According to travel industry publication Travel Weekly, Royal Caribbean is set to lay off 25 percent of its shoreside staff. The downsizing comes amid rising record fuel prices, weak dollar, and expensive new cruise ship builds. Sources cite that the company is expected to downsize its staff and make budget cuts.
In the article Travel Weekly quoted a Credit Suisse Bank analyst who stated that the reductions and budget cuts could save the line $200 million.
Royal Caribbean did not confirm nor deny the layoff rumors. “We continuously look for ways to operate more efficiently without compromising the experience of our guests and travel agent partners,” said Lynn Martenstein, Royal Caribbean’s vice president of corporate communications. “Today’s operating environment, with astronomical increases in fuel costs, puts even more pressure on us to find ways to control our costs. Like most companies today, we are redoubling our efforts to find savings, but we have not announced any specific actions.”
Royal Caribbean will report its second quarter earnings on July 22. Cruise industry sources in the Travel Weekly article say the line’s cuts are expected to be announced prior to that date.
(Editor’s note: We incorrectly identified the source of this article to be Seatrade Insider — we have since corrected the source of the story to Travel Weekly. We apologize for the mix up.)
so is this true? I am confused with the last part about the source of the news.
Hello Lee,
Travel Weekly reported the percentage amount. I guess we will know the real news when Royal Caribbean decides to release it. It’s unfortunate that people will be losing their jobs — I certainly hope it’s not 25% or any at all for that matter.
Best,
Anita
Thats wack. My wife works there. There goes my cruise discounts.
It’s true alright, my brother and at least 12 others in his dept. are getting laid off tomorrow.
My fiancee works in the Wichita, KS office and this morning he went in and the layoffs have started. A woman he works with who has been with the compnay since 99 and his supervisor were among the first this morning. We are very concerned that he will be one of the ones laid off.
[...] foot call center employs approximately 600 people and has been in opertion since 1997. According to blog posts on ExpertCruiser.com the layoffs have [...]
This is terrible news for the cruise industry.
Well, it’s official. They laid off a bunch of people yesterday, my fiancee being one of them. It seems that they started from the people with most seniority and worked their way down. The admin girls were cut almost completely. One of the trainers, 3 supervisors and 4 people form my fiancee’s team. There were cuts in Miami and in Oregon as well.
And it keeps getting better. They made my fiancee sign a piece of paper stating that he would forfeit his severance if he talked to a news media or if he filed a lawsuit. They are basically holding their severances hostage. Royal Caribbean has tried to put up the front that they are family oriented and care for their employees and like to promote company loyalty. This was so opposite of their public persona.
[...] ex-employees are speaking out. A family member of a fired employee wrote the following on ExpertCruiser’s blog: “They made my fiancée sign a piece of paper stating that he would forfeit his severance if [...]