TUI has cancelled in-house cruise line Marella’s Asia and Middle East programme from November 2024 to the end of April 2025.

In a message sent to customers, seen by Travel Gossip, TUI said the cancellations were due to the ongoing conflict in the Red Sea.

It said: “Unfortunately, the ongoing conflict shows no signs of stabilising and continues to make travelling to and from Asia by sea high risk.”

TUI said it had been looking at ‘alternative routes’ to Asia, but added its options were ‘extremely limited’. 

As a result, it said it had cancelled its Asia and Middle East programme for next winter. Marella had previously cancelled Discovery 2’s repositioning cruises, which were due to take place this month and next, due to the risk of transporting passengers from Asia to Europe via the Red Sea.

Marella currently has no Asia or Middle East cruises available to book and it has given no indication of where it will deploy Discovery 2 next winter instead.

Guests on the cancelled cruises can rebook another cruise with a £200 per person discount before 29 April 2024, or cancel and receive a full refund.

In a statement sent to Travel Gossip, TUI said: “For the safety of our customers and crew, we can confirm that due to the ongoing conflict in the Red Sea area we have made the difficult decision to cancel our Asia and Middle East programme between 1 November 2024 – 30 April 2025.

“We appreciate how disappointing this news will be and therefore all impacted customers will be contacted by their booking agent to discuss the options available to them. Options include being able to rebook with a £200 per person reduction or receive a full refund

”Once again we apologise for the disappointment and inconvenience caused to impacted customers and we hope to see them on board a Marella Cruise very soon.”