Seattle Cruise Line Drops Middle East Trips

Bookings Down 40 Percent

Posted: 3:01 p.m. PDT September 28, 2001

SEATTLE, Wash. -- Hoping to ease travel fears, the Holland America cruise line is dropping some Middle East stops and offering shorter cruises from United States ports.

The Seattle-based company is marketing shipboard travel as an easy way to see the world without getting on an airplane.

A cruise to the Panama Canal that used to require a one-way flight, for example, will be changed to a round-trip cruise leaving from and returning to Fort Lauderdale.

Holland America had about 40 percent fewer bookings this week than in the same week last year.

The changes for next year's cruises will add 19 new weekly roundtrips from Florida to the Caribbean.

http://www.koin.com/c6k/news/stories/news-99679920010928-170912.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 02, 2001