Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) has proposed a 4 July 2021 relaunch of its cruising from US ports, initially operating ships with 60% capacity.

Early cruise bookers and past passengers are snapping up capacity on Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ ships for 2022 with inventory sold so far on the luxury line approaching the 50% level.

The World Travel & Tourism Council’s annual Economic Impact Report (EIR) released this week reveals the full impact of COVID-19 had on the global Travel & Tourism sector last year, which suffered an astronomical loss of almost US$4.5 trillion.

Australia’s on again, off again domestic border restrictions throughout 2020 and early 2021 have been billed by the Australian Chamber – Tourism’s Taskforce as “inarguably the greatest handbrake on tourism restart”.

Seabourn has extended its “Book with Confidence” policy through to 31 May, 2021. The policy provides travellers with even more flexibility, assurance and options to cancel their booking up to 30 days prior to departure on any new bookings and receive a future cruise credit.

“Privacy is the New Ultimate Luxury”. That was one of the top insights concluded in a survey conducted in January of consumers from seven countries, including Australia, to gauge their sentiment towards travel.

Walt Disney Co. has confirmed it plans to reopen both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park on the US West Coast at the end of April 2021.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has announced that APT and Travelmarvel have agreed to slash their COVID-19 cancellation charges to provide impacted customers with higher refunds.

Australians already restless from not being allowed to travel abroad for leisure purposes for nearly 12 months, will now need to endure another three-month wait. Greg Hunt, Australia’s Minister for Health, confirmed that the current human biosecurity emergency period, enacted on 17 March 2020, has been extended until 17 June 2021 – a 15-month hiatus on outbound travel.The human biosecurity emergency period under the Biosecurity Act 2015, which has been in place since 17 March 2020 will be extended by an additional three months until 17 June 2021.

Ultra-luxury cruise company Crystal will require all guests to be fully inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to their Crystal cruise.

Virtuoso’s Senior Vice President of Global Operations, Michael Londregan, is urging the industry to be cautious of the pitfalls of predicting a timeline as to when business will resume to pre-COVID-19 days.

Fiji Airways is offering greater flexibility to customers holding flight credits by extending validity by a further 12 months, up to 31 December 2022.