Singapore bars cruise vessels from port, dealing blow to industry as shares of operators slump to multi-year lows
- Measure aimed at controlling the spread of Covid-19 disease as Southeast Asian government prepares for economic stimulus, general election
- Singapore allowed Italian cruise ship Costa Fortuna to berth this week, took 11 hours to screen and clear passengers
Singapore’s decision to bar cruise ships from calling at the city – the busiest in Asia last year – is dealing a body blow to the industry as shares of operators slumped to multi-year lows.
The reaction underscores the crisis descending on the world’s cruise ship operators, following news on coronavirus infections aboard Dream Princess in Yokohama, Japan that turned it into a “floating prison.” Last month, five countries shunned the MS Westerdam with virus-infected holidaymakers from entry, before Cambodia allowed it to berth.
Cruise ship bookings had slowed down “precipitously” over the two week period in February when Diamond Princess was a major news story, JP Morgan said in a note published on March 3. While bookings recovered in the following week, they have since slowed as the disease spread widely across Europe and the US.
“This is the toughest environment cruise operators have had to contend with in most of their histories, due to the unique combination of negative cruise-specific news, the higher risk of infection among older individuals,” the JPMorgan report said. The ongoing shock to global travel demand and the pandemic could cause a longer lasting slowdown, it added.
Shares of the world’s three biggest operators – Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Holland America – have slumped by 77 per cent on average from their recent highs in mid-January. Royal Carribean hit a six-year low while Carnival shares at near the lowest since 1996. Genting Hong Kong has crashed by almost 40 per cent this year to an all-time low.
