Cruise lines bear extra costs and anger in turbulent Hong Kong typhoon season

Cruise line president Kent Zhu Fuming can hardly be blamed for not wanting to talk about typhoons.

He was still reeling from an usually powerful typhoon season in Hong Kong that cost his industry millions of dollars of loss.

“Don’t ask me about typhoons. I haven’t rested for the past four weeks,” Zhu said.

Hong Kong has issued four consecutive typhoon No 8 signals this year, bringing diversions, delays or cancellations for tens of thousands of travellers in the city and region.

While it is impossible to predict Mother Nature, cruise lines usually bear the costs of her extremes, doling out refunds for disrupted travel packages, extra fuel fees to bypass storms, and payouts to appease upset travellers unable to go on board.

Typhoons in the South China Sea and western Pacific have proved a significant headache for Zhu, whose company Genting Cruise Lines operates ships under Dream Cruises and Star Cruises in Hong Kong.

The company had to cancel two of its one-night Star Cruises trips departing the city on August 23 and 27 due to Typhoon Hato and Severe Tropical Storm Pakhar, affecting more than 2,000 people. It was also forced to change the route of a Dream Cruises ship, going to Vietnam instead of Japan last week as Typhoon Talim neared the island country.

“Usually we lose 20 per cent of our customers when we change a ship’s itinerary,” Zhu said, adding that all the affected customers were eligible for a full refund.

In addition, cruise lines give compensation in the way of on-board credits, alternative transport and accommodation subsidies. If travellers have to change their flights due to a ship’s delayed journey, the company must pay those extra costs as well.

But Zhu said many travellers were still furious over alternative arrangements, and some even used abusive language to lash out at his staff.

This year’s typhoon season saw more storms than usual approach within 500km of Hong Kong, as the higher-than-usual temperature in nearby waters facilitated typhoon formation, according to the Observatory’s He Yu-heng.

The situation was not good for Genting’s rival, Royal Caribbean International, either. The US-based firm had to cancel a two-night cruise tour between Hong Kong and Shenzhen last weekend. Its 138,000-tonne Voyager of the Seas could not get back in time, having spent an extra day at sea to avoid Typhoon Doksuri.

“The loss will be in the millions,” said Balwin Yeung Pok-hing, the company’s director of sales and marketing for southern China and Hong Kong. He claimed it was the first cancellation affecting Hong Kong in years and that more than 3,000 people had been affected.

Yeung said about half of the company’s customers were likely to cancel the trip for good and seek a full refund, and the other half would choose to rebook on another trip.

Extra sailing time also meant more fuel costs and additional customer services for the firm, including meals, he added.

While cruise lines bear a heavy burden for disrupted trips, the financial loss for customers is usually limited despite their being left upset, according to local travel agencies.

“A typhoon may delay some sailings, but it won’t have a major impact on customers,” said Jason Wong Chun-tat, general manager at Hong Thai Travel Services, one of the city’s largest travel agencies. “Some ports still can be reached. [Operators] just cut short the length of a stay.”

Wong said travel insurance covered most customers’ loss and that cruise liners also offer compensation.

Deadly storms such as Typhoon Hato are a warning to Hong Kong to prepare for the worst

But Billy Chuk of Cruise Expert Limited, a travel agency specialising in cruise tours, believed education was needed for Hongkongers to become more sensible travellers.

“Cruise tourism is relatively new in Hong Kong,” he said. “Travellers in places with a longer history of cruise travel tend to be more tolerant of trip disruptions caused by severe weather.”