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Asia-based cruise execs affirm commitment to passenger safety

Asia-based cruise execs affirm commitment to passenger safety
Asia-based executives from Royal Caribbean Cruises and Star Cruises have affirmed that collaborating on safety at sea for passengers and maintaining the highest level of safety standards are part of their operational readiness with no room for compromise.

Sean Treacy, managing director Singapore & Southeast Asia, Royal Caribbean Cruises, highlighted that the cruise industry as a whole has collaborated well on enhancing safety standards and sharing safe practices.

'We can compete and talk about who has better ships, who has better facilities or more interesting destinations and so forth. But on the issue of safety, we collaborate quite a bit and address safety as a whole,' Treacy told delegates at the International Safety@Sea Conference held in Singapore on Wednesday.

He pointed out that it is compulsory for cruise ships, particularly larger ones, to conduct an emergency response and preparedness safety drill for the passengers before the ship departs the port.

Havard Ramsoy, vp nautical operation, Star Cruises, pointed out that maintaining a safety culture amongst crew is indeed challenging but not impossible.

'Ships getting bigger is making a difference to the way we approach the issue of safe operations. We have to keep up the momentum on safe operations, train our crew a lot, engage and motivate the crew, and always keep them involved,' Ramsoy shared.

On the issue of getting passengers to watch safety videos, Ramsoy said the cruise shipping industry can copy what the airline sector is doing, by producing safety videos that incorporate the use of animation and humour so as to catch the attention of the viewers.

Katy Ware, director of maritime safety and standards, UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency, recalled the grounding of Costa Concordia where investigations uncovered the shortcomings in the procedures of the crew during emergency and the action of the captain who abandoned the ship prematurely.

Ware emphasised that the role of behavioural based safety and human factors play a huge part in safe operations and risk management.

Ramsoy concurred: 'Operational readiness is about the people. There must be a focus on people: The emphasis is on "safety-minded thinking" – these are the kinds of people you want on the ships.'