Princess deals another blow to cruise ports
(CNS): Princess Cruises issued a statement Thursday morning that it was cancelling all of its cruises around the world until 10 May in the face of the global outbreak of COVID-19, a move that will further batter the Cayman Islands’ short-term, and possibly long-term, tourism outlook. At the public meeting on the coronavirus situation Tuesday night, Premier Alden McLaughlin noted that on average, the average-sized ship will “drop about a half a million dollars into the economy”.
At the meeting in the Mary Miller Hall in Red Bay, McLaughlin responded to a question about whether the Cayman government had a specific threshold before restricting airline and cruise passengers from entering the country. He said that they were taking guidance from local medical experts and watching what is being done in other places, what works and what doesn’t work.
He said, “The challenge… is to strike the right balance so we don’t, unless we absolutely have to, shut down the economy completely because then we have another issue.” The six people in Cayman who have been tested for the virus all had recent travel history to places where there are confirmed cases. They and the people who had contact with them are being isolated to limit risk of spread to broader population.
“If we get to a point, and God forbid, where it is apparent that the virus is being passed locally, then we have to obviously take very different measures… which would probably included restricting movement here and restricting congregation to prevent the spread of the virus.”
He said the Cayman economy has already been significantly impacted “because the number of visitors is falling quite precipitously”. However, he added, “The paramount decision has to be health of population but have to weigh these things in the balance.”
As expected, the World Health Organization has now declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, as countries around the world scramble to contain the spread and avoid overwhelming health services.
The halt of cruises announced by Princess, which is owned by Carnival Cruise Lines, will further depress cruise tourism here, though there is no word yet if Carnival is suspending ships of its other brands. Viking Cruises has suspended all sailings through the end of April, the only other cruise line so far which has cancelled cruise operations.
The Princess cruise ships suffered reputational as well as economic damage after two were quarantined when some people on board were found to have the coronavirus. In a “proactive response” to the COVID-19 outbreak, the cruise line has stopped operations of its 18 cruise ships for 60 days, impacting trips departing 12 March to 10 May. The cruise line is offering credit on future cruises to passengers affected or they can request a cash refund.
Another developments that will impact the Cayman Islands came Wednesday night, when President Donald Trump announced from the Oval Office that the US is suspending all travel from Europe into the United States for 30 days, from midnight Friday, with exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings.
This move by the Trump administration apparently blindsided authorities in Europe and airlines, which had not been consulted, and will effect Cayman’s stay-over tourism, as it is a hub for many European visitors. Inexplicably, the UK is not included in the US ban, even though there have been more than 450 confirmed cases and six deaths in that country.
However, the Jamaican government is considering adding the UK to its list of countries on its travel ban after a second person has tested positive in Jamaica for COVID-19 after travelling there.
As there has so far been few cases in the Caribbean and no deaths so far, there is no travel ban from the US to the region at this point. However, medical experts are recommending that people, especially the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, avoid non-essential air travel as well as cruises, which Premier McLaughlin noted at the public meeting is already affecting Cayman’s economy.
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Perhaps the silver lining in all of this is that we rid ourselves of the cruise industry all together. Or perhaps limit the return. We should be focusing on the stay over experience anyway.
I know you will hear “what about all those employed because of the cruise industry in Cayman”. To them I say check the numbers.
Stay over is where our REAL bread and butter is. To hell with the cruise cartel industry.
Quoting from our grossly irresponsible leader: “The paramount decision has to be health of population but have to weigh these things in the balance.”
IF our government’s paramount concern is the health of the people, then they would do what countries with responsible and rational leaders have already done to contain the risk and save lives: they would shut down the Cayman Islands for foreign arrivals…NOW!
What our dangerously irresponsible leader just said, is that he needs to strike a balance between money and the number of people that he in his almighty wisdom deems will be acceptable to die. That is beyond foolish, it is criminally irresponsible! People’s LIVES are what Alden is weighing in the balance. Your life, my life, our loved ones’ lives. The Cayman Islands survived the shutdown during Ivan and recovered nicely. We can do the same now to prevent needless deaths. The blood of future Corona fatalities associated with contact with foreign arrivals is on Alden’s and this government’s hands.
Hear hear, our short-sighted greedy leader always follows the money instead of his own people!
If our politicians had listened to us instead of crony developers and cruise leaders; we would have 20,000 less work permits as we train Caymanians in a/c, electricians, hairdressers, tourist staff at a decent wage, thus we would not be dependent on tourist tax. Cayman was headed in a well diverse financial course- but got greedy with cruise tax – that no one wanted but a few taxi drivers.
We never gave our own people the jobs and skills to survive and import low cost labour and rely on cruise tax- what a pipe dream that just blew up on us??
This is a wake up call= stayover tourism and limit the Carnival sheep.
Tipping point for Cayman to again attract business, teach our children, and fix the dump!!!
