How We Get Our Cruise Ship Industry Ready For ‘The Dance’
Beth Kelly Hatt, Melanie Colpitts and Danielle Timmons are partners at Aquila Tours and Aquila Center for Cruise Excellence.
When cruise ships do begin sailing again, we expect that cruising — like life itself— will look different than it did just a few months ago. We will all be changed by this pandemic, and both tourism as a whole and cruise, in particular, will be changed also.
We are looking ahead and beginning to prepare for this new normal, and it is clear that it will test every organization’s flexibility and nimbleness to be ready, while at the same time not knowing what might happen, especially with so many variables. A new normal indeed!
And while this is a struggle for everyone, many of our more than 50 suppliers that work with us to provide shore excursions to the cruise industry in our port are finding this particularly challenging, as these small New Brunswick businesses rely on these visiting cruise ships and their guests.
Following the Huddle conversation from David Alston and Marcel LeBrun’s article talking about the hammer and the dance, how do we know when we are ready for what they call “The dance” for cruise as part of the tourism bigger picture?
RELATED: Is New Brunswick Ready for ‘The Dance’?
As we look to the future, many questions emerge: What will it take to be ready for cruise to return to New Brunswick? When will we be comfortable embracing this industry once again? What could we do to be ready to comfortably welcome cruise ships to Saint John this fall if the industry is ready to return? What policies, protocols and procedures must we put in place to allow for the safe return of this industry when the time is right?
We may have more questions than answers, but we believe it is critically important to start having conversations around the challenges and opportunities, and we need the leadership of our government in New Brunswick to continue to navigate this dynamic situation with policies that allow for focus on the health and safety first of its people and second its economy.
It is important to note that many of the factors that contribute to the return of the cruise industry to the Canada New England region, including New Brunswick, are mostly out of our hands. So much depends on other government bodies, on the cruise lines, and on a multitude of variables, and here are just a few:
- New York is one of our major home ports where the largest percentage of our cruise calls come from. Will New York be ready to start looking at how to reopen its ports in three to four months? Currently, New York ports are key to managing the crisis in that region. Will there be enough time for crisis recovery and to be ready for fall sailings? Will it look different? Will it only be a percentage of the planned business? Will they have to reduce the number of ships they can handle in order to comply to new ways of doing things?
- The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has a great impact on cruise lines and their activities, including citing conditions that must be met for cruises to resume in US territorial waters, which in most instances they must before visiting our ports. Currently, the CDC order means no cruises until sometime between June and mid-July based on various criteria being met. Will the criteria around numbers of cases be achieved? Will the cruise lines be ready? Will the public be ready? Will the ports and tour operators be ready?
- The cruise lines are also looking at all their ships and what a return to cruise will look like. One possibility sees them starting with some shorter cruises on itineraries that include ports where they know they will be embraced. With so many ships that homeport in Florida, it is probable that they will start by cruising to the Caribbean. When will they start to look at other areas, including Canada New England? If they do start, will two fall months in Canada New England be too short a season to consider the time and investment given the current circumstances? We do have some of the highest shore excursion sales in North America which works in our favour, but will this be enough?
- From the perspective of all the tourism businesses, if tourism is also impacted with reduced or no visitors this summer, will attractions, restaurants, parks and other suppliers find it the best option to close until 2021? Or permanently? Can small tourism businesses survive a lower tourism and cruise season? Are their reopening costs too large an investment for just a fall season? Would there be any funding assistance to help make this happen?
- How will our communities react? If cities and towns are not open for large gatherings locally, will they welcome large numbers of passengers coming into their communities? Knowing new protocols will be established by the cruise lines and expected from their tour operators and shore-side partners, how will these be communicated to our communities? Will decisions be based on fear or fact?
Looking at all these challenges, it does prompt questions around the possibility of seeing cruise ships in our ports in 2020.
However, the cruise industry has a long history of demonstrating agility and resiliency. Assuming that New York is ready for ships to sail from their ports by this fall, and cruise lines have new protocols in place and are ready to invest in having their ships return to Canada New England, what are our plans? What would be needed for us to welcome these ships, as a tourism industry and as a community? What will we need to put in place to ensure the continued safety and security of New Brunswickers? What new ways of operating and doing business will we need to enact? Do these challenges provide opportunities to change and elevate this industry to new levels of safety and security? Here are some considerations:
- A CDC Order requires the establishment of processes for ship captains and medical resources to identify with confidence whether or not ships have cases of COVID-19 onboard; detailed quarantine and isolation procedures; and many other requirements. The cruise lines are taking this order even further with additional protocols to ensure passenger safety, which leads to increased safety for destinations they visit.
- Cruise lines and the cruise industry have announced post-COVID-19 comprehensive health plans that include embarkation and debarkation procedures involving everything from mandatory temperature screening to higher levels of sanitization and much more.
- Cruise lines are working on guidelines for their ports and land-based tour operators, establishing new protocols that will change the way ports and tours are handled with new enhanced procedures. This is expected to include some level of distancing that would have not been part of this business in the past.
- Ports and Tour Operators are also considering impacts of additional protocols around distancing on motorcoaches and during tours, such as limiting buses at 50 to 60 percent capacity. Can tour operators operate with these capacities? Is it sustainable? How can we best support the local industry, the small suppliers, attractions, restaurants, tour guides, drivers, bus companies – the hundreds of families in southern New Brunswick that depend on this industry?
- If ships decide with all of the above constraints, that they will sail north into Canada New England, then and only then, knowing how much they would be doing to make sure everyone is safe, from shipboard passengers and crew as well as land-based communities and partners, can we work together with similar protocols and procedures to be ready to welcome them in a way that is safe for all New Brunswickers? Can we contribute to the recovery of our tourism industry, so that we can rebound more quickly for 2021 and beyond?
- What additional protocols would tour operators and suppliers need to implement to ensure the safety and security of New Brunswickers? Aquila is already looking at tour programs and adjustments, from enhanced sanitization procedures and dispatch processes to smaller capacities on tours with staggered departures and smaller groups visiting attractions one at a time. Can our industry look at new ways of operating? Can we assist our tourism industry partners to look at their businesses in new ways, with enhanced protocols and procedures?
Aquila is proud to call New Brunswick home, and we are proud of New Brunswick’s response in these unprecedented times. We are confident that we will continue to be proud as our government continues to exhibit exemplary leadership and as New Brunswickers continue to come together to support our collective efforts for the health and safety first of our people and then of our economy.
When the cruise industry is ready to resume their visits to New Brunswick, let us be ready with policies, protocols and procedures in place that allow us to receive them with the warm welcome for which we are renowned.
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Huddle publishes commentaries from groups and individuals on important business issues facing the Maritimes. These commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Huddle. To submit a commentary for consideration, contact editor Mark Leger: [email protected].