Seven Cruises To Bermuda Now Suspended
“Seven cruises scheduled to travel to Bermuda have effectively been suspended,” the Ministry said this evening.
A Government spokesperson said, “Today, the Ministry of Tourism and Transport received confirmation that Norwegian Cruise Lines [NCL], Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines [RCCL] and Ponant Cruises for the Le Boreal ship have suspended cruises.
“Following the announcement that NCL has voluntarily suspended all cruise voyages embarking between March 13 and April 11, 2020, the Ministry can confirm that seven cruises scheduled to travel to Bermuda have effectively been suspended.
“Also announced today was the suspension of Ponant Cruises for their call on April 29. Although Bermuda is not scheduled to receive Royal Caribbean Cruise Line brand ships until April 22nd, they too have suspended service for 30-days.
“The Azamara Pursuit, an RCCL affiliate brand, is cancelled for April 8th.
“In light of the monumental impact of Covid-19, the suspension of cruise ship travel was inevitable,” said Minister of Tourism and Transport Zane DeSilva.
“Such decisions are among the many that governments and organizations will make as we continue working toward containing the global spread of Covid-19. Unfortunately, this will have an impact on a number of businesses that would normally service the cruise lines and cruise passengers. I would urge residents to support our local community during these difficult times. ”
“The Cruise Ship Schedule will be updated regularly and can be viewed here.”
Well said Mr. DeSilva, supporting local businesses is critical at this juncture – maybe we should suspend Amazon for thirty days too – I’m totally serious. If you perchance are too selfish to see this, think about three thousand or more lost jobs and the knock on effect… it will come and take your job too if we don’t stick this out together.
When a 50ft power washer hose is $39-$58 retail online yet sells here for $237, can’t support that.
And a 20 Volt Dewalt Drill cost $150-200 retail online yet sells for $600 here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have to agree with Sage. Some people just can’t afford to support local businesses. Some prices are absolutely ridiculous.
Its called GREED
DeSilva didn’t make this decision, it was the cruise lines. DeSilva couldn’t care less, he just wants tourists money. If he didn’t, he would have told the cruise lines to cancel long before now.
So Bermudians are gonna pay out money to eat and sleep at hotels?? Are people gonna spend money in restaurants?? Then how will people have money to spend when the vast majority of work in Bermuda is based on the service industry… that’s how Bermuda’s economic cycle works. Smh poor Bermudians have no sensible way of dealing with this issue. The economic impact will be just as devastating as if the virus itself hit.
That’s a slippery slope.
Banning something is not always the Answer, maybe we should look at “WHY” people shop online and “HOW” can we (as a business owner or employee) work to make sure that the consumer spends their hard earned money here, at home.
I totally agree that spending money overseas has a serious knock on effect that most people don’t know, which is no fault of their own, but it takes two to tango and if you want someone’s money, you need to make them want to spend it on your service or product.
The local community? What about government support? What are government’s financial support plans?
They don’t have any. They are broke. One more nail in the coffin.
This is what happens after almost 20 years of abject failure – there’s no capacity to handle crisis.
What financial support plans?
The Government has no financial support plans. The Government is wondering how it will meet payroll for themselves with all of the loss of income from air & ship passenger tax plus all the other loss of income from everyone sitting tight waiting to see what is next.
Spend as usual.
Not closing the borders now is at your peril PLP. Only allow container ships!!! Do not take $$$ over lives.
They don’t have any financial support plans.
Yes, though I think you are taking an extreme example, you made your point. My point is that with that mentality there will soon be no hoses to buy and worse still no money to buy them with. On the other hand, if we kept it local, businesses might grow, competition might thrive, and prices might drop – instead of say a locally owned delivery service keeping a warehouse in New Jersey and a couple hundred people employed there while the country continues to get bled.
I do hope our Government is working on securing emergency funds for relief plans – there will be a number tourist service companies and retailers shutting at least temporarily as they run out of cash. Perhaps Government could start by immediately suspending all contributions for such firms, including private health insurance ($23,000.00 a month for me) while all services continue. Hate to say it, but going to the market for a billion might just get us through this catastrophe.