(Fighting new crown pneumonia) global war epidemic: two U.S. cruise ship operators suspend global operations, cruise tourism will be hit hard

China News Agency, Houston, March 12th. In response to the spread of the new crown virus epidemic, on March 12, two cruise ship operators in the United States successively announced the suspension of global operations. U.S. practitioners say the cruise industry is suffering hard.

According to the US Consumer News and Business Channel, Viking Cruises issued a statement on the same day stating that the company's worldwide cruise business will be suspended until the end of April. Princess Cruises, a division of Carnival Corp., announced that this may be the toughest decision in the company's history. They will suspend all 18 cruise operations and suspend sailing from now until May 10. Princess Cruises also said it would end shipping cruises in the next 5 days, ending the trip at "the most convenient location."

Cruise professional website "cruisehive" said that more cruise companies may announce business suspension in the next few days. US media "USA Today" tracked 380 cruise ships around the world and found that at least 30 cruise ships are scheduled to dock in US ports this week. According to data from the cruisemapper website, there are more than 100,000 people on these cruise ships, of which 70% are passengers.

So far, the experience of the two "Princess" cruise ships has long caused public concern. About 700 people of the "Princess Princess" who were quarantined for several weeks in the port of Yokohama, Japan were diagnosed with infection. At least 21 people of the "Princess Princess" docked in San Francisco's Oakland Port tested positive. In addition, the Florida Department of Health states that the three confirmed cases in the state were related to cruise cruises.

At present, the US government, the cruise industry and health experts are vocal, urging people not to board cruise ships.

On the 11th, Anthony Fossie, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called on people with potential health problems "don't travel, don't go to very crowded places, especially not to travel by cruise ship."

In October, the Cruise International Association (CLIA) submitted a proposal to U.S. Vice President Pence recommending that any traveler over 70 years of age and suffering from a chronic illness be barred from boarding unless they can show a medical certificate stating that they are fit to travel Cruise trip. According to the "International Cruise 2018 Annual Data Report" recently released by the association, the average age of passengers traveling on cruise ships is 47 years old. 14% of passengers are over 70 years old and about 4 million people.

After confirming receipt of the proposal, Burns said that the president's goal is to make the cruise ship safer and will ensure that vulnerable groups do not board the cruise ship in the near future.

After the epidemic broke out globally, more and more people noticed that the confined space on cruise ships became a key issue for its difficult to prevent and control viruses. According to the analysis of American practitioners, this has led to the weakness of the US cruise travel market, and the cruise travel industry is being hit hard.

"The impact of the new crown virus epidemic on the tourism industry may be greater than the '9.11' incident and the 2003 SARS epidemic," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's. It takes a while to restart. "For tourism, 2020 will be a very difficult year," he said.

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has also issued a warning to include cruise companies Carnival and Royal Caribbean on a negative watch list. The agency believes that even after the new crown virus is brought under control, the possibility of continued weakness in the cruise market is increasing.

National Public Radio reported that Stuart Chiron, who has been in the cruise industry for 30 years, said it seemed reasonable to warn older people and people with illness. But getting everyone away from the cruise is too disappointing. There are currently hundreds of ships worldwide without any problems.

US media "Politician" website reports that Florida Rep. Wilson expects the US Transportation and Infrastructure Commission to develop a rescue plan for cruise lines and the tourism industry. (Finish)