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‘Pause’ in cruise sales predicted amid Brexit uncertainty

Carnival UK’s chief has issued an impassioned Brexit promise to P&O Cruises passengers as he admitted that there will “likely be a pause” in trading in 2019.

Josh Weinstein told more than 200 delegates at the Clia Winter Forum despite the uncertainty people will still need to go on holiday.

P&O Cruises today released a series of promises to its passengers.

The line reminded passengers they will avoid foreign currency fluctuations due to onboard spending being in pound sterling and that P&O Cruises will be protected by Atol and Abta.

Asked about the impact of Brexit, Weinstein said: “As of now things are going well, having said that the longer this indecisiveness goes on the more likely it will be there will be a pause.

“It will be as simple as the consumer saying ‘do I want to deal with the hassle?’ Which is why we came up with the ‘Brexit promise’.

“We want people to remember that they will be okay.”

Comparing the impact of Brexit to the 2008 recession, Weinstein said: “Cruise lines did not go out of business during the recession. They kept on going.

“Did they take a hit? Did we lower pricing a bit? Yeah, we did. People will still need to go away. They will need to take a holiday.”

Weinstein told delegates that P&O Cruises passengers would be able to travel all over the world, including Europe, and pay in pound sterling.

“You can leave from the UK and you do not have to deal with an airport,” he said, adding: “You can pay pounds for your ticket, you can pay pounds on board and you can pay pounds for shore excursions even though you are going to be in foreign countries.

“You do not have to worry about any of that and best of all you are doing it with P&O Cruises which has been around for 180 years. We will deal with whatever comes.”

MoreBrexit causing British consumer confidence to ‘dip’, Clia says

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