Cruise industry faces skilled staff shortage

The booming cruise industry is looking for ways to plug a growing shortage of qualified hotel staff to man its ships.

UK cruise market analyst Peter Wild predicts the sector will need to fill 41,500 new jobs by 2005, of which two-thirds will be hotel staff.

According to the Passenger Shipping Association, cruises represent the fastest-growing sector in the leisure industry. Passenger numbers are expected to grow by 50% over the next 10 years and ship capacity to double, with more than 50 new cruise liners being built over the next three years.

But the cruise industry, which enjoyed the luxury of having waiting lists for staff 12 years ago, is now struggling to attract properly qualified waiters, stewards and cabin staff.

Operators are having to look for staff beyond the traditional Western European market, which has developed a well-established training system since the world's first maritime hotel academy opened in Austria, said John Bywater, UK managing director of the Maritime Leisure Group consortium, which owns the academy.

Staff from China, India and Indonesia are all being wooed, and a new training centre has been set up in Odessa in the Ukraine with European Union funds.

Ship staff need additional training in safety, fire fighting and crowd control, said Bywater. Pay tends to be better than on-shore jobs, and largely tax-free, as contracts are for at least six months. Also, staff are often promoted faster than on land, although sometimes before they are ready. The main downside is the seven-day week.

While the Caribbean remains a prime destination for cruises, areas such as Alaska, the Far and Middle East, the Baltic and the Mediterranean are all growing fast.

The issues will be debated at the inaugural Maritime Hotel Conference, to be held at the Cruise and Ferry 2001 conference and exhibition at London's Olympia between 8-10 May.

by Angela Frewin angela.frewin@rbi.co.uk

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 15-21 February 2001