As we head into month six of the pandemic-related shutdown of most river cruising, the possibility of salvaging even the final weeks of the 2020 European and domestic seasons appears increasingly unlikely.
Two river lines, Crystal and Viking have canceled all of their 2020 sailings. And others have pushed back their potential restarts as late as November. Still, most don't seem quite ready to call the season completely.
And neither, it seems, do travelers.
According to the latest issue of CruiseCompete, which compiles data from monthly consumer quote requests for cruises, the most popular river queries last month were for December 2020 sailings. Searches for November sailings came in at No. 3, just after those for September 2021.
The fourth most popular month was April 2021, followed by next October and then next July.
Although the EU doesn't appear any closer to opening the Continent to Americans, Europe was still the most popular region among those seeking quotes for river cruises. And CruiseCompete said three-fifths of the quotes requested for sailings at the end of this year were for Europe.
Still, it remains anyone's guess if Americans will be able to sail in either region before the year is out.
Both domestic lines, American Cruise Lines and the American Queen Steamboat Co., are on hold indefinitely -- as much due to irregular and constantly changing state rules over travel and guest concerns about having to quarantine when they get home as to regional spikes in Covid-19 cases.
Similar issues are impacting travel across Europe, according to the European Tourism Manifesto, a public-private tourism alliance pushing for more uniform responses across the Schengen Zone and for greater international coordination to re-establish transatlantic travel.
While many Europeans were keen to travel this summer, the group says the inconsistent and ever-changing border restrictions, along with confusion about quarantine and test requirements, strongly impacted the 2020 summer travel season.
Hotel occupancy rates in Europe were at 26.5% in July 2020, a fall of 66.4% from the same month last year. And Europe's top five destinations of France, Germany, the U.K. and the Netherlands saw just 40% of their 2019 volumes for intra-European travel, while Spain was down to 22% of last year's volume the group said.
The signs don't look good. But it's nice to have a little bit of hope to hold onto.