Could inactive cruise ships become pop-up hotels in UK seaside resorts?

Cruise ships that are currently anchored and inactive off Britain’s coast are set to temporarily become pop-up hotels, a seaside council official said.

Steve Darling, the Liberal Democrat leader of Torbay Council in Devon, has called on cruise lines whose ships are moored in the bay to consider opening them up to overnight guests to ease the demand for a vacation in the south -Where is.

Right now, almost all of the world’s 270 cruise ships before the pandemic are idle, and a significant number of them are anchored off the south coast of England.

Explorer Marella and MS from Holland-America Zaandam are barely a mile from shore, while Cunard’s Queen mary 2, Marella Explorer 2 and P&O Cruises’ Arcadia and Ventura are just north, off the coast between Babbacombe and Teignmouth.

Mr. Darling said The independent: “In any normal summer I think I would have a lot of heartache from local accommodation providers suggesting additional capacity, but with so much uncertainty on international travel this summer they are all likely to sell.

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“In what could be an extremely busy summer, you can’t just create additional capacity.

“When we think ‘How do we create a pop-up capacity?’ it’s already on the doorstep.

“We may also be building relationships with a few cruise lines so that they can stop over in Torbay in the future.”

In the absence of a port capable of receiving cruise ships, ships are forced to use tenders to disembark passengers.

CruiseTimetables.com currently only shows two cruise ships scheduled to call in Torbay in 2021: the German ship Artania on May 31, July 7 and September 23, and Silver Spirit of Silversea on September 26.

Mr Darling said cruise ships currently at anchor are now part of the community, with locals collecting Christmas presents for the reduced crew on board.

The council chief dismissed the suggestion that increasing overnight guests could add additional pressure on Torbay’s limited resources.

“Either way, we’re going to have hordes of people camping out here. If someone from the Midlands is unable to make a reservation, they can come for a day.

A spokesperson for Marella, the cruise company owned by Tui, said: “Our main goal is to keep our ships in service for our customers as soon as possible.”

Since the 1980s, cruise ships have been deployed to host major sporting events, including the Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2014 and the Summer Games in Rio.

They are also expected to be drafted for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

There are relatively few examples in the world of cruise ships becoming permanent accommodation.

Two old Cunard liners, Queen mary and the QE2, are currently floating hotels – in Long Beach, California and Dubai respectively.

But Katie King, former director of marketing for the QE2 in Dubai, said: “The QE2 is one of the world’s most famous ocean liners afloat, with a history and history spanning over 50 years.

“It is difficult for a modern liner to offer such a rich cultural experience. If the QE2 was not it the QE2 , would it have been a successful project? The answer is, unlikely. It was bought and restored because it is the QE2. “


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Port cities | Manila weather

THE whole world was connected to each other by commerce in the days of Humabon. In Asia – from India to East and South-East Asia – it was mainly through a sea-oriented trade network. In archipelagic South-East Asia, maritime trade s ‘articulated around a series of interconnected warehouses supplying the needs of global, regional and domestic trade.

As historian Geoff Wade argues, some policies implemented by the Song and Yuan dynasties in China centuries before Humabon had enormous repercussions that were seen – and generally taken for granted – in the 16th century. For example, the Chinese pushed Southeast Asia into a sophisticated trading system that used metal-based currencies and international trade (with fluctuating value) that hypnotized Pigafetta in Cebu.

The supply of and demand for metallic currency between China, Japan, and Southeast Asia largely justified the institutionalization of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade in the early years of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines. The Galion Trade, for its part, served as an indirect peaceful solution to the deterioration of relations between China and Japan, due to a trade imbalance between the two countries which prompted the former to impose restrictions on exports and forced the Japanese to resort to piracy (wako).

International maritime trade in Southeast Asia, according to historian Kenneth Hall, was primarily responsible for the massive and massive changes in the region, as evidenced by the many warehouses in the Philippines, including the port cities of Cebu and Manila as well as the Islamized. Mindanao and Sulu region.

Influential warehouses have emerged in Malacca and southern China to handle global, regional and even domestic trade; they were often interconnected with each other. Warehouses in southern China were vitally important to the development of small warehouses in Borneo, Sulu and Cebu, according to research by Roderich Ptak. The Chinese decided to bypass the increasingly intransigent Java Sea link, and established direct links with Borneo, Sulu and Cebu.

Borneo, in particular, benefited from the fall of Malacca to the Portuguese in 1511 as much of Chinese trade was diverted there as a result, enough to warrant the existence of an embassy. The links of Borneo-Brunei politics with the warehouse of Sulu and Tondo-Manila are well documented. Knowledge of maritime trade in Southeast Asia will illuminate and explain the scope of the Tondo Conspiracy of 1587-1588 (against Spain).

