While many people no longer need to quarantine after flying into the UK from one of the many countries on the FCO’s quarantine exemption list – which it explains are either: covered by the travel corridor exemption; within the common travel area (Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man); or British overseas territories – the FCO has advised against cruise ship travel at this time. “This is due to the ongoing pandemic and is based on medical advice from Public Health England,” the organisation said in a statement.

“The government will continue to review its cruise ship travel advice based on the latest medical advice,” the statement continued. “If you have future cruise travel plans, you should speak to your travel operator, or the travel company you booked with, for further advice.”

Even As the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has proclaimed, in response to the new advice, that the health and safety of their staff and passengers comes first, aligning with the FCO’s statement, it is likely that the new ruling will put increased strain on an already-sinking industry.

What’s more, agitation seems to be growing over the allegedly contradictive nature of the new decision. For example, Debbie Marshall, Managing Director of Silver Travel, a website offering travel advice and information to older travellers, recently insisted that there was ‘no logic’ in now making this a blanket extension, and was hoping that the government would be revising this decision before cruise lines look to resume operations. “The government should have more confidence that the cruise industry knows what it is doing and it would be better if they worked on a collaborative basis with the industry rather than throwing carefully-laid plans into disarray,” she asserted.

In agreement, Phil Evans, owner of Cruise Nation, told Travel Weekly: “The update from the FCO is lacking in information and we need clarity on it. We also need a date when we can expect the next update on this. The last update from the FCO was four months ago, and there's been nothing in between that and this latest, so we need to know that we won't be kept waiting for another four months.”

Rory Boland, Editor of consumer magazine Which? Travel, reasoned that the FCO's advice against cruise ship travel would most likely lead to most upcoming cruises being cancelled or postponed, with operators facing a surge in refund claims. As such, he also recommended that the FCO should also clarify a definitive end date to the new ruling, to give operators and customers clarity over when it will be safe to re-book.

Looking to try and prepare a strategy in advance, a number of travel agents are congregating in the Agent Matters session to discuss their reactions to the FCO advice change, discuss how the move was viewed by customers and consider how the cruise sector’s recovery will look as a result.

And elsewhere, the CLIA notes that since the voluntary suspension of operations, it has been working collaboratively with the government on the ‘road map to resumption’, and recently publicised that MSC Cruises is developing a new health and safety operating protocol.