If boarding a flight to nowhere to live out the good old days of travel doesn’t entice you, how about a round-trip cruise sailing to nowhere?
The newspaper reports that documents pertaining to the safety protocols envision “cruises to nowhere” sailing at 50 percent capacity. Cruise lines will need to be certified for compliance with the safety plan before returning to sea, the Straits Times says.
Singapore Tourism Board Regional Director of the Americas, Rachel Loh, told The Washington Post via email that the tourism body “has appointed a reputable audit and certification company with maritime experience to establish a cruise certification program benchmarked against global health, safety and hygiene standards."
Cruise lines will be required to pass an audit for certification to return to sailing, Loh said, and details of the safety standards will be announced at a later date.
While no timeline for the Singapore cruises to nowhere has been revealed, some cruise lines that operate in the city-state, including Norwegian, Celebrity and Princess Cruises, have voluntarily suspended their operations through at least Oct. 31, with Princess Cruises telling the newspaper it would not return to service until at least mid-December. Princess operates a global fleet of 18 cruise ships, two of which — the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess — saw a combined 800 total coronavirus cases and 10 deaths in March and April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The news of a possible cruise to nowhere comes two days after Singapore Airlines dropped its plans to offer three-hour “flights to nowhere” because of environmental backlash. The airline said it reviewed opposition to the flights, which were slated to depart and return to Singapore’s Changi airport, and deemed them too wasteful. It will instead offer dining experiences in planes that remain on the ground rather than flying, the Straits Times reported.
Heralded for its strong coronavirus response early on in the pandemic, Singapore saw a strong spike in cases in April and continued cases through the summer, with 57,000 cases so far. The city-state has imposed coronavirus restrictions on gatherings and indoor activities, but largely reopened in June and is now in Phase 2 of its measured reopening process.
Tourism businesses such as hotels were permitted to resume operations July 1. However, nonessential American visitors to Singapore are not permitted to enter without a valid reason and an approval letter from the Singapore government, according to the U.S. Embassy in Singapore.
Cruise companies are again operating in some parts of the world, including in Italy, Greece and Germany. U.S. cruise lines have been eager to return to sailing in the United States, providing health guidelines they plan to follow to the CDC last week. However, this week the CDC extended its no-sail order through Oct. 31.
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