Tour operator Corendon cancels all trips until March 31, 2020

Cancelling holidays due to worldwide measures regarding coronavirus

Corendon has today decided to cancel all of its trips and cruises with departures from tomorrow through Wednesday, March 31, 2020. The decision is the result of the far-reaching measures that are now being taken worldwide to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Because of these unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, Corendon no longer considers it justifiable to continue vacations. With this exceptional decision, the travel company simultaneously responds to the loud calls of customers who would rather stay at home than go on vacation. Corendon’s affected customers will be informed of this decision by email today. A decision will be taken at a later stage on departure dates after March 31, 2020. Holidaymakers who are now on holiday will fly back to the Netherlands and Belgium on their regular return flight date.

Corendon CEO Steven van der Heijden said: “In recent days, several countries have decided to close all or part of their borders. This means that we can no longer carry out our holidays to those destinations. It is likely that even more countries will impose restrictions on travellers in the coming days. In addition, we fear that we may not be able to offer our customers at the holiday destination the holiday they may expect at this time due to restrictions imposed by local authorities or in the near future. Public life in the holiday destination is very much at risk because restaurants, bars, museums and shopping centres are closed. In addition, there is a chance that someone in their accommodation will experience quarantine as a result of infections. Finally, it cannot be ruled out that the Dutch and Belgian governments will impose further restrictions. Therefore, we cannot currently guarantee that customers will fly back to the Netherlands and Belgium on the planned date if they do go on holiday.

In recent days, we have also noticed that an increasing number of our customers prefer to stay at home in this exceptional situation. And we can well imagine that. In an aeroplane you often sit close to each other with more than a hundred other travellers and flying is emotionally comparable to public transport. Certainly for vulnerable groups (elderly people and people with health problems), the government currently strongly advises against this. In summary: we cannot currently guarantee our customers a safe and carefree holiday. Therefore, unfortunately, the trips are cancelled.”

Saturday, March 14, 2020