I am an active member of ASTA (American Society of Travel Advisors). It’s no secret that I almost lost my business in 2020. 2021 was marginally better but still far from being back. 2022 is/was looking like there was hope and light at the end of the tunnel. Yet here we are just 5 days in and AGAIN the travel industry, specifically cruising, is being targeted.
Please tell me where can you go right NOW where everyone is tested 48 hours prior to entry, fully vaccinated and in a controlled environment VOLUNTARILY put into place in consultation with the CDC?
Not the grocery store or Walmart, not Disney or Universal, not an all-inclusive resort, a Cowboys game, an airplane, a restaurant, bar or school. Guess what? Covid isn’t going away.
We have to live with it and take the proper precautions/treatments that are now available to us and live our lives. And how about reporting the truth? What a novel idea that would be!
This statement below comes from our ASTA President & CEO, Zane Kerby, in response to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) asinine updated guidance on COVID-19 and Cruise Ship Travel, recommending that cruise travel be avoided regardless of vaccination status – This is the REALITY:
“An increase in reported COVID cases on cruise ships should surprise no one given the worldwide spike driven by the highly-transmissible omicron variant. The difference between enjoying a cruise vacation and visiting your local grocery store or restaurant, however, is the extraordinarily stringent anti-COVID measures put in place voluntarily by the cruise lines, in close consultation with the CDC. These measures include testing, vaccination, sanitation, mask-wearing and other science-backed measures, as well as protocols to respond to potential cases of COVID-19.”
“If the average cruise ship were a U.S. state, it would be the safest in the country – by far. According to Royal Caribbean Group, since cruising restarted in the U.S. in June 2021, its ships have carried 1.1 million guests with 1,745 people testing positive – a positivity rate of 0.02 percent. Among U.S. states as of January 4, Alaska’s positivity rate is the lowest at 9.4 percent, with Georgia’s the highest at 38.7 percent.”
“Cruising is no more responsible for the spread of the Omicron variant than travelers from southern Africa were at the outset of the current crisis. But we continue to see knee-jerk reactions singling out travel for discriminatory treatment. Because the travel industry is regulated more heavily than other activities, when COVID caseloads rise or new variants emerge, travel takes the hit. It brings to mind the old saying, ‘if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ This pattern needs to stop.”
“The Administration has shown flexibility on its anti-COVID measures of late, including the recent decision to lift the November 26 travel ban on eight countries in Southern Africa. We call on it to do the same here. At this stage in the pandemic, the tools exist to allow us to combat this virus without crippling an entire sector of the U.S. economy in the process. Let’s use them.”
If you are ready to get back to cruising, please fill out my Vacation Request Form, email me at info@CruiseTherapyTravel.com, or call 817.946.0438, and I will help you get some much needed Vitamin Sea!
I
am a travel consultant
I have taken my family on a cruise every few years for the past 10-15 years. We were planning to go this year, but it seems like all of the cruise lines still have restrictions related to going, and they are making contingency plans related to a lot of their tour dates. It’s hard to know what’s going to happen between the time you book the cruise and the time the cruise is scheduled to go.
Will cruising ever get back to “normal”? It’s hard to remember what normal looks like after 2+ years of insanity. I have younger kids who haven’t had the chance to make the same memories that their older siblings have. I wish they could have those experiences.