CLIA Calls on Advisors to Help Tell Congress to Lift Conditional Sailing Order

As travel advisors in North America see the cruise industry restart in other regions around the world, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) is still working to get cruise ships sailing out of the U.S.

This week, CLIA is asking travel advisors to help use their voice to tell Congress to urge the White House to lift the Conditional Sailing Order (CSO), which has been delaying the industry’s restart since it was issued last October.

According to CLIA, the CSO’s requirements reflect, “thinking from a very different time in the course of the pandemic and should be lifted to allow for a phased return of cruising from U.S. ports by July.

“More than a year has passed since U.S. cruise operations were suspended and preparing a cruise ship to sail again with the appropriate enhanced measures in place will take about 90 days, which means that cruise lines must start planning NOW if they are going to resume U.S. operations by July.”

CLIA’s action center, which allows for advisors to send messages to U.S. Senators and Representatives, can be accessed here.

CLIA is not the only association in the fight to get cruising restarted, either. U.S. Travel Association this week also joined the call to lift the CSO, with its president Roger Dow issuing a statement this week saying, “We join the calls to identify the way toward lifting the Conditional Sail Order and allowing the phased resumption of cruise operations as quickly as possible,” he said.

U.S. Travel, like CLIA, said that the cruise industry has been effectively singled out without reason.

The CDC has refused to budge on its Conditional Sail Order (CSO), which was put in place after it lifted its No Sail Order last year. In a statement to Travel Market Report, the CDC said the CSO will remain in effect—as planned—until Nov. 1, 2021.

“Returning to passenger cruising is a phased approach to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. Details for the next phase of the CSO are currently under interagency review,” the CDC said.