Source: CruiseHive. www.cruisehive.com/

When Each Cruise Line Plans on Resuming Operations
Here’s the constantly changing list of when cruise lines will return to service which will likely be phased-in with a limited guest capacity and new health measures: 
The list was last updated: March 5, 2021.

Aida Cruises
On March 5, the German-based cruise line announced further cancellations into April across Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic Sea, and Norway. However, some good news is that AIDAperla will extend its season sailing the Canary Islands.
Cruises Resume: April & May 2021
U.S. & Canada Cruises: 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Azamara
The small cruise line which is no longer owned by Royal Caribbean announced a further suspension on February 28, 2021, through June 30, 2021.
Cruises Resume: July 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival decided to announced further cancellations until May 2021. This was announced on January 22, 2021, right here. Operations in Australia are also cancelled through May 19, 2021. The cruise line has also made a range of adjustments with select ships not returning to service until November due to dry docks. Carnival has officially announced that its U.S. operations are now suspended through all of May 2021. Cruises won’t return until June at the very earliest.
Cruises Resume: June 2021
Cruises Resume in Australia: End of June 2021
 
Celebrity Cruises
Following parent company Royal Caribbean, the cruise line has now suspended operations through April 30, 2021. This includes the May 1 transatlantic cruise on Celebrity Apex. Also, the May through Oct. 2021 Europe and transatlantic cruises on Celebrity Edge and Celebrity Constellation will be suspended.
Cruises Resume: May 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Celestyal Cruises
The cruise line which mainly operates out of Greece with two vessels has announced that it now plans on resuming cruises on April 24, 2021, with 7-night Aegean sailings.
Cruises Resume: April 24, 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Costa Cruises
The Italian based cruise line Costa Cruises had to put a hold on its return of operations in Europe due to the ongoing pandemic. Some good news was announced on February 17 with the cruise line restarting operations with Costa Smeralda on March 27, 2021. More ships will follow in the weeks after.
Cruises Resume: March 27, 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV)
The British-based cruise line has gone unto administration and will likely no longer continue its business. As of now, all cruises are cancelled permanently. More details about this are here.
Cruises Resume: Never
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Crystal Cruises
The luxury cruise line has already announced that all guests will need to be vaccinated before being allowed to cruise. In addition, the luxury cruise line extended its suspension through May for ocean cruises and for even longer for other types of vessels.
Crystal Esprit Cruises Resume: June 2021
Ocean Cruises Resume: June 2021
Expeditions Voyages Resume: August 2021
River Cruises Resume: June 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Cunard Line
With no end to the suspension for UK cruise lines, Cunard Line has extended its suspension through into Spring 2021 and Queen Elizabeth won’t return until December 13, 2021, more details here.
Cruises Resume: Spring 2021 (Ships have different return dates)
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Disney Cruise Line
Disney Cruise Line has different return dates for each ship and even though the current advisory impacts some May sailings, it has recently appeared that all May 2021 sailings have been removed from its booking engine. It has now been confirmed that all Disney cruises are cancelled through May 2021 with select sailings now set for June at the very earliest.
Cruises Resume: June 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Fred Olsen Cruise Lines
The UK-based cruise line has announced more specific return dates for three cruise ships starting from the end of Spring 2021.
Cruises Resume for Borealis: May 22, 2021
Cruises Resume for Bolette: May 29, 2021
Cruises Resume for Balmoral: June 9, 2021
Cruises Resume for Braemar: Spring 2022
 
Holland America Line
Holland America, the cruise line which is owned by Carnival, has announced that it extended its hold on all sailings out of Canada in 2021. This follows the recent news of Canada banning cruise ships for an entire year.
Cruises Resume: May 2021
Canada Cruises Resume: 2022
Official Advisory: Click Here

