CEO: Royal Caribbean looking to hire as many Bahamians as it can

Royal Caribbean International (RCI) has begun to increase hiring for Perfect Day at Coco Cay as business picks up, revealed RCI Chief Executive Officer Michael Bayley, who added that the cruise ship company wants to hire as many Bahamians as it can.

Bayley, who made the remarks to the media on Wednesday during at a reception on the Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship, said the COVID-19 pandemic led to a freeze in hiring, which has restarted recently as the cruise line begins to bring more ships back into service.

“We’re now beginning the hiring process,” said Bayley. “Overall I would say that as we’re all coming out of the pandemic and we’re all beginning to see demand coming back, we’re all hopeful that over the next six to 12 months we’re going to get back to normal and our commitment is pretty clear, we want to be hiring Bahamians and we want to hire as many as we can.”

In 2018, RCI committed to hiring 200 Bahamians per year for its cruise ships and Perfect Day and fulfilled its commitment that year.

In June, then Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes said the cruise line had recently hired 112 Bahamians and was working toward hiring 250. Foulkes also said then that Carnival Cruise Line was interested in hiring 250 Bahamians as well and had already hired 50 by June. He added that Disney was also looking for Bahamians to work on its cruise line. The company announced earlier this year that it is looking to have an all-Bahamian workforce on its private island.

Bayley said Perfect Day is a fairly significant employer for the cruise line and explained that much of the management team on the island is comprised of Bahamians.

“That hiring will now continue to ramp up as well, because we’re starting to bring more and more tourists to Perfect Day,” he said.

He added that the cruise line will continue to support and sponsor maritime cadets who come into the organization, with the hopes that one day they will develop the first Bahamian captain to “bring one of Royal Caribbean’s flagships into the Port of Nassau”.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/ceo-royal-caribbean-looking-to-hire-as-many-bahamians-as-it-can/