Lerwick businesses 'furious' after thousands of tourists from sickness bug cruise descend on the island

Press and Journal

22-05-2025

Businesses have been left 'furious' after cruise ship passengers were allowed to roam the streets of Lerwick despite a viral sickness bug being onboard.
Tourists descended on the town before tour guides were told people had taken ill with gastroenteritis onboard.
They arrived on Tuesday and were sitting aboard buses when two bus companies were informed of quarantines aboard the 290-metre long Costa Favolosa.
The boat can carry almost 4,000 passengers.
Bus company R. Robertson and Son managing director Sonia Robertson took the decision to pull the plug on the tours after one passenger got off one of their buses to be 'violently sick three times'.
And Lerwick shops were then puzzled to find a large influx of visitors – only to be warned by local tour guides why there were so many cruise passengers now in the town.
Both have questioned why the passengers were allowed to come ashore, particularly if people were being quarantined onboard.
Bus operator Sonia Robertson said she was 'a little bit baffled' why they were only told of the illness when tourists were already aboard their buses.
She decided to cancel the tours after one passenger was 'violently sick three times'.
'Something like this could cripple the whole company and affect a lot of our staff and services,' she said.
'It could be catastrophic for school transport, for public bus services.'
Robertson said deciding to pull the plug on the tours and thoroughly disinfecting their buses was 'going to cost us quite a fair bit of money'.
Meanwhile, Blyde Welcome café owner Celia Smith said they had only been told about the viral sickness aboard the boat through 'word of mouth' by tour guides.
She said: 'We did consider closing.
'As soon as anybody has left we've been disinfecting everything, like door handles.
'It's been like being back at the heart of Covid.'
She added there had been a 'complete disregard for the local community's safety'.
'Almost 3,000 passengers were allowed to roam free,' she said.
'People were picking up things and putting them back again, we were having to disinfect everything.'
Costa Cruises claimed its passengers had been cleared to disembark by 'local health authorities'.
The company confirmed that it had taken emergency health precautions on board the ship after a passenger reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illnesses during her seven day Northern Europe cruise.
The vessel is said to have been cleared and disinfected on Sunday while she was docked in Edinburgh.
But both NHS Shetland and Lerwick Port Authority, which controls the harbour, said they had been unaware of illness aboard the Costa Favolosa before Tuesday's visit.
NHS Shetland said it was only made aware of passengers with illness onboard 'late in the afternoon of Tuesday 20 May'.
And the LPA said it had 'not been notified of any passenger ill health onboard Costa Favolosa'.
It said vessels were required to declare any concerns relating to passenger health through their shipping agent to the local health authority.
It is understood the cruise operator may have mistakenly contacted a health board in a different area for clearance before arriving in Shetland which has its own NHS health board.