need a date when we can expect the next update on this."

"The last update from the FCO was four months ago, and there's been nothing in between that and this latest, so we need to know that we won't be kept waiting for another four months."

Another industry source said: “The advice is so vague and does nothing to differentiate between a boutique ship carrying 16 people or a mass-market one with 6,000 passengers."

Ben Cordwell, travel and tourism analyst at GlobalData, said the impact on cruise lines, and future confidence, could be devastating:

"After several months of little or no revenue, it is essential that cruise companies hit the ground running when voyages eventually return.

“The latest FCO announcement will do little to diminish concerns surrounding the safety of cruises and will increase worries that cruise companies will be unable to survive the mounting pressure caused by Covid-19."    

Cruise giant Royal Caribbean recently revealed it was still spending around £120m a month despite all voyages being suspended, while Norwegian Cruise Line only avoided bankruptcy last month after it managed to raise more than £1.5bn in additional funding.