​Marella Cruises
The TUI operated UK cruise line has extended its pause on operations until May 2021 due to the uncertainty with travel restrictions. The cruise operator has already put on hold sailings from Barbados and Jamaica to April 30, 2021.
Select Cruises Resume: May 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
MSC Cruises
The cruise line quietly announced on March 1, 2021 that in the Caribbean, all itineraries are cancelled through May 31, 2021.
Cruises from the U.S. Resume: June 2021
Limited Mediterranean/Italy Cruises Resumed: January 24, 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Norwegian Cruise Line
On February 16 it was announced by the cruise line that operations are to remain on pause through May 31, 2021. NCL Holdings is working on a safe return with the reagent authorities to make sure guests and crew remain safe once cruises do eventually resume.
Cruises Resume: June 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Oceania Cruises
Just like other sister lines, Oceania Cruises has extended its suspension until Summer 2021. The cruise line continues to work on a safe return.
Cruises Resume: June 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
P&O Cruises
The UK government has started to push forward on a safe reopening of international travel after The Secretary of State Grant Shapps chaired the first meeting of the new Global Travel Taskforce to discuss plans. With a more clear time for the Summer, P&O Cruises decided to cancel its regular sailings into September 2021 and replaced them with new UK-only offerings.
Regular Cruises Resume: August/September 2021
New UK-only Cruises Resume: Summer 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
P&O Australia
On February 18, P&O Australia decided to extend its hold on operations until June 18, 2021. However, the cruise line remains optimistic on its return along with the arrival of two new additions to the fleet named Pacific Encounter and Pacific Adventure.
Select Cruises Resume: June 18, 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Princess Cruises
On March 3, due to the developments in international travel in the UK, Princess Cruises decided to make some changes. European sailings to and from the UK, including roundtrip from Southampton through September 25, 2021, on Sky Princess, Regal Princess, and Island Princess are now canceled. Instead, from late Summer 2021, the cruise line will begin offering short UK coastal cruises.
Cruises Resume: May 15, 2021
Regular UK Cruises Resume: Late September 2021
New Short UK Cruises Resume: Late Summer 2021
Select Alaska, Canada & New England and Pacific Coast Cruises Resume: 2022
Australia and New Zealand Cruises Resume: June 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Regent Seven Seas Cruises
It’s another round of suspensions for the luxury cruise line which was announced by NCL Holdings on February 26, 2021. This impacts operations through May 31, 2021.
Cruises Resume: June 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean went beyond April and suspended operations until the start of May 2021. The announcement was made on January 12, 2021, but does exclude two ships in the fleet.
Cruises Resume: May 2021
Spectrum of the Seas Cruises Resume: March 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Saga Cruises
The British-based cruise line became the first in the world to announce that all guests will need to be vaccinated before cruising. With the UK planning a framework on reopening international travel later in the Summer, Saga has decided that Spirit of Adventure’s planned May 4, 2021, inaugural sailings are delayed. The new date for the new ship’s first guest voyage will be July 26, 2021. Spirit of Discovery will also be delayed until June 27, 2021.
Spirit of Discover Cruises Resume: June 27, 2021
Spirit of Adventure Cruises Resume: July 26, 2021
Check Official Advisory
 
Seabourn
The Carnival-owned ultra-luxury cruise line has cancelled further cruises in 2021 impacting two vessels. Select Seabourn Odyssey voyages are cancelled to November 5, 2021 and select Seabourn Quest voyages are cancelled also to November 6, 2021.
On February 24, 2021, the luxury cruise operator announced that 19 voyages aboard Seabourn Odyssey in summer 2021 between Vancouver, Canada, and Juneau, Alaska, including one Pacific Coast voyage are now all cancelled.
Cruises Resume: 2021
Select Cruises: 2022
Seabourn Odyssey Cruises Resume: January 2021
Seabourn Ovation Cruises Resume: April 2021
Seabourn Encore Cruise Resume: May 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Viking Cruises
On February 18, 2021, the luxury cruise line announced an extended pause impacting river and ocean operations through May 2021.
River Cruises Resume: June 2021
Ocean Cruises Resume: June 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Virgin Voyages
On March 2, Virgin Voyages announced that it had made the decision to cancel more sailings. This now means that Scarlet Lady cruises are canceled through June 30, 2021.
Cruise Begin: July 2021
Official Advisory: Click Here
 
Further Changes Are Possible
Cruise Lines continue to develop their health measures and work with relevant authorities. The speed of vaccine rollout could also have an impact on when cruises can safely return.
Some cruise lines do offer some limited sailings and Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas proving that cruises to nowhere can work too. There is the hope of some renewed optimism for late spring and early summer but we’ll just have to wait and see.
It is also important to know that even if there is a specific date of when cruises can resume it’s likely to be a phased-in return with only a few ships. That’s what we are seeing in Europe right now.

