Cruising and coronavirus: Ten steps the cruise industry needs to take to recover

STEP THREE: GET RID OF THOSE INFERIOR INTERIOR CABINS

The idea of more affordable windowless cabins, or staterooms as they tend to be called these days, with vision of the outside world relayed on your in-room display screen (if you were lucky) seemed like a viable idea to the cruise industry when it first marketed them. It enabled more people, especially single travellers, to cruise, and as well as allowing cruise lines to squeeze in more and more passengers, resulted in ever-greater revenue and profits. But such small and enclosed spaces contained within a massive enclosed space clearly must not survive the post-pandemic era.

STEP FOUR: END ONBOARD MEDICAL BILL SHOCK

Cruise ships had become notorious for the exorbitant fees charged for consultations with the onboard doctor, which prior to COVID-19 often involved the contagious norovirus which leads to vomiting and diarrhoea. In the new era of cruising, the industry will need to be mindful of not deterring ill passengers from attending infirmaries. It may also need to address the quality and quantity of medical staff on its vessels. Passengers will have to prove they are healthy enough to cruise (see step one) which will likely reduce the industry's core elderly market, with its associated co-morbidities.

STEP FIVE: GIVE VENICE A WIDER BERTH

Even the cruise industry itself has privately conceded that the images of gigantic cruise ships towering above the ornate rooftops of a dwarfed Venice as they passed through the lagoon were damaging to its reputation. But the lure of profits, and the knowledge of their passengers' bucket list expectations, prevailed. In its comeback, cruising will need to be mindful it doesn't contribute to any resurgence of over-tourism and must better educate its passengers about the way they conduct themselves in such precious places.

STEP SIX: SUSTAIN THE SUSTAINABILITY

The cruise industry, which hosted 26 million passengers in 2018, points out that it comprises less than 1 per cent of "the global maritime community" and that cruise lines are at the forefront in developing "responsible environmental practices and innovative technologies". But the coronavirus catastrophe that enveloped the industry invited unwelcome scrutiny on some of cruising's less savoury practices (see step nine) including its environmental record in relation to emissions and waste-disposal. The industry has made improvements towards sustainability, but it will have to do much better if it is to stave off its accumulated critics.

STEP SEVEN: BIGGER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER

Yes, ships have become too big (see step five) but much smaller ships than the Ruby Princess, such as the Greg Mortimer, also succumbed to COVID-19, with devastating results during the recent emergency. A little like the airlines industry in its phasing out of the fuel-guzzling A380, cruise lines may wish to consider that the building of ever-bigger and supposedly better cruise ships may no longer impress as many prospective passengers, nor the ports and governments that will potentially receive them.

STEP EIGHT: FLAGS OF CONVENIENCE MAY BE TOO INCONVENIENT

The cruise industry was widely-critcised for registering ships in tax-havens such as the Bahamas and Bermuda and had Donald Trump, a cruise industry advocate, not intervened, it would not have received vital government financial aid in the US, its biggest market. Many home ports of the "flag-of-convenience" cruise ships turned out to be far too small for them to return to, so perceptions of tax-limitation have given additional ammunition to critics. These tiny tax havens also allowed the industry to skirt the labour laws of the more affluent destinations they visited, with accusations of crews - composed of workers from mostly poor nations - being inadequately remunerated.

STEP NINE: KNOW WHO YOUR FRIENDS AND ENEMIES ARE

One of the worst and most traumatic issues to confront cruise ships, whether they had COVID-19 cases aboard or not, during the recent crisis was the fact that many were turned away from ports that had been friendly to them on departure but enemies on return. Many ships were refused permission to berth from countries in south-east Asia and South America and were forced to sail on in search of other ports that would receive them, leading to the ordeal of expensive repatriations. When cruising resumes, some prospective passengers with long memories will want assurances from cruise lines and governments that such appalling treatment by recipients of the industry's riches will not recur.

STEP TEN: ELIMINATE THE RISKY BUSINESS

Cruise lines, in a "one false move" scenario, will need to exhibit extreme caution. It's easy to say with hindsight, but cruise lines should have heeded the lessons from the Diamond Princess affair that preceded the Ruby Princess debacle and suspended cruising much earlier as Viking Cruises did on March 11. At the first sign of a crisis, ships will need to cease operation. Health and hygiene will be paramount and so will safety; the industry cannot allow itself to be perceived as cavalier, as evidenced in recent years with some ships sailing directly into adverse weather.

See also: Cruise ships cluster together at sea, with thousands of crew stuck on board

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