The cruise ship industry is big business, and it represents a huge portion of tourism in Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cruise season extends the tourism season, and it makes the visitation stronger,\u201d said Sean Buckland, who owns the Ambassatours Gray Line tour company in Halifax.<\/p>\n
350,000 cruise ship passengers visit Halifax every year, but the deadly hantavirus outbreak onboard the MV Hondius is so terrifying that some travellers will not be going on an ocean cruise anytime soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t go on them,\u201d said Sylvia Combs, who visited Halifax from Victoria, B.C.<\/p>\n
Buckland is watching the hantavirus outbreak closely and, so far, has not seen a drop-off in cruise ship passengers. He also has a reassuring message for all would-be travellers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have taken every precaution necessary to make sure they have a safe experience with us,\u201d said Buckland, who added that the outbreak came at a time when the cruise schedule was already getting busy, especially in this part of the country, with more than 180 cruise ships scheduled to visit Halifax from now until November.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the news that the industry wants at any time,\u201d said Lorn Sheehan, a Dalhousie University professor specializing in tourism and destination management. According to Sheehan, the onus is now on travel companies to maintain a high level of consumer confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should say, \u2018trust that we are doing what we can to keep the experience as safe as possible as we always do on our cruise ships,\u2019\u201d said Sheehan.<\/p>\n
Calgary resident Norman Yee has gone on ocean cruises in the past and said he will do so again. Yee pointed out that, while the hantavirus does not resemble the spread of COVID-19, the recent pandemic does serve as a reminder of what to do in these situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are just more prepared,\u201d said Yee. \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily wear a mask when I\u2019m on a plane or a cruise ship, but I have them available. We also clean our hands, and we make sure that surfaces we are touching are about as clean as they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
While maintaining those sanitary standards, Yee said he will stay prepared for all possible public health dangers as he plans his vacation travel schedule for the upcoming summer season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cruise ship industry is big business, and it represents a huge portion of tourism in Nova Scotia.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-659053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}