Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have joined forces in developing improved cruise health and safety standards amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The two Miami-based cruise majors with 80 ships have formed a Healthy Sail Panel focused on devising recommendations to help the sector prevent the spread of the virus.
The group — formed in June and led by former Utah governor Mike Leavitt and physician Dr Scott Gottlieb as co-chairmen — will offer initial recommendations by the end of August as an "open-source" collaborative.
Unprecedented situation
“This unprecedented disease requires us to develop unprecedented standards in health and safety,” Royal Caribbean chief executive Richard Fain said in a statement.
“Bringing aboard these respected experts to guide us forward demonstrates our commitment to protecting our guests, our crews and the communities we visit.”
Leavitt was a three-term governor of Utah and served as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and secretary of Human & Health Services under former president George W Bush.
Gottlieb was commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration from 2017 to 2019 and served as its deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs from 2005 to 2007.
Norwegian chief executive Frank Del Rio said the world's cruise companies certainly compete for business but always work together in creating better health and safety protocols.
“While the cruise industry has always had rigorous health standards, the unique challenges posed by Covid-19 provide an opportunity to raise the bar even higher.”
Insight required
Fain and Del Rio formed the panel to ensure health plans given to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encapsulate best insights on health, science and engineering, both companies said in a joint news release.
The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has pushed back CDC's call to suspend North American cruises by almost two months to 15 September for its members.
“Health and safety are the highest priority for all CLIA cruise line members as demonstrated by this initiative on the part of two of our largest members", CLIA spokesman Kelly Craighead said in a statement.
Industry approval
"We commend this and parallel efforts of all of our members, large and small, who are working tirelessly to develop appropriate protocols based on input from health authorities and medical experts in the US and abroad".
The work completed by the panel, which includes 10 doctors, will be shared with the entire industry and regulators.
Carnival Corp plans to hold a summit with the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) on 23 July that will look at how the virus can be contained.
Attendees — which will include tourism leaders, WTTC members, government agencies and businesses — will share science and medical evidence on ways to mitigate coronavirus.
Carnival would not say if it is part of the joint effort between Royal Caribbean and Norwegian but said it will share scientific insights it has gathered over the months on Covid-19 with the entire industry.
"As an industry, we are all in this together to reach the best possible solutions for our guests and others as we work toward returning to operations in the cruise industry," Carnival spokesman Roger Frizzell told TradeWinds.
"To accomplish this, we will openly sharing insights from these scientific and medical experts, and we expect others in the industry will be doing the same."
