The coronavirus outbreak’s latest casualty? The tourism industry.
One cruise ship sailed the South China Sea for days, searching for a port that would accept it as fear of the coronavirus surged.
Another ship has been quarantined in Japan for nearly two weeks, with its 3,600 passengers and crew locked down with more than 350 infected people.
And a third was stalled in Bayonne for three days, delayed as two dozen passengers were screened for COVID-19 and four passengers were tested for the newly named novel virus.
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The intensifying outbreak sweeping across China is escalating fears among travelers and dealing a significant blow to tourism industry profits, especially for cruise lines.
Some travel advisors have seen losses as high as 15% since the outbreak began, as tourists cancel or postpone hotel reservations, flights and cruises. The effect has been felt in New Jersey, where some travel companies are losing business and hotels near Newark airport are seeing rising cancellations and declining reservations among Chinese tourists.
It has left travel advisors scrambling to accommodate and reassure customers as COVID-19 has infected more than 69,000 people and killed more than 1,660, mostly in China. There are 15 confirmed cases in the U.S., but no fatalities.
Alex Sharpe, president and CEO of Signature Travel Network, a retail travel agency, said the company entered the new year strong, outpacing 2019 business. But as the outbreak intensified, Signature began to see losses.
“February has certainly slowed — down 10-15% versus February last year and down from January 2020 as well,” Sharpe told NJ Advance Media in an email.
He said guests who have booked cruises are concerned, fearing being marooned aboard a ship with fellow passengers infected with the coronavirus.
“I expect rates to hold and new demand to solidify what will be a very good year, albeit with some financial impact from the impacted Asia sailings,” he said.
One hotel manager recently told The New York Times that his hotel near Newark airport has already lost more than $100,000 in cancellations and no-shows. He noted that these losses are expected to triple in the next 90 days.
Paul Grande, general manager of Hilton Newark Airport in Elizabeth, said his hotel had experienced cancellations in recent weeks.
“Small losses at this point,” Grande said, noting that there were a couple of customers who recently canceled because they remain under lockdown in China, unable to return home.
Many U.S. citizens, New Jersey residents among them, have been marooned in China.
Christina Pedroni, senior vice president for Liberty Travel, a Montvale-based retail travel and cruise company, said it has taken a hit from the outbreak. The biggest losses have come from canceled trips to China.
“To date, we’ve seen cancellations to China from customers who are traveling there for business or for a specific purpose, such as visiting family,” Pedroni said in an email through a spokesperson. “For those visiting China and the surrounding area simply for leisure, we’re seeing a lot of people rescheduling, rather than canceling, or changing their destination all together. This includes rerouting connecting flights through China.”
Travel Leaders Network, a global travel agency network, recently surveyed its travel advisors across the U.S. and Canada to “assess the impact of coronavirus on leisure travel bookings.”
Roughly 30% of the nearly 400 travel advisors surveyed reported a high-to-moderate number of trip cancellations to China and other parts of Asia. However, advisors reported “very few cancellations of trips to other destinations” due to the coronavirus, such as Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and the U.S., the network said in a statement.
The survey also found 13% of travel advisors reported a “high number of cruise booking cancellations with the primary impact on itineraries that include China and other parts of Asia.”
An American Society of Travel Advisors survey found 71% of U.S. travelers who booked a trip to China said they would either “definitely or probably cancel those plans” because of the coronavirus. And 72% of U.S. travelers surveyed said they believe “everyone in the U.S. should avoid travel to China in the near future due to the coronavirus outbreak.”
The travel industry at large seems to be scrambling to put customers’ fears at ease.
“We are not minimizing the concerns of travelers or the perceived threat from the coronavirus,” said Erika Richter, spokeswoman for the American Society of Travel Advisors, in an emailed statement. “However, it’s important to note that the entire travel industry has pulled together proactively, working to ensure the safety of travelers.”
She said cruise lines, airlines and land operators have “instituted itinerary changes and measures to minimize the risk from coronavirus and they continue to adjust itineraries daily.”
U.S. airlines such as American, Delta and United have suspended flights to mainland China on a temporary basis.
Eight planes were locked down Friday morning at Heathrow Airport in London — including a flight from California — after passengers complained they were suffering from symptoms, according to reports.
But the cruise line industry has been especially impacted by the outbreak.
Carnival Corporation has suspended trips from ports in China due to travel restrictions. Voyage cancellations will have a “material impact” on its 2020 earnings results, the company said in a press release.
Cruise ships have long been seen as Petri dishes for germs and disease, specifically gastrointestinal illnesses like norovirus, even though contracting such illnesses on ships is “relatively infrequent,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the recent quarantining of the Diamond Princess Ship, a British cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises, has impacted the industry’s image. The ship has been locked down off the coast of Japan since Feb. 3 with 356 people confirmed as infected with the virus. A flight evacuating U.S. passengers is due to depart later Sunday.
Holland America’s cruise ship MS Westerdam, which departed from Hong Kong on Feb. 1, had been denied entry to port by five countries over fears of the coronavirus, even though the ship had no confirmed cases. The ship was finally accepted by Cambodia, where it docked Thursday.
And last week, Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas cruise ship docked in Bayonne for three days, as more than two dozen passengers were screened by health officials for coronavirus. All of those passengers, however, were later cleared.
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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