SALISBURY, Md. - The cruise ship tragedy off the coast of Italy has captured the attention of the entire world. But are people thinking twice about taking a cruise?
Most people we spoke with say they think there may be at least a temporary impact on travel aboard cruise ships. Still, local travel agents say this accident aboard the Costa Concordia was very much an isolated incident.
"To have an incident like this is so very, very unusual," explained John Hall of Hall's Tidewater Travel in Salisbury.
With the tragedy of the cruise ship that ran aground off the Italian coast still fresh on everyone's minds, Hall said it is important to note just how unusual such an accident really is.
"Cruise ships are very, very specific as far as their safety measures go and they believe in training their people. They believe in training the passengers to respond when there is an incident," he explained.
Unfortunately, in the case of the Costa Concordia, those training drills had not yet occurred. Yet in spite of this tragedy at sea, most people we spoke with do not think the cruise industry will take any major hits.
"It's like an airplane crash," said John Culp of Allen. "It happens so seldom, you know, the probability is, you're going to be fine so I don't think you can let one event scare you away when thousands and thousands and thousands of people do the same thing and are fine."
Some 100,000 people a week in the U.S. go on cruises. But others, like George Ward of Stockton, say they think the recent accident could impact the cruise industry.
"I think some people are going to think twice before they book another cruise," Ward said.
In the case of this particular accident, officials have ruled human error the cause.
"They do a lot with maintenance of their cruise ships but they have to resolve issues with their personnel," said Dee Neal of Salisbury.
According to Hall, those discussions are already happening.
As far as cruise costs are concerned, travel agents said prices are already at rock bottom. They don't think they'll go down any further in the wake of this recent cruise ship accident.
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