Many people looking for respite from stay-at-home orders are sea-bound according to a travel agency, which reported a 600% surge in Carnival cruise bookings the day the company announced plans to restart cruises.
Carnival Cruise Line announced May 4 its plans to resume sailings in the summer beginning Aug. 1. Cruise Planners, an American Travel Agency franchise network, reported a 600% boost in bookings compared to the same date last year, according to WFLA.
Carnival will start with eight of its ships leaving from Port Canaveral, Miami, and Galveston after the North American cruises from June 27 to July 31 were cancelled, WESH reported.
A kite surfer passes in front of an anchored Carnival cruise ship on April 20, 2020 in Huntington Beach, California. (Photo by Michael Heiman/Getty Images)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a no sail order in mid-March and then extended it to April amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The combined sales for three days after the May 4 announcement also surged, making up a 200% increase when compared to the same date range last year, Cruise Planners said according to WFLA.
Cruise Planners told WFLA that the increase in bookings is specific to the performance of Cruise Planners’ network of 2,500 travel advisors and shouldn’t be considered indicative of sales performance for Carnival Cruise Line overall.
As the warmer weather arrives in most parts of the country, Americans appear to be becoming restless, traveling across state lines in some cases in search of temporary relief from stay-at-home orders that may have an indefinite expiration date.
People walk by the closed pier, beach and strand amid the novel coronavirus pandemic on April 28, 2020, in Manhattan Beach, California.(Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
Californians are traveling to Arizona’s Lake Havasu, where gas stations are selling out of fuel and beer and hotels are filling up with tourists who’ve developed cabin fever. (RELATED: Californians Flock To Arizona Lake Amid Gov. Newsom’s Stay-At-Home Orders)