Richard Welge is new Vice President Customer Experience of AIDA Cruises

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

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Published: 31 July 2015 31 July 2015

Richard Welge (49) is the new Vice President Customer Experience of AIDA Cruises. He reports directly to Michael Ungerer, President of AIDA Cruises, in this newly created position.
"I am delighted to have Richard Welge on board as an experienced professional who will help us be even more consistent about putting guests first in everything we do and continue to drive our company's growth," said Ungerer.

"I look forward to helping to shape such a highly emotional product as AIDA in the future. I am excited that AIDA has created this new position as an expression of its determination to truly put guests first," Welge stated.

Welge has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience in a wide variety of industries and a strong track record of focusing on customer satisfaction and delivering a seamless product experience. Welge hails from PAYBACK where he was Head of Marketing. Prior to that, he held various management positions at comdirect bank for twelve years, most recently serving as Head of Marketing and Sales for eight years. Welge has an interesting biography. He grew up in Namibia and obtained a degree in business administration in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is married with two children.

AIDA Cruises is one of Germany’s fastest growing and most financially successful tourism businesses and currently employs around 7,000 people from 40 countries. Of these employees, 6,000 work on board and 1,000 work at the company headquarters in Rostock and Hamburg. With its 10 cruise ships, AlDA currently operates and markets one of the most state-of-the-art fleets in the world. The ships are operated in compliance with the highest international quality, environmental, and safety standards. By 2020, the AIDA fleet will expand to 14 ships.

Costa Group Appoints Rahul Chakkara as New Chief Digital Officer

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

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Published: 31 July 2015 31 July 2015

Effective Aug. 1, 2015, Rahul Chakkara will join the Costa Group leadership team as the new chief digital officer following the creation of the Costa Group Digital Unit in Hamburg earlier this year. He will report directly to Michael Thamm, chief executive officer of Costa Group.

"I am very pleased that, with Rahul, we have acquired a top leader with international experience who will successfully drive the continuing growth of our company by placing digital at the heart of the customer engagement, operations and service, and employee experience," said Thamm.

Before joining Costa Group Chakkara was at TalkTalk plc, a telecommunications company in United Kingdom, where he successfully led the digital transformation in the consumer division. Previously, he was general manager, future media, at the BBC, where he had a leading role in the development of BBC's iPlayer and Youview.

The Costa Group Digital Unit was founded in spring 2015 in Hamburg with the aim of supporting Costa Group brands Costa Cruises, Costa Asia and AIDA Cruises, using digital innovation, products and technologies to improve customer engagement and satisfaction and -- above all -- to further enhance the safety of our guests and crew through additional digitization and support of environmental, safety and security processes within the Costa Group.

UK law firm Hill Dickinson successfully defends class action in Norovirus case

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 31 July 2015 31 July 2015

In what is being seen as a landmark decision, Hill Dickinson is the first law firm to have successfully defended a UK class action case involving a Norovirus outbreak onboard a cruise liner, the company said in a statement. 

The case, which involved an outbreak of gastroenteritis onboard the Thomson Spirit, chartered by TUI UK limited and operated by Louis Cruises, was a 43-claimant class action, 28 of whom had alleged bacterial illness with the balance claiming breach of contract. The case was brought against TUI UK Limited who as contracting carrier would have been liable for the fault or neglect of the performing carrier, Louis, pursuant to the Athens Convention 1974.

Lawyers acting for the claimants had alleged that the outbreak was bacterial, caused by negligence on the part of the cruise line and poor adherence by the crew to the ship’s established outbreak response plan. In the alternative, if it was Norovirus, then the ship itself was the source of the outbreak and the crew then failed to implement its GI Outbreak procedures.

However, the performing carriers, Celestyal Cruises (Louis Cruise Lines) produced test results showing that this was a Norovirus attack rather than Campylobacter as alleged.