The connection of the Borneo-Sulu region with the Java Sea link should not be ignored either. Later researchers discovered some flaws in Cesar Majul’s magnum opus, Muslims in the Philippines, but his claim that the Philippines was part of what he called “Malaysia” – what our friends at the Philippine Historical Association call the “Malay world” – remains true. until now. It is also universally accepted that the way of Islam in the Philippines is the same for maritime trade in this part of archipelagic Southeast Asia.

Historian Vicente Villan speaks passionately about Panay’s strategic location before and especially after the entrenchment of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines. However, increasingly after the onset of Spanish colonialism, the focus shifted from maritime trade to the military conflict between Panay as the pivot – according to Villan – of the Spanish colonial power vis-à-vis Tondo-Manila. (before it succumbed to the Spaniards and even after it became the seat of colonial power), and even more so with the booming Islamic South.

Certainly, conflict and trade went hand in hand in the relations between warehouses, even before the arrival and establishment of the Spanish colonial power. This should help (in part) explain the animosity between Humabon and Lapulapu in 1521. Warehouses were, after all, business rivals and partners at the same time.

In some ways, Spanish colonialism changed the landscape of international maritime trade in Southeast Asia with the promotion of Manila as arguably the region’s premier warehouse. According to Ubaldo Iaccarino, “in just a few short years, Manila has become a thriving warehouse and a crossroads between the Americas, China and Japan, primarily for the exchange of Japanese and Mexican money with Chinese silks and porcelain.”

Manila was already a warehouse before the 1570s, but the galleon trade made it the envy of Southeast Asia. However, the transformation of Manila with its massive importance to Chinese and Japanese trade which was virtually cut off from other important warehouses spawned hostility towards the Philippines not only from other colonial powers like Portugal and the Netherlands, but mostly from the commercially displaced Muslim south.

I don’t see the fiftieth as an opportunity to glorify an individual or an event. This is an opportunity to reflect on the events that changed the landscape and their implications for the world we live in today.

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Birthday greetings to future academic heavyweight Maui Hernandez (March 18).


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North Yorkshire seaside resorts during lockdown – photo essay | Photography

YesThe seaside resorts of Orkshire have always been a mixture of beach pleasure, fishing port, active heritage and rugged beauty. They bring back happy memories of my childhood family vacations, but over the past few years they’ve also been a place to go during the cold winter months while vacationers are at home.

The Union flag flies at half mast in Whitby.
Clara's cafe, on West Cliff, has remained open throughout the latest coronavirus restrictions.
The Olympia Leisure and Coney Island arcades in Scarborough.

It has been a winter secret. A secret which this year has a darker tone. The rugged beauty and blue light of winter, the biting cold wind and the invigorating walks along the beaches and cliffs are always heartwarming. But the cities are empty. The upcoming summer season may still prove to be one where we embrace our vacation legacy once again, but for now, the latest coronavirus lockdown has closed the doors to our resorts and left them soulless.

The window of a store closed due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Taylor Made Fun, the front of the playroom in Scarborough and (r) the mini-golf hut on North Bay.

During the first lockdown last March, hand-made road signs outside Whitby urged people not to visit and to “come home”. The beautiful spring weather and the pull of the coast had been too much for some. These signs are gone now. The message and the severity of the pandemic are well and truly understood. The weariness of the population has set in. A strange void greets any visitor to the Scarborough, Whitby and Filey Walks.

Filey Beach towards Flamborough.

A Union flag flies at half mast as a line of inactive minicab drivers sits outside the station. Whitby is the end of the line. The air temperature is freezing -7ºC and Bram Stoker’s Dracula would find inspiration in his desolation. Goths are no longer to be seen in Whitby and the pandemic is darkening the mood of those who need to work here.

The interior of a travel agency in Whitby closed during the lockdown.
Fun City and Pleasureland arcades which have remained closed throughout the coronavirus restrictions in Whitby.

It’s not difficult to socially distance yourself on Yorkshire beaches these days. Twice a day the tide reveals beautiful beaches on long open bays. An eight-kilometer walk will take you from one end of Filey Beach to the other. It grew from a small fishing town to a Victorian seaside resort where in summer the beach typically hosted young families playing games, traveling retirees and young couples holding hands.

Scarborough Harbor at low tide and (r) snow covers the coastal walk from Whtiby to Sandsend.
People stroll along the beach, with Filey Brigg in the background.
The Royal Hotel remains closed in Whitby.

The pandemic has been difficult and a time of desperation for many. Personally, it has been a quest to keep the health of our family intact and to continue working. It is also an opportunity to reassess. To look ahead, sometimes you have to look back to find out what really matters. For my generation, traveling to the coast would have played a big part in their youth. The lockdowns have temporarily stripped the stations of their soul but the heartbeat will soon return and my winter secret will again be a summer delight to many.

A shop window in Scarborough and (r) a fisherman looks at damaged boats which are only revealed at low tide.
The paddling pool for children on the Filey promenade.


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