Caroline Bologna – HuffPost.
Here's what you should consider before dusting off your passport and visiting another country.
Many Americans are longing for the days when they could take a dream vacation to Paris, Bali, or even just over the border to Toronto. As vaccine availability increases in the U.S., people are feeling a glimmer of hope that international travel will be back on the table soon.
But even as more people get vaccinated and countries open up to American tourists, traveling abroad may remain inadvisable for a time, especially to places with less widespread vaccine access. As we move forward and start planning trips again, there are important factors to consider before grabbing our passports and jetting off.
HuffPost asked bioethicists, as well as public health and travel experts, to weigh in on the ethics of traveling abroad before vaccines have been widely administered worldwide. Read on for their thoughts.
We haven’t ruled out transmission risk.
“Individuals who are vaccinated have protection ― although not 100% protection ― against developing severe disease if infected with SARS-CoV-2,” said Amy McGuire, professor of biomedical ethics and director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. “However, we are still generating evidence of how well different vaccines protect against transmission of the virus.”
It’s possible that vaccinated travelers could still transmit the virus to others, so until we have more data on how much vaccines reduce transmission risk, we can’t draw particularly meaningful conclusions about the ethics of travel in the coming weeks and months.
“If someone in the U.S. travels to another country, they may have an asymptomatic infection that they bring with them to the other country, putting people there at risk,” William Miller, senior associate dean for research at the Ohio State University’s College of Public Health, told HuffPost in an email. “Or they may acquire an infection there and bring it back with them to the people they are close to. The vaccinated traveler may not get sick but they may cause others to become sick ― that’s why, in general, it still is not a good idea to travel yet.”
Virus variants can be a cause for concern.
“Other countries may have higher rates of virus variants that are more transmissible and, in some cases, may cause more severe disease,” Miller said. “The transmission of these variants to and from vaccinated people is a concerning possibility.”
As we still have much to learn about new variants (like whether the currently approved vaccines protect against them and reduce their transmission), it’s important to remain cautious and keep unnecessary travel to a minimum.
“Travelers may be infected with a novel variant and get sick, and potentially increase its spread in the U.S.,” said Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, an assistant professor at Baylor’s Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy.
All health care infrastructure is not created equal.
“Please keep in mind that vaccine rollout in most countries is just getting started and they may not have COVID under control,” Lázaro-Muñoz noted. “Travelers could add more pressure to strained health care systems in other countries.”
Countries with minimal outbreaks can also be vulnerable, especially if they don’t have the same health care and vaccination resources that wealthier nations do. A recent piece by James Hamblin in The Atlantic pointed to the disparities in vaccine access.
“Vietnam, for example, is a country of 97 million people that has had fewer than 1,600 cases of COVID-19 and 35 deaths,” Hamblin wrote. “They have done an exemplary job of controlling the virus, and presumably have very low levels of immunity.”
Nicole Hassoun, a visiting scholar at Cornell University and professor of philosophy at Binghamton University who studies public health ethics, made a similar point to HuffPost.
“While most people in rich countries will probably have access to a vaccine this year, those in poor countries will likely have to wait years to get vaccinated,” Hassoun said.
“However, poor countries might rely on the tourism international travel brings, and in some cases even do worse, all things considered, without it,” she added. “So if you decide not to travel, you might consider finding other ways to support businesses and people in poor places this year. If nothing else, you might consider donating the money you would have used traveling for fun.”
There’s reason to be cautiously optimistic for the future.
As the number of vaccinated people increases worldwide, prospects for international travel may improve as well.
“As vaccine rollout advances, there will be much less community transmission, less likelihood of infection, and less likelihood of novel variants emerging,” Lázaro-Muñoz explained. “This will likely make tourism more manageable for host countries and greatly decrease the risk you may pose to others. At that point, you should feel more comfortable traveling to other countries.”
High vaccination rates and low COVID-19 rates, in both the traveler’s destination and country of origin, may make travel possible again, assuming we learn the current vaccines provide lasting immunity and considerably reduce transmission rates.
“One way to think about this is that you want to be in a fairly normal situation where your own local situation is open, with more or less normal activities albeit with masking and distancing,” Miller said. “And you want to be going to a place that is also fairly normal. And in both of those situations, you want rates low, despite the openness.”
