Page 14: of Marine News Magazine (January 2022)

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Column

Passenger Vessels

Pandemic Setback Strengthens

Resolve to Remain Positive

By Mike Corrigan, CEO, Interferry

Interferry CEO Mike Corrigan looks beyond the latest COVID-19 complications to explain why the global trade association has reasons to believe the industry’s future is ultimately secure.

Now, however, that hope has been somewhat diluted

If I had been by a single word: Omicron. This ultra-transmissible new variant of the virus has reignited the familiar ? ow of re- writing this column strictions on life in general and travel in particular. The just a few weeks earlier than late December, my opening outlook for the foreseeable future is yet again cloaked in remarks would have been decidedly upbeat. After two uncertainty, but one thing is absolutely predictable: Inter- devastating years under the cloud of COVID-19, the pan- ferry and its membership of 260 operators and suppliers demic seemed to be in ever-growing retreat and the pas- in 40 countries will continue working together to ensure senger ferry sector was poised to turn the corner toward commercial and regulatory readiness for the better times ‘business as normal’ in 2022. that surely lie ahead. © Udo Ingber / Adobe Stock 14 | MN January 2022