Saint John awaits COVID-19 impact on cruise ship season

As the global tourism industry feels the pinch in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, those invested in Saint John's cruise business are watching anxiously.

Saint John was on track for a banner cruise ship season in 2020, with 90 ship visits and more than 200,000 passengers onboard.

Port CEO Jim Quinn said the virus is what just about everybody in the shipping industry is talking about. He was supposed to attend a container industry conference in Long Beach, California this week but the event was cancelled because of the virus.

"It's certainly a topic du jour, there's no question about it," said Quinn.

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He believes the cruise ships will still come. Bookings for 2020 have been made, and the industry is already looking ahead to 2021.

There have been no ship cancellations so far.

But there remains the question of what happens if a ship approaching the port has some passengers showing signs of illness.

In such cases, Quinn said, the port will take its lead from Transport Canada's Marine Safety Department, and Health Canada.

In January, Transport Canada issued a special Marine Security Notification. It requires foreign flagged ships to notify authorities 96 hours before entering Canadian waters of any passengers or crew with symptoms of the virus.

From there, Public Health Agency of Canada officials will take over.

Quinn will not speculate on the options open to federal authorities at that point.

Danielle Timmons of Aquila Tours, says cruise ships also have their own protocols. There have been "rare" instances in the past where vessels arrived here with some passengers quarantined because of things like the norovirus.
 
"They are very, very well equipped to deal with this kind of stuff," she said.

Big ships expected

"It's happened a few times over the years and we've never had anybody get sick on shore. It's always been very, very well-contained."

Saint John's cruise season begins April 24 with the arrival of the 200-passenger Victory II.

May 18 brings the first big cruise ship, Adventure of the Seas, with a capacity for 3,500 passengers.

The ship's owner, Royal Caribbean, is slated to follow with several other ships and tens of thousands of passengers by the end of October.

On Sunday, the company announced temporary new rules that will deny boarding to any guest who has travelled from, to or through mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Iran, South Korea, and regions of Italy.

Anyone with contact with someone recently returned from those countries will also be turned away.

Special health screenings will be required for people who have recently travelled to or through a number of other countries, including Japan and Singapore.

At Freedom Tours in Saint John, Ellen Tucker is anxiously waiting to see how it all plays out.

She books private tours directly with cruise passengers.

No cancellations yet

She's not yet seeing signs of passengers pulling out.

Since Friday she's had 19 separate bookings.

"I think everyone in the industry is concerned," said Tucker.

"We don't know what's going to happen with this COVID-19. Hopefully it will be like other things that have happened before as the weather gets warmer and so on, it will dissipate and go away. That's what everybody is hoping."

It's not an encouraging sign that the globe's banner annual travel industry conference, the ITB Berlin, has been cancelled out of concern about the virus, leaving 150,000 visitors, delegates and exhibitors making new plans for the week of Mar. 8.

Tucker is hoping Canada will be seen as a safe travel destination, something that could even boost the number of visitors heading to New Brunswick this year.