Royal Caribbean’s overseas brands have carried over a hundred thousand guests in more than a hundred and fifty cruises with only 10 positive cases in total, Royal Caribbean Group CEO Richard Fain said in his latest video message to travel advisers this week.
Fain said the experience gained by the group’s international brands was critical as the cruise industry targets a return to sailing this summer.
“We no longer have to theorize, we no longer have to make conjectures about what could possibly happen,” Fain said. “Today we are able to see what actually happens and draw conclusions based on empirical evidence rather than random hypotheses And that empirical evidence is overwhelmingly positive.”
Royal Caribbean Group’s TUI has been sailing from Germany and Greece since last year, while Royal Caribbean International operates “cruises to nowhere” aboard the Quantum of the Seas from Singapore, and in May will operate all-vaccinated “Green Island” cruises from Israel to the Greek islands and Cyprus aboard the Odyssey of the Seas.
Risk of Covid lower on board cruise ships than on land
Fain also noted that almost 45% of Americans have already received at least their first dose of the vaccine and that the United States was now giving three millions vaccine shots a day. Furthermore, he added, extensive testing for Covid-19 was now readily available and contact tracing onboard ships can be done with “a precision undreamed of on land”.
“The combination of widespread testing and precision contact tracing are part of the reason that we can reduce the risk of an outbreak on a ship to levels below that on land,” he said.
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