Relief for Scenic as ‘dark clouds’ lifted from river cruising

The easing of travel restrictions for river cruising will inject confidence into the sector and provide a much-needed boost for future bookings, Scenic’s sales boss has said.

Joseph Grimley told TravelMole the FCO’s move to scale down its warning removes the ‘dark clouds’ that continued to hang over river cruise firms.

Operators were left frustrated last week when the Government retained its catch-all ‘no cruising’ ban despite giving holidaymakers the green light to stay in hotels.

But the FCO relented this week, now limliting the warning to sea-going vessels.    

"What this means for us initially is consumer confidence," Grimley said. "We had a lot of disappointed customers this year because they haven’t been able to go on their cruises, and they were looking to switch to 2021.

"But if you have the FCO advising against all cruising it casts a dark cloud over everything. With the news that river cruising is ok, it’s not just 2020, it gives confidence for 2021, to get the rebookings in. That’s great news for us."

Grimley admitted there was frustration at the sweeping advice against all forms of cruising, arguing river cruising and ocean cruising are vastly different.

"It was such a broad brush. A river cruise which holds 160 guests compared to a great big white ocean liner that holds 5000…..it’s a totally different ball game.

"And as a community we couldn’t see any difference between a river cruise being safe and a hotel  being safe. We are essentially a luxury boutique hotel that floats."

The FCO move was "absolutely amazing news", he said.

The Scenic director of sales added: "Ironically cruising is the most sanitised form of holiday you can go on….there is always someone with a cloth and disinfectant rubbing something down, and especially so with river cruise because they are only 135m long. They are not that big to keep spotless and meticulously clean."

Scenic and other operators will now work with authorities to assess what protocols are needed for a cruise to operate safely.

"It is something we have always done and will always do. If we are told we need to do something extra to comply with a new protocol we’ll of course absolutely do that," Grimley said. "And not just because we have, but because we want to, to ensure everyone is safe."

Scenic had suspended its river cruise itineraries until the end of August, with Grimley saying September voyages are still scheduled to operate.

"We have known for a while that they were scheduled to operate and now we have the green light to operate in terms of FCO advice," he said.

Asked about the consumer sentiment and whether confidence still remained fragile, Grimley said:  "I think a lot of our customers are exactly like me. They have been locked down for so long and can’t wait to travel. 

"Initially the people who wanted refunds was fairly high because it was all very new and scary, but once people had a couple of weeks to think about it they thought ‘we do still want that holiday’ so they were happy to either book again or to take a future cruise credit.

"The signs are positive, and things seem to be going in the right direction. We are quite fortunate because our cruises are very much in the luxury sector and luxury sector is always robust and fast to bounce back after difficult circumstances."

By Steve Jones, Contributing Editor