In this scenario, travel demand is likely to reach new heights, said Konrad Waliszewski, co-founder and CEO of the travel app Tripscout.
“Once a high percentage of the world is vaccinated, prepare to witness the biggest travel boom the world has ever seen,” he said. “Pent-up demand from a year of lockdown, combined with a significant increase in remote work flexibility, a decrease in required business travel, and respect for the fact you never know when the world will shut down again, will cause people to travel like never before.”
Still, it’s imperative we continue to act with caution. The key to global travel will be making the vaccine accessible to as many people around the world as possible, and preventing the development and spread of new coronavirus variants.
“We are currently in a race to get enough people vaccinated that we achieve herd immunity before new viral strains that are resistant to the vaccines emerge and spread,” McGuire said. “So the answer to that question depends on how successful we are over the coming months at vaccinating large percentages of the population, while controlling the spread of new viral strains.”
The answer may vary based on the destination.
If we’re in a position to travel abroad this year, there will still be factors to consider when choosing a destination.
“I would look at how well the virus is being controlled in a certain destination, number of deaths and health care access,” said Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of public health at New Mexico State University.
In addition to community transmission and health systems, Khubchandani advised taking into account the prevalence of new variants of the virus. Even if you are vaccinated, a country with a rapidly spreading variant is not the best place to visit, since we aren’t yet sure how well the current vaccines protect against them. A country’s vaccination rate will also affect the health care situation there.
“Many countries are heavily dependent on tourism and may allow travelers because it is such an important part of their economy, but that may not mean that they have COVID under control, and their health care system could be struggling,” Lázaro-Muñoz said. “Think of yourself as being a guest at a friend’s house. If your friend was having some serious difficulty, and your presence at the house somehow added to that, you would not want to add more trouble.”
Check the latest COVID stats on the State Department’s website or elsewhere. Consider the public health measures that a given destination has in place. If there are strict lockdowns and quarantine requirements (likely for good reason), you probably won’t be able to have the tourism experience you’d prefer.
Still, there are some international travel scenarios that could be lower-risk and doable this year. Just think about the impact of your travel on yourself, the people who live wherever you’re going, and the ones you’ll be returning home to.
One big consideration is “whether the visit will be spent mostly indoors or outdoors,” Miller said. “If someone goes to a Caribbean island and will be spending all of their time outside, including when they are eating, and only spend time inside in their hotel room, then the risk would be very low. The same would be true of any vacation or trip where the activity is primarily outside ― hiking and boating. But a trip with a focus indoors, like visiting museums, eating inside in restaurants, [and] visiting pubs, will have a higher risk.”
If you do travel, take precautions.
Some reasons for international travel are better than others ― like an emergency, visiting a dying relative, or getting a rare treatment for a serious disease. Still, many people are choosing leisure travel, and that number will inevitably grow as vaccinations rates increase. If you decide to travel abroad, it’s important to take the necessary health precautions to protect yourself and the people you’ll encounter.
“You have to be willing to follow the COVID preventive measures those countries have in place,” Lázaro-Muñoz said. “This could include pre-travel COVID testing and wearing masks. Being a tourist does not mean local rules do not apply to you.”
Keep your distance from others, mask up and wash your hands. Follow public health measures, and make smart decisions as the situation evolves. Make sure your travel companions, and the businesses and lodgings you plan to visit, do the same.
“Research and detailed trip planning is more important than ever,” Waliszewski said. “American travelers must constantly stay up to date on rapidly changing situations on the ground and the corresponding guidelines in the States and abroad. Travelers must also consider testing and quarantine requirements, safety guidelines, and local health care infrastructure prior to departing for any destination. I don’t see this sort of planning going away anytime soon, even after a high vaccination rate [is achieved].”
Ultimately, it’s important to remember that your personal health isn’t the only thing that matters.
“In this pandemic, we always have to consider how our behavior affects others,” Miller emphasized. “Your vaccination protects you, for sure, and it may protect others. But until we know for sure that it protects others by reducing transmission, we have to remain cautious.” 

