Cruise & Maritime Voyage falls victim to Covid-19


Cruise and Maritime Voyages, a company operating mainly in the English, French and German markets, has filed for bankruptcy because of the economic crisis caused by the global pandemic.

CMV is famous for its cruises from the United Kingdom using old but historic ships with some of the longest times in service. The company had plans for expansion before the coronavirus struck, with two ships scheduled to be purchased from P&O Australia for the 2021 season. The suspension of cruises was initially expected until fall, when they would have been able to start cruising again to the Canary Islands and Morocco as well as the Baltics and Norway.

The company’s fate took a turn for the worse when the Foreign Office issued its warning for all cruise travel, with the exception of rivers, indefinitely. Faced with this, the company was no longer able to obtain financing and had to declare a state of crisis. All the company’s departures and reservations have now been canceled.

The economic difficulties have existed for a while. For instance the situation that happened in June, when the Federation of International Transport Workers highlighted the case of 47 crew members on board the Astoria in the Thames estuary. The crew went on a hunger strike in an attempt to obtain payment of their wages and repatriation to their countries of origin.

The declaration of the Foreign Office was really the final blow for this company that undoubtedly was mostly sustained by the British public. The fate of the company, and its entire fleet, is now uncertain. In the current crises we have seen even much more modern ships be dismantled, so the worst is to be feared even for historic ships such as the Astoria and the Marco Polo.

Information, updates and Reviews of Cruise & Maritime Voyages on Cruising Journal.

Gabriele Bassi

Comments