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Goldstein: Costa Concordia ‘defining moment’ in cruise history

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Goldstein - safety 'a journey rather than a destination'
‘The Costa Concordia accident is a defining moment in the history of the modern cruise industry,’ Adam Goldstein, president and ceo of Royal Caribbean International, writes on his blog. While Costa Concordia has been the focus of all cruise line leaders, Goldstein is the first executive outside of Costa Crociere and the Carnival group to publicly comment on the tragedy—in the context of needing to learn from what happened, stressing his company’s commitment to constant improvement and urging continuous vigilance and commitment by his colleagues shipboard and shoreside.

‘We will need the results of the authorities’ investigations to truly understand and respond to all of the implications,’ Goldstein continues. ‘But we do not need to wait for anyone or anything to underscore the preeminent role of safety in the daily life of every cruise ship and of the industry as a whole.’

Goldstein notes that, by coincidence, many captains and hotel directors were arriving in Florida for Royal Caribbean’s annual fleet operations conference over the weekend, giving himself and chairman and ceo Richard Fain the chance to underscore ‘both our excellent 42-year safety record and more importantly to emphasize the imperative of keeping our record intact into the future.’

Calling safety ‘a journey rather than a destination,’ Goldstein emphasizes the need to operate safely now, while constantly improving and seeking lessons in even every minor incident or accident then applying those learnings across the fleet ‘ASAP.’

He cites Fain’s stance that ‘there is no such thing as perfect safety but there is such a thing as perfect dedication to safety. We strive to be true to that concept.’

Goldstein also voices appreciation to his colleagues shipboard and shoreside for their commitment to safety and stresses that ‘our vigilance must encompass every drill, every training, every voyage plan, every analysis of incidents/accidents and every day of ship operations.’

The post is at www.answeritroyally.com/blog.