I own Chris Caulfield-CruiseOne in Croton on Hudson, NY. My business has been severely impacted by the CDC order to shut down cruises from US ports. The long-awaited instructions issued on April 2nd by the CDC continues an outdated, overly complex process for resumption of U.S. cruise operations. There is no clear timeline or path forward and it is at odds with the approach the CDC and governments in other parts of the world apply to all other travel and tourism segments in mitigating the risk of COVID-19.
Nearly half a million Americans across the country depend on a functioning cruise industry and are at risk of being excluded from participating in the economic recovery from the pandemic. Those impacted include longshoremen, ground transportation operators, travel agents, and hotel, restaurants, and retail workers, as well as the tens of thousands of businesses that service cruise ships. New York City is a major cruise port and employs many locals.
The cruise community is ready to work with the CDC to adopt a new approach to resumption in the U.S. that reflects current conditions and incorporates learnings from sailings that have occurred in other parts of the world.
I implore all to take a moment to contact their members of Congress today to make resumption of cruising in the U.S. by July an urgent priority.
Thank you!
Chris Caulfield
Croton-on-Hudson
Thank you for posting! If you would like to reach out CLIA, the cruise line trade association, has made it very simple. Enter info and this link will auto populate with your representative. https://cruising.org/en/clia-action-center