How COVID-19 Has Been Affecting the Overall Cruise Ship Design Paradigm

ABSTRACT

The actual, global pandemic situation has dramatically involved every aspect of our lives. This also greatly affected the cruise ship industry. At first, cruise companies tried to face the problem by adapting existing ships at the situation, with no time to rethink completely their project. The opinion of scientists, architects and field experts highlighted the need to devise a new way to design cruise ships, considering passenger management, marketing and medical aspects. Particular attention must be paid to public areas, where individuals would be most vulnerable to airborne transmission. The sanitizing operations have now to follow even stricter operational protocols than in the past. A constant update monitoring of the passenger flows through the so-called smart technologies would allow, when dealing with a suspected case, to trace a timeline of its activities on board and, therefore, to avoid the rise of an outbreak. An implementation of the overall efficiency of vertical connections (which helps the management of potentially contaminated waste) and on-board medical spaces such as the hospital and the pharmacy shall be advised. From an anthropological point of view, it is essential to consider in more depth issues such as social distancing and the possibility of permanently decreasing the number of passengers, in favour of safety and on-board liveability. In the post COVID-19 era, the cruise ship can become a 'health bubble', a microcosm where people can enjoy an even more rewarding and safe experience. © 2022 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.