COVID-19 and the Fate of the Cruise Industry: A Holistic Answer to Regaining the Public's Trust

Abstract

The cruise industry is facing a challenge that has never been seen before. The COVID-19 Pandemic has crippled a market that has been steadily growing for decades and, before this, showed no end in sight. As cruise lines halt operations, hemorrhage money, and call for loans just to stay in business, there also must be a complete shift in how these companies operate and vessels run in order to ensure viability. The general public has understood the risks of cruising since its inception, but this new era of uncommon hazards is changing their view to second guess safety and practicability of a vacation at sea. Patterns have begun to emerge where ship size, itinerary, common areas, and space ratios have all played an integral role in the spread of this pandemic onboard ships. Indications from the public have shown that they have little knowledge of how ships work and focus more on assumptions and grouping companies as a collective when assessing how safe the cruise market is. Since cruise companies tend to be merged together in the public's mind due to lack of understanding, the market as a whole needs to implement new strategies that are clearly visible to the public now and hidden from public view later on in order to create and maintain consumer confidence. The companies need to form a holistic approach to combat this spread and regain control of their industry. Presented in this thesis is evidence of a changing cruise industry landscape and strategies to better safeguard the market from the likelihood of this happening in the future. Additional research after implementation of the industry's new operating structures would be beneficial to improve on these findings.