The UK government has today issued a statement advising against cruise ship travel .
The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office updated its advice on Thursday, saying: “The Foreign & Commonwealth Office advises against cruise ship travel at this time. This is due to the ongoing pandemic and is based on medical advice from Public Health England.
“The government will continue to review its cruise ship travel advice based on the latest medical advice.”
They continue to say that Britons booked on cruises should “speak to your travel operator, or the travel company you booked with, for further advice.”
The advice comes as cruise lines look to resume cruises this september with Hurdigurden planning to run a series of departures from UK and Saga Cruises exploring cruising around Britain without ports of call.
CLIA UK and Ireland, the cruise industry trade body, said;
“We have noted the advisory issued today. The health and safety of guests and crew is an absolute priority for our member lines. Since the voluntary suspension of operations, we have been working collaboratively with the Government on the road map to resumption involving a ‘door to door’ strategy – from the time of booking through to the passengers’ return home – with enhanced health protocols. We look forward to completing this planning exercise with Government and for the advice to be updated.”
Posting on Twitter, P&O Cruises UK president Paul Ludlow said:
“We acknowledge the FCO’s guidance and P&O Cruises had already extended the pause in operations for all sailings up to October 15, 2020 and Cunard had extended the pause in operations until November 2020.
He continued;: “Our current focus is to work in partnership with public health agencies at the highest level as well as Department for Transport; EU Healthy Gateways and Clia, the industry governing body.
“We will follow applicable guidelines to further enhance our already stringent measures to keep our guests and crew healthy and well and we will not resume sailings until this framework is in place.
“This will include rigorous protocols pre-boarding, on ship and in the destinations we visit.
Confidence in cruising is strong and we are seeing increasing demand from our guests, who we look forward to welcoming back on board when the time is right.”
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