​The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that passenger traffic fell in January 2021, both compared to pre-COVID levels (January 2019) and compared to the immediate month prior (December 2020).
Because comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of COVID-19, unless otherwise noted all comparisons are to January 2019 which followed a normal demand pattern.
Total demand in January 2021 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) was down 72.0% compared to January 2019. That was worse than the 69.7% year-over-year decline recorded in December 2020.
Total domestic demand was down 47.4% versus pre-crisis (January 2019) levels. In December it was down 42.9% on the previous year. This weakening is largely driven by stricter domestic travel controls in China over the Lunar New Year holiday period.
International passenger demand in January was 85.6% below January 2019, a further drop compared to the 85.3% year-to-year decline recorded in December.
“2021 is starting off worse than 2020 ended and that is saying a lot. Even as vaccination programs gather pace, new COVID variants are leading governments to increase travel restrictions. The uncertainty around how long these restrictions will last also has an impact on future travel. Forward bookings in February this year for the Northern Hemisphere summer travel season were 78% below levels in February 2019,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

World Share = of industry RPKs in 2020
RPK = Revenue Passenger Kilometer
ASK = Available Seat Kilometer
PLF (% PT) = Percentage point change in load factor compared with January 2019
PLF (Level) = Percentage point load factor.
International Passenger Markets
Asia-Pacific airlines’ January traffic plummeted 94.6% compared to the 2019 period, virtually unchanged from the 94.4% decline registered for December 2020 compared to a year ago. The region continued to suffer from the steepest traffic declines for a seventh consecutive month. Capacity dropped 86.5% and load factor sank 49.4 percentage points to 32.6%, by far the lowest among regions.
European carriers had an 83.2% decline in traffic in January versus January 2019, worsened from an 82.6% decline in December compared to the same month in 2019. Capacity sank 73.6% and load factor fell by 29.2 percentage points to 51.4%.
Middle Eastern airlines saw demand plunge 82.3% in January compared to January 2019, which was broadly unchanged from an 82.6% demand drop in December versus a year ago. Capacity fell 67.6%, and load factor declined 33.9 percentage points to 40.8%.
North American carriers’ January traffic fell 79.0% compared to the 2019 period, up slightly from a 79.5% decline in December year to year. Capacity sagged 60.5%, and load factor dropped 37.8 percentage points to 42.9%.
Latin American airlines experienced a 78.5% demand drop in January, compared to the same month in 2019, worsened from a 76.2% decline in December year-to-year. January capacity was 67.9% down compared to January 2019 and load factor dropped 27.2 percentage points to 55.3%, highest among the regions for a fourth consecutive month.
African airlines’ traffic dropped 66.1% in January, which was a modest improvement compared to a 68.8% decline recorded in December versus a year ago. January capacity contracted 54.2% versus January 2019, and load factor fell 18.4 percentage points to 52.3%.

Domestic Passenger Markets

World Share = of industry RPKs in 2020
RPK = Revenue Passenger Kilometer
ASK = Available Seat Kilometer
PLF (% PT) = Percentage point change in load factor compared with January 2019
PLF (Level) = Percentage point load factor.
China’s domestic traffic was down 33.9% in January compared to January 2019, dramatically worsened compared to the 8.5% year-over-year decline in December. The fall was owing to stricter traffic controls ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday period amid several localized COVID-19 outbreaks.
Russia’s domestic traffic, by contrast, rose 5.5% compared to January 2019, a turnaround from the 12.0% year-to-year decline in December versus the same month in 2019. It was driven by a fall in COVID-19 cases since a peak late in December and by national holidays in the first week of the month.
The Bottom Line
“To say that 2021 has not gotten off to a good start is an understatement. Financial prospects for the year are worsening as governments tighten travel restrictions. We now expect the industry to burn through $75-$95 billion in cash this year, rather than turning cash positive in the fourth quarter, as previously thought. This is not something that the industry will be able to endure without additional relief measures from governments.
Increased testing capability and vaccine distribution are the keys for governments to unlock economic activity, including travel. It is critical that governments build and share their restart plans along with the benchmarks that will guide them. This will enable the industry to be prepared to energize the recovery without any unnecessary delay,” said de Juniac.
Global standards to securely record test and vaccination data in formats that will be internationally recognized are urgently needed. “These will be critical to restarting international travel if governments continue to require verified testing or vaccination data. IATA will soon launch the IATA Travel Pass to help travelers and governments manage digital health credentials. But the full benefit of IATA Travel Pass cannot be realized until governments agree the standards for the information they want,” said de Juniac.
View the full January Air Passenger Market Analysis, (including 2021 vs. 2020 comparisons)

