The Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line work hand in hand to develop health and hygiene protocols for the cruise industry. The results will benefit the entire industry.
In order to escape the image of a "virus spinner" and finally get the masses back on board, many shipping companies are working intensively on the development of special protocols to convincingly ensure health safety on board and during excursions. Now two giants of the industry, the competitors Royal Caribbean Group (RCI) and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), are cooperating in the development of such a protocol - with the aim of establishing generally applicable rules.
Specifically, a working group called "Healthy Sail Panel" was set up. Its chairmen are "neutral": Mike Leavitt, a former governor of the State of Utah and former Secretary of Health during the presidency of George W. Bush, and Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They will work with the professionals at RCI and NCL to develop recommendations that will be available to the entire cruise industry. They are expected to be available by the end of August 2020.
Richard Fain, CEO of Royal Caribbean, talks about the workings and objectives of the Healthy Sail Panel, and why it takes so long to develop recommendations. First of all, this has to do with the complexity of the modern cruise industry, with hotels, restaurants, casinos, attractions and more on ships, and with the enormous bureaucratic work involved in getting these protocols approved by the authorities.