9.50pm Where are the 20,000 unemployed to take over tbee jobs .
BBC are now reporting that Princess are suspending operations for 18 months
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51852505
CIG needs to deny all cruise ship calls now for a period of 6 weeks. All. Not to do so would be grotesque, blatant recklessness, to the point where one would have to suspect corruption.
CIG you are on notice. Each and every one of you are on notice. We see you.
I work in cruise tourism. What are my rights regarding employment. I know my employers will be cutting every one’s hours to zero.
Tough! You should have picked a more sustainable industry.
Sorry Bobo, ask your government for your vocational training to re-skill. There is no reason we have 20,000 work permits in blue collar jobs?
Already received indefinite layoff notice on Friday the 13th, of all days! GGrrrrrrrr..
We dodged a serious bullet by getting the plans for the cruise ship berth scrapped. Being in debt to Verdant Isle to the tune of $300+m right before the cruise ship industry falls over… well. Let’s not pretend the government is going to say thanks…
No madfrogbox they are not going to say thanks. Alden and Moses-a-fretting are so fool that they will not let the cruise port issue go away.
Sadly the voters will probably put these two mediocre lodge members back in –
Cayman Brac West/Little Cayman doesn’t have much choice.
Alden talking about gov revisiting port in a few years. Don’t think the fight is over yet.
That’s assuming there will still be cruise ships.
The Premier is worried because if revenues fall and he can not give paychecks to all those many civil service, the Caymanians that can not work, the turtle farm, Cayman airways, basically where most of the money goes he will have a large number of homeless, angry Caymanians reverting back to the old days. Does anybody want that?
4.47 You’re a fool if you think only Caymanians wll be affected. Think about all those hotel workrs, watersports oprratkrs, gardeners, who won’t be needed and will probably be sent home. Heck if things get really, really tough we might get a state of emergecy when some permits might even have to be cancelled and the jobs given to locals. So please do not let your hatred of Alden and disrespect of Caymanians cloud your thinking.
I think it’s time for Alden to redeem himself somewhat from the multiple fiascos over the last few weeks and ban cruise ships from coming ashore… 10,000 potential new carriers a day arriving and departing – it’ll have an economic impact, but I think it’s time to start taking this seriously
@ 4.45 Cruise ships are already banned from coming ashore although the Rhapsody tried some years ago and gave us Rhapsody on the rocks. Maybe he will ban cruise passengers if the situation demands it though.
We should stop Uk flights from coming
Too if cayman has an out break they would stop us from going to certain locations..
UK and Canada have things much better under control than America.
The “stable genius” is totally out of his depth and has no idea what he is talking about. America is simply 3 weeks behind Italy and then the hospitals are going to be overwhelmed in America. Still no testing kits available in America for most infected unlike in Canada and U.K.
Yet fewer infected or dead. Testing doesn’t keep you well or cure you. Trying to track down all the people you breathed on is also a useless exercise. You’re just wishing for more politics.
Well the numbers of dead are going up exponentially every day in the USA.
Just look at the number of deaths in New York, New Jersey, California, and Seattle the last 5 days. We are looking at between 2 and 2.5 million deaths in the U.S. in the next 12 months according to medical experts unless dramatic action is taken throughout America. This means people distancing ASAP. Will “stable genius” Trump do what is required? Doubt it.
In NYC the hospitals are totally overflowing with limited medical supplies for the doctors and nurses while Trump does nothing saying the free market / private sector should step up.
65,000 coronavirus cases and 850 deaths and growing rapidly in U.S.
Very worrying.
Good, we dont need em. Those dirty nuisances stay where they are from.
Troll 4 14p
Well, they are dirty. Here’s the thing bobo: just because you get filthy lucre from something, doesn’t mean it’s good. Think seriously about this for a couple of days. It’s important.
money no good to us if we dead!!!???😢
“If we get to a point, and God forbid, where it is apparent that the virus is being passed locally, then we have to obviously take very different measures… which would probably included restricting movement here and restricting congregation to prevent the spread of the virus.” – The Premier
Won’t it be too late then! Once its here, its here!
Exactly right. His plan is to wait till we have local cases, which we are ill equipped to handle, THEN close off the source?? Total stupidity. It WILL come here if cruise ships keep coming, why wouldn’t it??
Alden should write a letter to the CPR and thank them for stalling the cruise port! And then announce to the public that the plans have been dropped completely!
I’m holding my breath.
Wish he would….
I just worry about my fellow Caymanians in jobs that cater to tourists. 😢 I worry that there will be reduced hours/shifts and even people getting laid off. Not too many people can afford to lose their job.
There should be zero impact on Caymanian employment. There are literally thousands of work permits in the cruise and tourist industry. Start revoking permits if things slow down, not complicated.
Boi dat sounds easy enuff!
