(15 February 2020, AFR, p11, Fiona Carruthers, AFR Travel Editor)
‘As the $45 billion global cruise industry continues to feel the shocks of coronavirus (COVID-19), closer to home, luxury Sydney travel agency Mary Rossi Travel spent the past week rewriting newsletters and itineraries, deftly tweaking their promoted destinations. “Australians are definitely still travelling – they’re just flying over the top of Asia and going straight into Europe, or heading across the pond to New Zealand to stay in a lodge,” says the agency’s owner, Claudia Rossi Hudson. She adds that cruise bookings are down 5 to 10 per cent. “The thing in travel today is people have so many choices, so it’s easy to opt for something different. “There’s been slightly less interest in booking a cruise over the past week – however, I’d qualify that by saying most of our clients still intend to cruise later this year; they’re more delaying booking – waiting for the worst of the virus to clear, then they’ll decide.” It’s a pattern occurring in travel agencies the world over as coronavirus continues to disrupt business as usual, with The New York Times reporting cruise bookings are generally down 15 per cent.’
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