Our friends at Cruise Industry News in the USA say that the Mayor of Miami-Dade County Daniella Levine Cava said last Thursday that regulations and guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to restart the cruise industry in the US are close to becoming official.
Many in the sector and industry wish that similarly that was the case here in Australia, with this much awaited revelation in the US coming just a week after cruise industry executives blasted the CDC and Florida politicians weighed legal action, with reportedly, following a Thursday call with CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky, Division Director Dr Martin Cetron and other CDC officials, the Mayor said she was impressed by the CDC Director’s knowledge of the cruise industry and her “empathy to the economic hardships that the loss of this business has caused.”
She added, “We are excited that the CDC will shortly be issuing new guidelines for a restart to cruising,” and “taking into consideration the advancements made possible by the vaccine, and we are eager to work with the CDC and the cruise industry as a positive partner and a resource.”
She also said, “Some many want to sue, but we want to sail, and we are ready to collaborate to make sure the Cruise Capital of the World can lead the way to rebuild this critical industry.”
Meanwhile , ack at home in Australia, the deafening silence and snail’s pace of the discussions between a selected few in the sector and CLIA and the Federal and State Governments, regarding even domestic cruising continue, with the CLIA continuing to say after many, many months with no action or even updates or information being released, that Australia’s cruise industry will continue to advocate strongly for a phased and controlled return to domestic cruising.
CLIA says, it has to be said rather repetitively, it believes there is a pathway for the phased and tightly controlled return of domestic cruising for the benefit of those regional communities and industries that rely on a healthy cruise sector, that they have been working closely with the Federal Government on a high-level framework for the re-start of domestic operations and remain committed to working with agencies at a federal and state level.
There is though some considerable and growing concern by many across the sector and the broader industry that these negotiations are taking way to long and that also perhaps consideration should be given to bringing in more experienced and professional negotiation team as it is said by many in the broader sector in particular to be clear that the current negotiations are not working.
Some negotiation parallels are being drawn by some with the failure by AFTA and the travel industry, especially compared to aviation, to secure a quality deal, even leading to the resignation of AFTA’s CEO, leaving AFTA in limbo and negotiations appearing to be ended, while many thousands of travel agencies and tourism operators hit the wall after the end of JobKeeper.
Global Travel Media has asked CLIA regularly for updates on the negotiation and details, but even late last week, in essence is advised by CLA that they are ongoing, with nothing to report and no detail provided.
The words “mushrooms”, “dark” and another word involving bulls, come to mind, but surely CLIA isn’t it about time this whole process and the details of the discussions were brought out into the sunlight and what many consider could be political scenarios are stopped?
In the meantime many in the sector, including some close to CLIA which might surprise CLIA, and the broader industry are saying they are tired of hearing the same repetitive story, being kept in the dark and want action.
CLIA says it has kept its members informed and it has their support, but the comments received from some CLIA members suggest otherwise, with also the broader industry saying it is about time that they were also informed, but stressing, they do not want any more platitudes but need detail!
A report and opinion for the industry by John Alwyn-Jones
.jpg){kind=tracking}
…ok… what clia needs to do is to current affairs the cruising situation so that the investigative media program would be obliged to bug the government agency concern in resuming cruising in australia… it should also sought airlines back up which also benefits from cruising passengers spill over business….. until the government say something about the issue..