MUSCAT: Just two weeks after international media reported a 30-fold surge in Covid-19 cases on cruise ships in a few days, the cruise liners declined to anchor at the Sultan Qaboos Port in Muttrah. This has resulted in despair among Murrah vendors, who depend on tourists for their businesses.
Each year, several ships call ports of Muscat, Salalah and Khasab. Tourists and crew visit the adjacent markets, including souks and purchase souvenirs, gifts and other items to take back home. Over a period of time, these vendors have built a strong rapport with the frequenters who make it a point to visit their friends year after year.
A luxury liner called MS Europa 2, operated by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, a German-based cruise line with a capacity of almost 516 passengers and nearly 370 crew members, returned without calling at the Muttrah Port for reasons associated with the Covid-19.
"This is the third year that we are losing the business of European tourists who come on cruise vessels, and this has broken our spine as expenses mounted," said Mohammed Navas, a vendor at the Muttrah Souq.
The liners which set sail weeks ago take notice of the changing rules and pandemic regulations in countries en-route so that sufficient precautions can be taken, according to agents of these liners.
"We have four vessels charted for January alone, and I'm afraid any ship would be anchoring at Oman shores for two reasons," said Ahmed Hamed al Balushi, local representative of a European liner.
"Firstly, they may have a sick traveller onboard or, secondly, they don't want to take a chance with the port-of-call," he added.
A report published on January 11 says ships operating in US waters recorded about 5,000 Covid cases from December 15 to 29, in about two weeks. A representative of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) suggested cases on cruise liners jumped 30 times high in two weeks' time.
According to statistics provided by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI), a number of luxury vessels called Port Sultan Qaboos in 2018-19. It is estimated that 283,000 foreign tourists made it to the Sultanate during the aforesaid season. This is a 45 per cent increase compared to 2017-18 season when 193,000 tourists visited Oman on cruise liners. In 2019, nearly 163 vessels carrying 660,295 tourists onboard visited Port Sultan Qaboos in Muttrah.
However, in 2020, 263,587 tourists on 66 ships called on the Muttrah port while 125, 110 passengers onboard 31 luxury vessels visited Khasab port.
In Salalah, 69,060 foreign visitors visited onboard 45 cruise liners in 2019. However, only four cruise liners carrying 1,982 passengers onboard visited Salalah Port in 2020.
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