The outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship has not impacted demand for cruise holidays, agents say

Oceanwide Expeditions’ MV Hondius has seen an outbreak of the disease which has killed three people on board.

News of the deaths has led to widepsread media coverage and concerns infected passengers may spread the disease once they have disembarked. Two Britons are currently self-isolating and have not reported any symptoms.

The ship remains underway and is due to dock in Tenerife on Sunday (10 May). Once there, the 19 Britons on board are expected to be repatriated on a flight chartered by the UK Foreign Office, if they are symptom-free. They must then self-isolate for 45 days.

Despite the global coveage, agents have told Cruise Trade News they have not seen any mass hysteria prompt cruise booking cancellations or increased phone traffic from worried travellers.

Jonny Peat, director of cruise at Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “Our thoughts are with those impacted by the hantavirus outbreak. Fortunately, we haven’t seen any impact on sales or customer sentiment towards cruising at this point.

“Clearly, we are monitoring the situation closely and will keep our members and stakeholders informed should anything change.”

Meanwhile, Hays Travel said cruise bookings are up year on year, with no sign of slowing.

“Clearly there is a lot of media coverage about the Hantavirus outbreak which is worrying for those affected – however, the World Health Organisation has assessed the risk to the global population from this event as low,” a spokesperson said.

“Oceanwide Expeditions is not one of our suppliers and, so far, we have seen no impact on cruise bookings and received no calls from concerned customers.

“Our cruise bookings for sailings between this month and October are actually up on last year which suggests customers continue to feel confident with this choice of holiday and our supplier partners.”

Club Voyages managing director Sam Ballard agreed, saying: “It’s not really had much of an impact on us, to be honest. We’re got clients due to go on a cruise in the coming days – who I thought were the most likely candidates to mention it – and they’ve not said a word.”

ROL Cruise also confirmed the agency “hasn’t seen an impact on customer enquiries at this time”.