The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic deterred people from embarking on their cruising journey in 2020. However, as the situation seems to have improved, thanks to the rollout of vaccines and the vaccination drive across countries, it is expected that people will once again be interested in booking cruises. In this blog, we discuss a few strategies to have more and new customers book cruises. After all, the way how the industry suffered losses last year, the companies might have to go the extra mile to spring back on their feet by pursuing the passengers to book cruises this year. What should be your strategy while buying cruise ships for sale? How should you tap into a new generation of cruisers? Has Covid-19 changed cruisers’ expectations in any way? We cover most of your questions in the following section.
Health protocols in place –
As coronavirus continues to threaten human lives, it is only natural why cruise lines prioritize health and safety protocols over everything right now. Several cruise lines have established protocols like mandatory face masks in the public areas, social distancing onboarding, and temperature checking at embarkation. Cruise lines such as Bahamas Paradise and Costa Cruises have also reduced the capacity on their ships by a significant per cent. Worth mentioning is Costa Cruises initiative to install new filtration systems to every vessel’s HVAC for clearing the air to combat Covid-19. All of these measures are expected to protect the health and safety of everyone onboard and offshore.
Vaccination and testing –
Cruise lines certainly want more cruisers to book with them, but they need passengers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Norwegian Cruise Line and Celebrity Cruises have planned summer sailing because of the vaccine rollout. And this requirement is not just incumbent upon passengers, but crew members have to get vaccinated as per the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If the passengers show signs of Covid-10 on board, both rapid antigen and PCR tests are available and allowed on the ships. They may have to be quarantined if needed.
New Itineraries –
With travel restrictions in place in several regions and countries, it is expected that cruises will be sailing no more than seven days as soon as they resume their operations. In fact, this might allow cruise lines to increase sailing to the private islands. For instance, Norwegian Cruise Line announced positioning their ships to sail to Harvest Caye and Great Stirrup Cay for short voyages. Moreover, they now create hyper-focused itineraries catering to just one country. While Princess Cruises announced it would introduce short-break voyages to Alaska, Crystal Cruises may start its redeployment from Antigua. Thus, when you buy cruise ships for sale, you will have to decide the itinerary smartly, something the cruise owners never had to worry about before.
Easy cancellation policy –
To provide passengers with flexibility and reassurances, cruise lines have modified their payment & cancellation policies. For example, Royal Caribbean’s Cruise with Confidence program allows passengers to cancel their cruise booking until 48 hours right before sailing in return for the future cruise credit. Before this policy was introduced, cancelling a cruise invited hefty penalties for the passengers. Now passengers can defer a cruise they have already booked to some other time next year while protecting the fare they paid originally. Even though the cruise market has dried up, for now, such policies will generate loyalty among cruisers in the long run.
Conclusion –
Cruising will not be the same as before in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, before the cruises start resailing, the owners have to ramp up their preparations to ensure everyone’s safety on their vessels. And if you want to know the market trends before buying cruise ships for sale, you should better book a consultation with the experts at Norwegian Ship Sales and have a detailed discussion. Contact the team now!