Posted By Ken Storey on Wed, Mar 3, 2021 at 1:10 am Orlando Weekly.
​
Cruises are still months away from resuming, but once they do, things will be very different. Those differences will be found beyond the full-service buffets and improved air sanitation onboard; in fact, many ports are questioning if they want to return to the pre-pandemic way things were.

As ships grow larger and cruising becomes more popular, cruise ports the world over have struggled with overtourism. Even prior to the pandemic, destinations like Venice, Barcelona and Boracay moved to lower the number of cruise passengers stopping at their ports.

The trend has rapidly spread since the pandemic all but shut down tourism in most places.

Speaking at an event announcing an expansion of the Aster Cayman medical city, Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin explained that the nation was trying to move beyond its reliance upon the cruise industry. “We’re trying to diversify the whole tourism industry. What I foresee, certainly if we [the People's Progressive Movement party] retain [control of] the government, is less focus on growing cruise tourism. I think we have a very clear signal from just about every source that the great numbers that we’ve had since the cruise industry began in earnest and have always been the objective.”

He went on to say, “We can survive without those large numbers,” adding, “We need more balance and to not overwhelm the systems that we have.”

The Cayman Islands leader's comments came as the nation canceled a cruise berthing facility in George Town.

Other ports are also looking at ways to ensure the overtourism that overwhelmed their communities doesn’t return. Last year, Key West voted on three measures to limit the number of cruise passengers to the Florida city. Despite the majority of Key West voters approving those measures, Florida Republicans have signaled they may look to block them from happening, just as they overturned local initiatives in Orlando, Miami and other progressive-leaning communities.

Bar Harbor, Maine, is moving forward with reviewing guidelines similar to those in Key West with the goal of voting the policies by mid-year. With cruising now at a standstill, some destinations are seeing just how much — or how little — cruise passengers actually impacted the local economies.

Pointing to the pandemic, Premier McLaughlin said, “There’s a silver lining wherever you look hard enough for it, and having had to do without cruises for a year has told us what the consequences of that are.” He also said that speaking with business leaders and those in the community, it was clear that “we don’t want to go back to the large numbers of visitors that was the case [before the pandemic].”

The drop in tourism has been felt across the Caribbean, but the International Monetary Fund predicts a 6.2 percent drop in GDP with visitor numbers being almost nonexistent.

Part of this may be due to the smaller financial impacts that cruise passengers have compared to multi-day visitors. A study in 2018 for the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association found in the Cayman Islands an average cruise passenger spends $105.17. That was high compared to some other ports. At Mexico’s Puerto Chiapas, passengers spent just $34.32 on average. Of the 36 destinations the report looked at, the U.S. Virgin Islands was the highest, with an average of $166.42. The study found for the 2017/2018 cruise year, the 36 destinations saw a combined “nearly $3.4 billion in direct expenditures, 79,000 jobs and $903 million in employee wages” from the cruise industry.

For comparison, in 2018, the Las Vegas Convention Center alone generated $385.5 million in wages. When expanded to include indirect and induced impacts, the Las Vegas Convention Center had a regional impact of $2.2 billion, with $589.6 million in wages. An average Vegas convention-goer spends $1,020 per trip, with an average leisure visitor to the desert city spending $821.

