Family members in the UK were due to board a cruise liner this weekend for a two-week trip around the Croatian coastline. Not surprisingly, the trip has been cancelled at the eleventh hour by the cruise line because of COVID-19.
Nervous passengers who cancelled before the trip was officially called off may struggle to get a refund since it was their decision to cancel. However, once the tour operator cancels, it appears you are on much firmer legal ground and the offer of a credit for a future cruise or a cash refund is now on the table. My advice has been to take the money because who knows what the future holds and whether the tour operator will even be around to offer cruises in a few months’ time.
Cruise operators and airlines are going to be heavily hit by travel bans and traveller nervousness. They both deal in perishable goods in the sense that when an aircraft takes off with empty seats, that’s an opportunity lost because those seats can’t be sold again.
With this in mind, it probably isn’t a great time to be trying to rescue an ailing SAA. Much the same applies to cruises, but the added problem with cruises is that they tend to appeal to older customers who have both the time and the money to spend swanning around the Caribbean. Those customers fit exactly the profile that a vigorous virus like COVID-19 is looking for, which is why there are going to be plenty of empty cruise ships around in the coming months.
Crew at risk
So what will happen to the crew, which could easily be in the hundreds on a large cruise liner? Presumably they will be retained and paid for a while, but if there is no revenue coming in from paying passengers then the money will run out sooner rather than later, and staff will have to be laid off if COVID-19 hangs around for the next six months. Apart from using it as a secure, off-shore quarantine facility, there’s not a lot you can do with a 148 000-ton cruise liner other than sell it to the Arabs as a floating hotel.
So take the number of cruise liners likely to be affected and you have a lot of people who may find themselves without jobs in the near future. Add to that number those who make a living from supplying services at various points around the world to the cruise industry and the problem becomes even more serious. Then think of all those tour guides around the world who are looking at empty streets and shut-down tourist facilities, and add in the number of travel agents who will be twiddling their thumbs over the coming months, and you begin to realize that while this virus will cause enormous fallout in a number of industries, international travel and the hospitality industry is likely to be the worst hit.
Fortunately, the COVID-19 bogeyman has come towards the end of the South African peak tourism season, but that doesn’t mean we don’t expect to receive overseas visitors in the low season. In fact, the months of May to October are a fabulous time to visit this country, whether it be for whale-watching, the spring flowers or less frenetic visits to game reserves with the benefit of cooler weather and shorter grass for game-viewing.
Knock-on effect
Tourism is supposed to be one of our great job creators and foreign-exchange earners, but if we don’t get the visitors the entire economy suffers. Hotels can’t retain staff if there are no guests and the obvious knock-on effect will be felt in the restaurant business. In the UK at the moment, restaurants are already suffering because the media-induced hysteria is at such a pitch that everyone assumes that the grim reaper is lurking around every corner. The only reason to visit a restaurant would be to steal one of the toilet rolls currently unavailable in many supermarkets.
The events business will be similarly hit, and large conference centres designed to attract delegates from all over the world to discuss the comparably insignificant threat of Climate Change will remain empty. It’s all very worrying, which is why it is essential to have a plan to limit the damage as much as possible. My foreign travel plans for this year have been abandoned and I’m not even waiting to see if COVID-19 disappears by mid-year. I did think that I would be prepared to fly to Europe or the UK if the airlines substantially reduced the price of a first class return ticket, but I’ve gone right off the idea. I don’t mind risking contact with a COVID-19 passenger, but what I do mind is the long queues to have my temperature taken and the extra hassle this will add to all the existing hassle of international travel.
Good deals
So I’ve decided instead to support the local hospitality industry and help preserve jobs. The one great advantage is that I won’t have to worry about our plummeting currency, which now puts the price of a pint of beer at over R100 and a 225gm piece of fillet steak at a central London restaurant at just under R800. Just keep in mind what you would be paying for food and drink overseas and even our most expensive restaurants begin to look like a bargain. The same applies to accommodation. Providing you steer clear of the sort of establishments who want to give you a room for R10 000-plus a night, you ought to find good B&B accommodation for a fraction of that and, as the lack of foreign visitors begins to bite, then expect some good deals.
Anyone in the hospitality industry who has been paying attention to global events this past month ought to be devising deals to attract local tourists at affordable rates. It might well be the only way they can stay in business.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
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