TUI Cruises announced it will restart operations with the Mein Schiff 2 on July 24, sailing a three-night weekend cruise to July 27, and cruising in the North Sea, with the ship sailing roundtrip from Hamburg. Occupancy aboard hte 2,900-guest premium ship will be capped at 60 percent, or 1,740 guests, according to Cruise Industry News.
Month: July 2020
Travel spending in the U.S. ticks up, led by alternative lodging
Travel Weekly: Cardlytics, a platform that analyzes both online and in-store purchases from more than 140 million bank customers in the United States, says it is seeing signs of recovery in most sectors of travel. Its most recent dataset, based on spending through June 17, shows consumers have been spending more in recent weeks as states reopen.
American Cruise Lines cancels Alaska season
Travel Weekly: American Cruise Lines said Wednesday it has cancelled plans to resume sailing in Alaska this summer. In a statement, the company said it made the difficult decision “because the recent spike in [Covid-19] cases around the country has renewed concerns and poses potential complications, as guests both travel to and return home from Alaska.”
Association of Corporate Travel Executives ceases operations
Thirty-two years after its founding, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives has ceased operations and will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to a notice on the association’s website. As such, ACTE will liquidate its assets and disband, reports Travel Weekly.
Quotable: Can cruising go from Covid scapegoat to pandemic hero?
“Crises of the magnitude of Covid-19 spur a binary result for enterprises: innovation or collapse. And the high degree of risk posed to cruise lines is measurable, reflected in the cost of the loans and investments they arranged to ensure midterm liquidity. But signs have emerged that cruising will not only survive but even offer a case study of exemplary crisis management.”
— Arnie Weissmann, Editor-in-Chief of Travel Weekly
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Cruise lines are not resorting to rock-bottom pricing
Travel Weekly: Cruise lines and Wall Street analysts report that cruise pricing, for the most part, has not gotten to the low levels seen after the fallout of the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 recession. To be sure, there are deals out there, and some executives have said that Covid-era prices have fallen across the board — but not to the rock-bottom levels seen in prior crises.