“The court accepted that the systems on board had been fully implemented by the officers and the crew to bring the virus under control and was influenced by the documentation produced to support the case, the fact that Louis tested for pathogens and the deployment of systems beyond the levels that were required for the numbers of illness. This was a great example of team work between owners, charterers, external health hygiene auditors, the authorities and lawyers,” said Maria Pittordis, Head of Marine, Trade and Energy and a partner at Hill Dickinson.

Judge David Mitchell, sitting in the Central London County Court, found in favour of the cruise line, saying that it was a very well-controlled outbreak and that the cruise line applied and implemented its systems well and that the cruise line was not negligent.

Maria Pittordis added: “The judgement is the first claim of its type to be successfully defended at trial in the UK. It is of great importance to the cruise industry in recognising that Norovirus is not caused by the ship and that even with high levels of implementation of industry procedures, outbreaks of Norovirus do occur.”

In coming to his decision, the judge took into account not only the evidence taken from the ship but also evidence from the passengers. This included passenger complaints about not being able to have self-service food, being given paper napkins and being confined to their cabins. The judge found, however, that these complaints were deemed to be evidence of compliance with the ships’ outbreak plan.

There were two issues of law decided in favour of the cruise line. The first, was that the Claimants argued that the ship was contaminated with Norovirus and therefore this was a “Defect in the Ship” giving rise to a presumption of liability in favour of the Claimants pursuant to Article 3 (3) of the Athens Convention. This was rejected and the cruise line’s argument that this could only be applied to navigational and marine perils rather than to hotel services onboard was accepted. As a matter of fact the judge ruled the ship was not contaminated in any event when the Claimants commenced their cruise.

The judge also decided that in accordance with the case of Sidhu v British Airways, 1997 AC p 430, which applies to carriage by air, the 1974 Athens Convention 1974 is the exclusive remedy to Claimants travelling by sea for personal injury and therefore the allegations regarding a duty to warn of both historic and potential illness did not, as a matter of law, fall within the Athens Convention because the alleged failure did not occur during the carriage. The judge held as a matter of fact that there was no such duty to warn as there could be no criticism of the handling of illness involving 16 passengers on the previous cruise. Those cases he said had been contained and given the numbers involved and the measures in place when the previous cruise came to an end, there was no need to warn or indeed provide another ship as alleged. The judge found that the enhanced housekeeping measures and the other measures required by the outbreak control plan had been put into effect and the defendant had discharged the duty of care to the claimants.

P&O Cruises Australia to refit Pacific Pearl

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 31 July 2015 31 July 2015

Pacific Pearl, the1989 built  63,524 gross ton unit pf P&O Cruises Australia, is undergoing a refit, the company said in a statement..

A new P&OEdge Adventure Park will feature more than 15 great activities including a surfboard simulator offering guests the chance to hang ten on the decks, as well as favourites such as the bungy tramp, flying fox and walk the plank.

“When she emerges from the Sydney dry dock on August 15, Pacific Pearl will alsooffer a PANDORA outlet, enabling guests to indulge in some holiday shopping with one of Australia’s top jewellery brands,” said the company, which is part of Carnival Corp & plc group.

The ship’s décor will take on a stylish new look following the refit, with a fresh colour palette and contemporary furniture, wallpaper, artwork and carpet creating a modern Australian feel for the Orient, Mix bar, Connexions, the Atrium and Luna restaurant.  Meanwhile, the Plantation buffet will be redesigned to offer a trendy café vibe.

The multi-million dollar refurbishment will see a general refresh of guest cabins and other public spaces including the Dome, spa and Waterfront restaurant, with a total of 17,000sqm of carpet being fitted on the ship.

Enhancing the onboard entertainment, duelling pianos will be added to The Orient turning the bar into a lively and interactive music hub.

P&O Cruises Senior Vice President Sture Myrmell said the refit was in line with Pacific Jewel’s recent refurbishment, as well as the contemporary design of the cruise line’s latest ships, Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden, which will join the fleet in November this year.

“Pacific Pearl will be gleaming when she comes out of dry dock– we can’t wait for our guests to see the new look and enjoy all her additional features,” Myrmell said.