Cancun, QR. Shipping companies must determine whether to maintain the operation of their ships or suspend their itineraries as of January 15 of this year for health reasons.
This was reported by Bernardo Cueto Riestra, recently appointed Secretary of State Tourism, after it became known that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The United States CDC issued a level four advisory for cruise ship travel.
This means that there will not be a suspension of cruises ordered by the health authority in the face of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, but that it will be each shipping company that determines whether to continue operating or not, the official explained.
“The CDC, from November 25 to January 15, issued a temporary extension of the framework for the conditional navigation order for cruise ships and allowed navigation of these vessels between those dates. Once the term expires, it has already been announced by the CDC that a transition will be made to a voluntary program by the shipping companies,” he explained.
“This includes measures to detect, control and mitigate Covid-19 within cruise ships. The shipping associations have already spoken in favor of this measure, which allows them to assume responsibility and continue operating under the strictest health protocols; With this, eventual cancellations will be strictly the decision of each company,” he added.
Cueto Riestra assured that until Thursday, January 13, the schedule of cruises to the island of Cozumel remained between the 1st and 16th of this month in 62 berths with only two cancellations, in addition to another 20 cruises for the entire month in the Mahahual port, although from now on that could be very changeable since the companies will be the ones that announce the changes in their itineraries.
The official announced that the state Tourism Secretariat has already sought communication with representatives of the shipping companies to coordinate and reinforce the protocols that have been applied since June of last year in ports such as Cozumel and Mahahual to guarantee health security during the ascent and reduction of passengers arriving at the ports of the state.
He recalled that 2021 closed for Quintana Roo with the arrival of 462 cruise ships, 352 in Cozumel and 110 in Mahahual, which gives us a figure of 835,983 passengers in both ports, which represented a spill of 71,000 million pesos.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx