The Norwegian agency Hurtigruten announced this week that they were cancelling yet another planned trip at the beginning of the week, as did the German cruise line AIDA. The impact of said cancellations will also be noticeable in Luxembourg.
Many holidays have either been postponed or cancelled altogether. Up until now, Luxembourgish travel agencies have recorded a 65% deficit compared to the previous year. These figures can be linked to the significant reduction in the number of passengers cruise ships usually take aboard. Several lines have already decided to stop all activities until at least November.
River cruises, however, which are considerably shorter in duration, are slowly starting to begin their activities once more. Issues remain here, some destinations are currently out of bounds due to the corona regulations.
Mandatory testing before boarding a ship remains an impractical idea. Nevertheless, most major cruise ships are equipped to host large medical teams and would have sufficient space for people to self-isolate if the situation required.
Due to the increase in media coverage at the beginning of the outbreak, where people had to remain on ships as COVID started spreading onboard, consumer confidence is considerably low when it comes to booking cruise vacations.
