Could President Trump’s COVID-19 Diagnosis Impact Cruise, Travel Industry?

PHOTO: A row of cruise ships docked in Nassau, Bahamas. (photo via Flickr/David Smith)

With cruising still sidelined until October 31 after the Centers for Disease Control extended its no-sail order, some analysts think the industry could be further compromised by the news that President Donald Trump has contracted the coronavirus.

The revelation caused the stock market to fall on Friday, and Paul Golding, an analyst at Macquarie, told Business Insider that an event raising the visibility of the virus could “potentially alter the timeline for full resumption for the cruise lines.”

The publication noted that travel industry experts don’t believe the diagnosis of the President and First Lady Melania Trump will have an overarching effect. But Golding is wary, saying that any high-profile news about COVID-19 only pushes it further into the spotlight and could disrupt the cruise lines’ reopening plans.

“Any increased visibility around the seriousness and pervasiveness of COVID, whether it’s a second wave or politically related … likely [has] a negative impact in our view on cruising demand and supply,” Golding said. “We would expect that to potentially alter the timeline for full resumption for the cruise lines.”

Golding also said the potential of a new administration in January, if Democratic challenger Joe Biden beats Trump in the national election next month, could also affect the industry.

But Harry Harteveldt doesn’t agree.

“I don’t believe the president getting COVID will affect travel in a material way,” Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, which focuses on the global travel industry, told Business Insider.

“There’s really too much money to be made in this business for the business to go away,” Bob Levinstein, CEO of Cruise Complete, a service that allows cruise customers to compare prices, told Business Insider earlier this year.