The cruise industry’s response to COVID-19 is a spectacular crisis management fail
A major health outbreak on board is a foreseeable crisis management risk for the cruise industry. And yet, it completely failed to prepare for, or appropriately respond to, the impact of COVID-19, Tony Jaques explains. The Ruby Princess, for example, discharged 2,700 untested passengers in Sydney and is now linked to almost 20 deaths.
One of the basic principles of good crisis management is to prepare for the most obvious crisis risks. But the global cruise ship industry seems to have failed miserably.
A headline in the New York Times said it all: “Passengers fell ill with coronavirus… And the ship sailed on.”
Cruise ships are now recognised as one of the single worst sources of the disease, and one of the most badly-managed. Look no further than the Ruby Princess, which discharged 2,700 untested passengers in Sydney and is now linked to over 600 confirmed infections and almost 20 deaths.
The cruise industry failed to prepare for the COVID-19 crisis
It’s a story repeated around the world, and as recently as last week, eight ships with about 6,300 passengers were still at sea, despite the pandemic, including one vessel with 128 people who had tested positive.
Cruise industry leaders say the coronavirus caught them “without warning.” Yet the first outbreak was on the Diamond Princess, quarantined in Japan on 4 February, and operators continued to launch cruises as late as mid-March – after the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic.
Indeed, when the cruise industry finally recognised the crisis and announced its own pledge to stop sailing, on 13 March, USA Today reported at least one ship departed after the midnight deadline and eight or more others set sail in the hours leading up to the announcement.
So what can we learn from this crisis management fail? For several years, I have promoted the concept of ‘natural’ crises. This doesn’t mean they result from natural disasters. They are natural to the organisation. They are the industry-specific, or company-specific crises which are most likely, which are reasonably predictable, and which should be clear priorities. They are the crisis risks which should keep mindful managers awake at night.
For any cruise line, those ‘natural’ risks must include: a ship sinks, a ship catches fire or breaks down at sea, or there is a major health outbreak on board.
The Ruby Princess has attracted headlines for all the wrong reasons
With our lives dominated these days by coronavirus, it’s easy to forget norovirus, – or gastroenteritis – the commonest form of food poisoning, which annually kills about 200,000 around the world, many of them young children, and sees an estimated 20m+ cases every year in the USA alone.
It often strikes in nursing homes and restaurants and hotels – and is also a well-known crisis risk on cruise ships. Way back in 2014, I wrote about how the Royal Caribbean vessel Explorer of The Seas turned back to New Jersey when more than 600 passengers fell sick due to the highly infectious norovirus, reportedly the largest gastrointestinal illness outbreak in a cruise ship in 20 years.
CEO Richard Fain unhelpfully responded at the time: “Most people understand just how common a thing this is.” A week later, the Caribbean Princess turned back to Texas when 165 passengers and 11 crew came down with norovirus. The company spokeswoman initially said the cruise had been cut short by fog, but later claimed “the pattern suggests the illness was brought on board by passengers”.
Blaming the victims may have seemed smart, but it led Time Magazine to publish its list of the worst norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships in the previous five years – and Princess Cruises had five out of the list of 13.
Fast forward to 2020, with class actions around the world against cruise lines arising from coronavirus, and in Australia, a homicide investigation and a Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess debacle.
These legal proceedings will no doubt take months, if not years, to resolve, but it is already very evident that, after years of warnings, the cruise ship industry should have been properly prepared for a health crisis – but wasn’t.
Tony Jaques is the director of Issue Outcomes
I completely agree that Princess (Carnival Cruise Corp) have not handled this at all well. However, there are many other lines that have been far more proactive cancelling sailings from early March, trying to get ahead of the pandemic before an outbreak occurred. Even as early as Feb, rerouting sailings away from early hotspots in Asia before suspending all sailings.
My partner (until recently) worked for a line who saw what was happening with other lines and took some very proactive steps – spending enormous sums of money repatriating their staff and guests (some of whome were in the middle of world cruise).
Whilst the failings of Princess are obvious, I do hope that people don’t allow the flaws of a few lines to tarnish the entrire industry. My partner lost his job (as many did in the travel sector) and once the world opens up again, we’re hoping that people will eventually return to cruising too.
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There is no question that there’s been a complete management and governance failure at many cruise ship companies. The disastrous handling of recent PR is merely the start.
The question is – who is going to be held responsible? And how severe will the punishments be?
The NSW criminal investigation into the Ruby Princess (Carnival Cruises Australia), is welcome. Let’s start with the CEO, and Chair
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Given the circumstances of being on a cruise, I wonder if there are actual practical measures the operators could take to prevent these outbreaks. There are reports of naval vessels falling foul of this too, so perhaps there is no solution to contagion on a ship.
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How can you possibly generalise one cruise line’s gross misdemeanours in Australia to be the fault of the entire cruise industry? This is lazy journalism, and ignorance. Of course cruise ships house vast numbers of people in confined spaces, just like airlines and public transport, theatres, cinemas, shopping malls…the list is endless. What happened on Ruby Princess was beyond comprehensible and Princess Cruises will need to take responsibility for their wrongdoings, but there are plenty of cruise lines out there who have gone above and beyond to mitigate the spread of the disease, performing robust health checks pre-boarding, re-routing a huge number of vessels to avoid infected destination. This is a massive job for the marine ops team and all of the onboard staff who work night and day to ensure the health and safety of guests is their number one priority. I sincerely hope Australians remember everything that is good about cruising, including the life-enriching travel experiences it opens up, and the hugely positive impact it has on the economy in this country, and worldwide.
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I believe that made appalling public health decisions and acted very irresponsibly. Whether or not it was bad PR or not is a different story – cruise bookings are actually up vs. this time last year.
Lots of cruise passengers pay little attention to news media and will jump at a cheap holiday deal.
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Jodie, you ask: “How can you possibly generalise one cruise line’s gross misdemeanours in Australia to be the fault of the entire cruise industry?”
In response to this… according to the homepage for Carnival Australia, http://www.carnivalaustralia.com, which represents Princess Cruises (along with P&O, Cunard, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Carnival Cruise Lines and others):
“Together these brands account for more than 70 per cent of the Australian and New Zealand cruise passenger market”.
From where I sit, at 70 per cent of the market, the Princess response represents the behaviour of the vast majority of the cruise ships in our waters.
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