The crisis-ridden cruise industry is starting the season in Germany

The crisis-ridden cruise industry is starting the season in Germany after a corona break of several months. The "Aidasol" of the Carnival subsidiary Aida Cruises made the start in Kiel. According to the shipping company, the ship is fully booked and has about 900 passengers on board for a short tour in the Baltic Sea. Tomorrow, Whitsunday, Tui Cruises will follow with "Mein Schiff 1". The joint venture of the tourism giant Tui and the cruise company Royal Caribbean is starting a "blue voyage" like Aida, in which the holidaymakers initially stay on the Baltic Sea for the whole time without going ashore. After the first corona shock and the summer restart in 2020 as well as the renewed lockdown in autumn, this is the second attempt with which the shipping companies want to build on the abruptly interrupted long-term cruise boom. The cruise industry owes the "New Start 2.0" in Kiel to the falling numbers of new corona infections in Schleswig-Holstein. The land between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea has had by far the lowest values in Germany for a long time. The state government therefore opened tourism in mid-May - under strict guidelines, travelers are allowed anywhere in the country. "This is an important and correct step. Sea tourism is of great regional economic importance and gives people back a piece of freedom," said the managing director of Seehafen Kiel GmbH, Dirk Claus. Strict hygiene and safety rules await the crusaders as well as the crews; the ships are only about half full. Corona tests are compulsory, distance rules and a mask requirement apply on board. Instead of standing at the buffet, the guests are served their food at the table. There are separate protocols for cases of infection to ensure that passengers can be isolated and that all contacts can be traced.