Carnival Cruise Lines saw a 200 percent year-over-year spike in sales recently when the company announced it will set sail again this August with massive discounts for travelers willing to give it a try.
However, the glut of travelers signing on may not mean all vacationers are willing to look past the glut of problems the industry faced at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Rafat Ali, founder and CEO Skift, a travel industry media and research company.
One of the largest initial clusters was centered on a Princess Cruises ship docked in Japan. After that, ships full of passengers were stranded at sea as country after country refused to let them dock for fear infected passengers would spread the disease within their borders.
Ali told Cheddar that the real test for the industry will come from those travelers who are not ride-or-die fans of cruises.
"I think the public sentiment, beyond just the cruisers, will matter a lot. Meaning if there's a huge backlash against cruises from people who don't cruise, but can make a lot of noise, I think the cruise industry will probably have to rethink in terms of when they reopen," said Ali. "August is what they have said. It depends on where the world is then."
However, he acknowledges that cruises may have an opportunity to draw in a younger consumer now, despite generally appealing to an older crowd.
"I think they are more keen -- the vouchers and the offers that they have, in terms of how cheap it is, make them prone to August to going on those," he said.
Skift recently published a report about the impact on the hotel industry after crises like SARS and 9/11 and, like others in the travel industry, found that a coordinated effort will be key.
"I think the biggest thing that we've learned, which hadn't happened until now, is a coordinated response to the pandemic. I think that a coordinated response to the reopenings, which there are hopeful signs that it is happening, I think is the biggest thing that will help the hotel industry, the travel industry, and the airline industry," said Ali.
So far, though, there are mixed expectations about where travelers will feel safest when they hit the road.
"The people who were predisposed to Airbnb will continue to be predisposed," he said. "I think short-term rentals in remote settings, where you will travel with your own hygiene and cleaning products, is the one traveler change you will definitely see."
However, many hotels have adopted technology, such as kiosks, to make visitors' stay safer and more convenient. Ali also says he believes that hotels will implement other technology that will allow visitors and staff to social distance.
"I think mobile keys, which hadn't been adopted as much as you would have thought so far, I think those have become a real possibility. I think back of the house changes, in terms of how to manage people that do the cleaning and operations will change as well," he said.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
