“The crisis has already escalated so much that hardly any cruise line will head to St Petersburg unless the war ends soon,” said Tapio Karvonen, Senior Researcher of Maritime Studies at the University of Turku in Finland.

He referred to the deepening of the crisis since Friday, when he spoke to CruiseBusiness.com about the potential effects of Russia’s attack on Ukraine for the cruise industry in Russian ports.

On Friday, Karvonen said that cruise lines that send their ships to call at Russian ports may find themselves facing a serious PR problem given the country’s war in Ukraine ahead of the start of the cruise season in the Baltic, an academic has warned.

“There are high expectations regarding the cruise season in the Baltic this year. However, the war will reduce the numbers of passengers,” he said.

“However, it is possible that quite a few people will cancel their bookings particularly Americans,” he told CruiseBusiness.com 

But the booking volumes are not the only consideration that cruise line will need to think of when they think whether or not to operate their itineraries in the Baltic and calls in St Petersburg. 

“It is possible that calling at Russian ports can do serious harm to the image of cruise lines that do this, the attractions of St Petersburg are not an argument to use in marketing right now,” he said.

The risk of calls at Russian ports becoming toxic would increase should the conflict become an extended one, Karvonen said, adding that the lines need to think about the possible long term effects of operating cruises to Russian ports in the current situation.