Maybe you should apply to be the economic advisor to the Cabinet😜
Those permit holders are the 6000 Caymanians the Premier referred to test set working in tourism. It’s a pity he couldn’t present a list of indigenous Caymanians who are working in Tourism. Twisted younger.
Okay Government try to prove 3:01PM wrong – just how many Caymanians actually work directly in the cruise and tourist industry – and just how many expatriates to include but not limited to Filipino’s, Jamaicans, Honduranians, Indians, Canadians, Americans, etc, etc
I wish they wouldn’t go out and spend their last dollar on so much “overbuying” of non essentials. In the buying frenzy- buy some soap, and dish liquid – the anti- bacterial kind. Do not pull your hair out if there is no anti-bacterial gels. time to stretch those dollars stay safe.
Send those on Work Permits home.
This Wuhan Coronavirus situation sounds like God’s Wrath, another Sodom and Gomorrah. Greed, Dishonesty to grab money, Self-serving Narcissistic behavior, he sees all.
Please don’t give me that religious crap.
How do you know God is a he? Might be gay and a lesbian. Who knows?
There are no Gods.
Some people think there is one in West Bay.
There are not that many Caymanians in tourism related jobs compared to the huge number of just about every other nationality. This is a frequent complaint of visitors here. But agreed, it’s going to be tough on those who are in the business and we should have plans to try to look out for them.
3:48pm You look out for your own, before you look out for others. If you was in their country, you would be the first to walk.
I believe this is a plague the God has sent – because the world will soon come to an end.
Everyone keep calm and do not feed the troll.
Not end, God wants to give people a chance to regroup themselves from Greed and committing crimes because of their Greed.
Knowing the Bible but not living according to the Bible… God sees right through each and every one of us.
1.27pm As far as I’m aware it is the Chinese atheists that sent us this plague, don’t blame God.
From Wuhan to destroy America and the stable genius.
Stop voting for Bush
OMG. Bush was a terrible president but Id take him any day over the ignorant ego maniac we are stuck with now. The guy has no clue about what to do about this virus and is too full of himself to ask and seek out actual experts because he knows everything.
Geez, this Island sure has a lot of religious nuts.
This is good news. Hopefully all cruiseships worldwide follow suit.
Tourist accommodation charges are 3% of core Government revenue total.
Source: Ministry of Finance
https://caymannewsservice.com/2019/05/government-coffers-overflowing/
In other news. Richard Branson has postponed the launch of Virgin Voyages until July.
What you call “Another blow” is I fact a sensible responsible move which can only be welcomed in Cayman.
1:25 I don’t see “Another blow” in the original post. Where did that come from? This was just an update.
Read the headline, written in bold.
behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining. maybe traffic will be better
Yeah, all those calling for stopping development has got their wish😜
Now we all have to deal with, with much shallower pockets😰
Finally! Perhaps the Money Launderers will now be uncovered.
1:05pm. The work permit holders will be the ones who feel it the most. Developers are employing imported cheap labourers.
Perhaps traffic will get so much better that you will start to even dislike it😂
I wonder how long before the cruise lines try to cash in by offering to hire the ships out as isolation facilities?
If it would be a Pandemic instead of a Demdemic like it is now.
It is a URI – Upper Respiratory Infection. So is the Common Cold.
I hope that the government is seriously considering holding off on non-essential projects and go into a “money saving mode”. Scrap the Brac turtle farm…hold back on the Hollywood money…disband OfREG….cut in Civil Service pay…lay off some of the Politians..etc..
No more trips to Monaco and London this year.
12.24pm Cancel half the Cayman Airways flights, cut the jets to Julianna’s house, release all the turtles at the West Bay attraction, halve the Airport Authority salaries (they will still get more than most), no more chauffeurs taking politicians on drinking binges, stop civil service and politicians jollies and adjust the a/c in the Admin Bldg so they don’t all freeze their oversize butts off at our expense – to name a few more.
Can someone please enlighten me – how many voters do we have and how many elected MLA’s do we have. Is there any other place in the world that has an elected representative for every 1,500 or so voters???
Just wondering cause it seems like we have an awful lot of politicians for the tiny sized islands nation that we are.
Stop worrying about the economy. Worry about your people. You have made TONS of money off tourist in your over priced everything for years…you should be able to ride this out.
CNS: To be fair, most of the meeting was about public health. In the parts we have quoted here, the premier was answering a specific question, which is relevant to this story. We will have more about the health aspects.
CNS I wish you had posted your response as a separate reply so that I could give it a thumbs up and thumbs down to the original commenter.
As I posted last year, the cruise business is a volatile and fragile industry. A lot of people seem to think it’s a safe bet and hopefully this will be the big wake up call they need.
I have not seen a lot of fragility here over the last 15 years, what we have now is a once in a lifetime event that’s been a wake up call to everyone in the travel industry and elsewhere, not just the cruise business.