The global coronavirus outbreak has wreaked havoc on the cruise industry.
Shares of Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Lines are all down more than 80-percent after cruise ships became the hub for the coronavirus spread.
So we have to consider whether the cruise industry will cease to exist after this is all over.
We’re all going to be faced with tough decisions when this global pandemic finally passes us by.
Will social distancing become the new norm? Will we live in a world where the polite act of shaking hands becomes a thing of the past?
Will socialized programs be pushed through Congress without an inkling of how to pay for them?
What are the necessities when spending your money moving forward? With state governors implementing their own stay-at-home timeframes, small businesses will unfortunately be a byproduct of a tanking economy.
Although traveling is necessary for your soul and work-life balance, will you have the money to fund your annual vacation? Will there be much left of the travel industry at all?
Unfortunately, businesses and entire industries might never recover from the economic impact from the coronavirus.
Get Ready to Stop Cruising
Amy Hinote, founder and editor-in-chief of VRM Intel, a travel publication, recently said, “All sectors of travel are dealing with a significant drop in demand, and we haven’t seen a widespread drop in global demand for travel in years.”
And going forward, there’s zero doubt that people will second-guess spending their money on a cruise. 32 cruise ships around the world were affected with Covid-19.
Gene Grabowski, a partner at crisis communications firm kglobal, said, “It’s going to take a miracle for the cruise-line industry to recover in less than a decade.”
Cruise Ship Employee Gives Firsthand Account and It’s Not Nearly as Horrifying as You Think
Grabowski added, “Already, there was a lot of negative publicity, but this is the icing on the cake. The ships are basically seen right now as floating petri dishes and that is going to frighten a lot of potential customers away.”
So, what exactly will these cruise lines do with their extravagant multibillion-dollar ships?
Will customers be able to turn down astronomically low prices, even if it possibly risks their family’s safety?
And is it really more dangerous to book a 7-day cruise than to visit a war-torn, third-world country where crime is rampant?
Expect the Predictable
Cruise-lines will suffer more than any other travel industry. The gargantuan ships will have trouble filling their cabins, but they’ll make a profit.
The lesser fleets will become ghost towns and they’ll have to undergo extreme renovations to compete with the more luxurious ships – but there obviously won’t be any money for that.
This means there will only be a handful of ships around the world. There are currently 1,000 cruise ships used for cruises, but imagine only a couple dozen.
After awhile, the cruise lines left will do incredible business because they’ll be able to offer something nobody else can – the extreme convenience of luxury, food, and entertainment as you cross destinations off your bucket list, all at an affordable cost.
Then, and only then, will the money flow back into the cruise industry.
But it’s definitely going to take a few years.
