The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s powerful lobby group, is appealing to the public to help lift the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Conditional Sailing Order, which is preventing cruising in the U.S. at the moment.
CLIA wants cruise lovers and the general public to contact their representatives in Congress and urge the Biden Administration to step in and lift the Conditional Sail Order (CSO).
CLIA wants to resume sailing by July 1 of this year.
As such, CLIA has begun placing clickable ads on social media that link back to its site, where the organization helps you write an email, send a Twitter message, or call your local representative.
The CDC issued its Framework for Conditional Sailing Order in October of 2020 with an end date of November 1, 2021, but CLIA is arguing that much has changed in the intervening five months.
“(That includes) the cruise industry’s proven success resuming operations in other parts of the world, where nearly 400,000 passengers have sailed since last summer,” CLIA said. “With the vaccine rollout gaining momentum and President Biden’s projection that the U.S. will be “closer to normal” by early July, the case for the resumption of cruising in the U.S. has never been stronger.”
The CSO does not reflect these new developments, CLIA says, arguing that more than a year has now passed since U.S. cruise operations were suspended. As a result, preparing a cruise ship to sail again will take approximately 90 days, meaning that cruise lines must start planning now if they are going to resume operations by July.
“If you are ready to see cruising treated like other sectors of travel and tourism and on track to resume in the U.S. by July 2021, please take a moment to call, email, and/or Tweet your Senators and U.S. Representatives to let them know,” CLIA says in its ads.
