- The travel, festival and broader hospitality sectors have been badly hit by Covid-19 restrictions over the past 12 months
- Cruise business Saga has set new vaccination rules ahead of updating on trading on 26 January
- Questions remain about how far inoculations will help tourism and entertainment companies in the short-term, with testing helping to create safer, more secure environments
In early February, worrying news emerged from the waters of Yokohama. The Diamond Princess – a ship operated by Princess Cruises – had been quarantined off the coast of the Japanese city, due to several confirmed cases of coronavirus.
As the number of infections on board continued to mount, the enormous, sequestered boat became a precursor for the devastating blow that Covid-19 would deal not only to the cruise industry, but also to the travel and hospitality sectors at large. Shares in Carnival (CCL), Princess Cruise’s parent company, lost more than four-fifths of their value during the two months after the Diamond outbreak.