CRUISE SECTOR SHUTDOWN LOOMS - US warning could submerge entire industry, ministers fear

WESTERN BUREAU:

Jamaicans have been urged by at least two senior Cabinet ministers to brace for a near-complete shutdown of the cruise industry amid swirling concern over the novel coronavirus, which has surpassed 107,000 infections worldwide and killed 3,600 people.

The situation has been exacerbated by a travel warning issued yesterday by the United States Department of State imploring American citizens to reconsider cruises because of restrictions to ports of entry.

Jamaican health authorities have arm-wrestled with cruise lines over the rigidity of COVID-19 protocols dictating that travel history, and health and temperature logs be turned over to local officials before passengers and crew have been allowed to disembark.

It is understood that the crisis has caused Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett to call a meeting of travel industry stakeholders in Kingston for Tuesday.

Several ships have been pulled from calls in Jamaica, with Carnival Cruise Lines among the most vocal, threatening to divert all vessels from Jamaican ports.

Jamaica had more than 460 cruise ship calls in 2019, with more than 1.5 million passengers visiting the island.

ALARM BELLS

Two government ministers with whom The Gleaner spoke yesterday have also raised alarm that the contagion from a downturn in cruise travel has already begun to sow seeds of doubt among airline tourists, who represent the lion’s share of the more than four million visitors to the island annually.

Neither minister was willing to go on the record.

“US citizens, particularly travellers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship,” the State Department said in a statement posted to its website on Sunday.

“CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) notes increased risk of infection of COVID-19 in a cruise ship environment. In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, many countries have implemented strict screening procedures that have denied port-of-entry rights to ships and prevented passengers from disembarking. In some cases, local authorities have permitted disembarkation but subjected passengers to local quarantine procedures. While the US government has evacuated some cruise ship passengers in recent weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for US citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities.”

The advisory continued: “This is a fluid situation. CDC notes that older adults and travellers with underlying health issues should avoid situations that put them at increased risk for more severe disease. This entails avoiding crowded places, avoiding non-essential travel such as long plane trips, and especially avoiding embarking on cruise ships.”

Bartlett and other government officials met with two of the island’s largest cruise partners, Carnival and MSC Cruise Lines, last Friday in Miami, Florida. Attempts to contact Bartlett for comment were unsuccessful as calls to his mobile phone went unanswered.

However, an official with intimate knowledge of the negotiations with the cruise lines acknowledged that the severity of the global crisis could force local authorities to enforce stricter regulations surrounding the testing of cruise passengers and the monitoring of their health before they are allowed to disembark. The Government’s protocol is expected to have serious repercussions for the volume of passengers to the region.

The source, however, said that the State Department advisory could have enormous implications for cruises, particularly in the Caribbean, with passengers mainly being Americans, a lot of them elderly.

“We have entered a new phase of the coronavirus crisis, and the whole cruise industry is in a new phase of its own where it has never been before,” the insider told The Gleaner last night.

There are concerns that the disruption caused to the tourist industry could trigger a major setback in the world economy.

“A vast majority of the people who come to Jamaica are 45 and over, and they are most susceptible to lifestyle diseases,” the source said.

“It will have great implications for the aviation industry.”

The majority of COVID-19 casualties have been middle-age to elderly.

Bartlett announced in Parliament last week that the projected revenues from the tourism industry had been revised downwards by J$76 billion for fiscal year 2020-2021, but there are fears that the haemorrhage to the sector could be bloodier.

The situation in Italy is emblematic of the scope of chaos that COVID-19 can bring. The number of people to have died from the coronavirus there rose by 133 in a day to 366, government officials said yesterday. And total infections leapt 25 per cent to 7,375, from 5,883. Up to 16 million people in Lombardy are under lockdown.