Speaking to Seatrade Cruise News, Charman said Faststream’s cruise team was ‘incredibly busy’.
A specialist maritime and offshore recruitment agency, Faststream places senior staff onshore and officers and hotel staff on board ships, but is not involved in crewing or crew management.
The level of demand has seen cruise lines looking beyond normal sources for staff.
‘For example for these high end cruise ships there is a desperate shortage of chefs, to the point at which the cruise lines are now willing to take chefs from five star hotels, who have never been to sea, and are bringing them into the cruise ship environment,’ Charman stated.
Warning of a deeper than expected shortage of senior officer level seafarers in commercial shipping as a whole, Charman expects seafarers from the offshore sector who have moved to other areas such as cruising during the downturn will return to offshore when that market picks up again.
The latest Bimco/ICS Manpower Report published in 2016 identified an existing shortfall of about 16,500 officers (2.1%), and estimates the need for an additional 147,500 officers by 2025 to service the world fleet.
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