Le Laperouse forced to cancel her season after majority of ship’s crew members were declined visas.
The New Zealand Department of Immigration has declined to approve visas for 61 of the 90 crew members aboard Ponant’s Le Laperouse, forcing the cruise line to cancel its upcoming New Zealand season.
Visas were issued for 29 technical crew members, however Immigration New Zealand was not prepared to issue visas to the 61 hotel staff, as they were “not considered critical to the ship’s entry” to New Zealand.
The cruise line originally submitted an application in October, which the Ministry of Health approved two months later.
“Ponant has invested millions of dollars promoting New Zealand internationally, and operating in NZ seasonally for the past seven years…we hope there is a quick review of the processes for expedition ships to operate in New Zealand and that the 2021-2022 season can be saved,” the cruise line said.
More in tomorrow’s Cruise Weekly and today’s Travel Daily.
Image courtesy of Ponant/Dara Munnis