Royal Caribbean International will offer cruises from Israel for the first time ever. Cruises will begin June 2 and continue throughout the summer season and through to the Jewish holidays at the end of September.
The cruises will adopt Israel's green passport documentation and guests and crew will only be allowed on board, if they have had two Covid vaccination jabs, or have a certificate of recovery from the virus.
Royal Caribbean will offer three and seven night cruises from and back to Haifa via Cyprus and Greece. The cruises will call at Limassol, Athens, Rhodes, Crete, Santorini and Mykonos. The trips will be on one of Royal Caribbean's newer cruise ships - Odyssey of the Seas.
According to Sunorama, Royal Caribbean's representative in Israel, the total number of places on all the cruises leaving from Haifa will be 70,000 tourists. Prices begin from $600 for three nights (one person in a double room), and sales will begin on Sunorama's website next week.
The cruise sector has been hit hard by the Covid crisis with the passengers trapped on board the Diamond Princess in Japan remaining as one of the traumatic images of the pandemic. Only recently Norwegian Cruise Line extended the suspensaion of all its cruises until May 31, 2021.
Sunorama's parent company Aviation Links believes that at least 50,000 Israelis will book on one of the 25-30 planned cruises, generating sales of about $50 million.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 1, 2021
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