The numbers are even higher in Orlando, with an average convention-goer spending an estimated $2,229 with an average stay of just over two nights, according to a 2018/2019 report by the convention center. Visitors to Orlando, on average, spend six times more than cruise passengers in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Before the pandemic, small ships were already the new trend, with everyone from Virgin to Ritz-Carlton announcing yacht-inspired vessels. The focus then was on the improved passenger experience such ships can offer. Still, as ports reflect on the overtourism they previously faced, they too seem interested in these smaller boats. As more places push away the larger ships, these smaller ones may become the only option if a visitor wants to take a cruise to certain destinations. Some of the companies behind the smaller ships also encourage longer stays in port, allowing for passengers to experience the port's dinner and late-night offerings.

Cruise companies have responded to restrictions like the ones in Key West by switching out those destinations with stops at other ports of call, including their private islands. After the three initiatives in Key West were approved, Royal Caribbean replaced visits to the Florida city with ones to its private island, CocoCay.

There are plenty of signs of pent-up demand for tourism post-pandemic. Just where all those tourists will be headed, though, is still unclear.

Costa Rica is encouraging tourists to offset their trip’s carbon emissions. Everything from flights to activities while on holidays can be logged into a carbon calculator that reveals their net carbon footprint and its costs. The visitors can then invest the sum into reforestation efforts or other regional sustainability initiatives.
The project, known as Fonafifo, is a collaboration between the National Forest Financing Fund and the Costa Rican Tourism Institute. It aims to support local environmental projects that promote sustainability while nurturing local culture and economic prospects.
All the funds will go towards natural regeneration, tree planting, agroforestry, and protecting hydrographic basins. The money will be managed by a national program directed by Fonafifo called the Payment of Environmental Services Program (PSA) – which works directly with conservation groups, organizations, farms, and landowners who have joined the program.
The Central American nation is well-known for being a country that prizes sustainability. It has more than doubled its tree cover since the eighties – from 21% to 54%. It has pledged to become net-zero carbon by 2050. It already generates nearly 100% of its nationwide electricity demand using renewable energy year-round.
It also banned Styrofoam containers and set a target to become the world’s first plastic-free country.
The country may be small, but it’s home to over 6% of Earth’s recorded biodiversity. That’s why conservation schemes and national parks protect 26% of its forests.
Gustavo J Segura, minister of tourism, said:
Costa Rica is perceived as a society that honors nature in its territory: it protects, cares for and shares, enhances the human well-being of its citizens, described as friendly, hospitable and happy people. This ICT and Fonafifo agreement is consistent with sustainability; it invites our tourists to mitigate their trips and thus contribute to the protection of forests and the recovery of forest cover. It is a step forward in responsible tourism.
The El Jicaro farm in Heredia Province joined the PSA in 2015. Since then, it has received support to plant trees along the Sarapiqui River. It grew 14 species, helping increase biodiversity and natural habitats for wildlife. Tourists can go to the farm and learn about the project while sampling fresh hearts of palm, a popular food in the region.
The owner of Flores del Bosque farm joined the PSA in 2004. He converted six-hectares of his property into a conservation zone and received support from the program. He used that money to pay for his daughter’s education.
He says:
We are very satisfied to see that we are contributing to the environment, so I invite anyone who has the opportunity to hopefully do so because it conserves the environment, contributes to humanity; It is not only the benefit of my family, but it extends to the neighbors.
Fonafifo was established in 1995. Since then, it has signed over 18,000 contracts with Costa Rican landowners and businesses. Those deals have resulted in planting over eight million trees and the recovery of more than 1.3 million hectares of forest.
And Fonafifo’s new tourism initiative could accelerate these recovery efforts dramatically. The PSA estimates that if at least 10% of the tourists offset their emissions, it would generate over US$3.5 billion annually. That’s enough money to purchase over half a million trees.
Andrea Meza, the minister of environment and energy, said:
This program is a green engine for the sustainable economic recovery of Costa Rica. The arrival of visitors to the country benefits the ecotourism sector. The money that comes in from offsetting its emissions strengthens forest conservation and the families that depend on this incentive. It seems vital to me that we begin to take measures to address the air emissions of our tourists and seek additional benefits for their compensation.
Imagine if every country in the world did this!