July 8, 2020 – There have been no large cruisers carrying thousands of passengers in the Croatian Adriatic since March this year, and there are none even now, in the first days of July, nor can they be found in other nearby seas.
Novi List reports that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been no foreign cruise ships on the Croatian Adriatic since March this year, and all 15 realized in the first five months on the Adriatic were from January to the end of March, which is 91.2 percent less than in 2019, announced CBS.
Cruisers or cruise ships have partially continued to operate after the epidemiological measures eased in Croatia, but these are mostly domestic, smaller ships and shorter cruises organized by some domestic agencies and companies, in addition to some other ships of foreign tour operators who started sailing with guests in late June and early July.
However, there have been no large cruisers carrying thousands of passengers in the Adriatic since March this year, and there are none in the first days of July. Given the increase in positive coronavirus cases around the world, it is difficult to expect them this year, especially not in large numbers, since they are now labeled as cradles of the virus. Recall, many of them could not dock in ports during the pandemic but sailed for weeks, and some even months and more waiting for the opportunity to enter and disembark passengers.
Experts, therefore, predict that this immensely growing global industry in the last ten years, although often attacked for polluting the sea, oceans, ports and ‘overtourism’, will recover the slowest and have the most difficult time from the pandemic.
A significant decline in the number of cruises for international cruises is therefore visible in the Croatian Adriatic, as a total of 15 of these trips in the first five months recorded a decline of 91.2 percent, which means that compared to the same period in 2019, there were 156 less.
All 15 were actually realized in the first three months, after which there were no such trips on the Adriatic in April and May, unlike the same two months in 2019, when there were 49 in April and 88 such trips in May.
These 15 cruises on the Adriatic were made by six foreign ships, which is a decrease in their number by 86 percent or 37 cruisers less than in the first five months of 2019. These ships spent a total of 47 days in Croatia, compared to 386 days in five months of 2019.
On all these trips, just over 3,700 tourists came to Croatia, of which there are so many, and even more, only on one cruise ship at a time. That number is 98.5 percent less than in the first five months of 2019.
Therefore, foreign cruisers arrived in Croatia this year under the flags of only four countries – Malta (which made 12 out of 15 trips), and Belgium, Italy and the Marshall Islands.
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