.png?n=8043
News and destinations.
Our voices.
There are resources.
Search for a hotel and a cruise ship.
The pool deck is on the new Odyssey of the Seas. The photo is from Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean Group has been impacted by the omicron variant of Covid-19 with a spike in cases onboard, a decline in bookings and service disruptions.
The cases have been mild and the dip in bookings is smaller than it was this summer.
In a business update released on Thursday, Royal Caribbean said it has "canceled or significantly modified" 16 of 331 destination calls and that onboard service capabilities have been affected. The company blamed the issues on disruptions in the travel industry and a decrease in labor supply during the holiday season.
Royal Caribbean expects the disruptions to continue in the near term and then decline as the world adjusts to the current trends.
Since cruising resumed in the U.S. in June, 1,745 guests have tested positive for Covid-19 on Royal Caribbean sailings. Royal Caribbean has sailed 1.1 million guests, with a positive rate of 0.05%.
According to Royal Caribbean, the majority of those cases had no symptoms at all. Forty-one required hospitalization. No omicron cases have required hospitalization so far.
Royal Caribbean Group chief medical officer Dr. Calvin Johnson said that the company is navigating through ever-evolving information on the omicron variant. The case count has gone up but the severity is not as bad. We will be in constant contact with health authorities. We have been giving all of our crew members booster shots as soon as they became eligible.
Royal Caribbean said that Cyber weekend was a strong one. When the delta variant spiked over the summer, there was a decline in bookings and increased cancellation.
Load factors are expected to be below historical levels in the first half of the next decade. The company said that sailings in the second half of the year are booked within historical ranges, at higher prices and without future cruise credits, with strong demand from the U.S. market.
Royal Caribbean expects omicron to negatively impact the company in the short term, but the company is optimistic that they will lead to a more pervasive but less severe health environment.
He said there will be a strong transitional year in 2022.
The Viewpoints of the JDS Africa/MI.
Omicrondecline Royal-Caribbeanbookings can be found at travelweekly.com.
