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Norwegian Cruise Line Center of Excellence to attract and
train top talent to meet staffing
demand and growth
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Norwegian Cruise
Line Holdings Ltd., a leading global cruise company, announced plans for the
development and construction of the Norwegian Cruise Line
Center of Excellence, a new state-of-the-art shipboard team member training
facility near Manila in the Philippines.
The 200,000-square-foot Center
of Excellence will serve both new and existing shipboard team members across
the Company and will provide training for various onboard service areas.
The world class training campus will enable the Company to fully immerse
trainees in their coursework, reduce onboard training time and further improve
upon the already industry-leading service levels.
The facilities have been
designed to provide trainees with realistic work and living experiences aboard
a cruise ship, which will include replicas of staterooms, a shipboard galley, a
casino floor, a full service bar as well as safety and security training
areas. Slated for 2020 completion, the center will provide annual training
for as many as 8,000 shipboard team members each year.
“As the Company continues to
grow and execute on our disciplined newbuild pipeline with eleven ships on
order through 2027, the Center of Excellence will enable us to train and
develop shipboard staff to meet the growing demand for top talent and to
provide our guests with the high level of service and best-in-class vacation
experience they have come to expect,” said Frank Del Rio, president and chief
executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
“With our global fleet of 26 ships carrying over 2.5 million guests a year,
this new facility will give us the ability to fully immerse shipboard team
members in their coursework and ensure we continue to provide exceptional vacation
experiences for our guests.”
The Company has secured a 7.2
acre parcel of land near Manila, where it plans to develop the center.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2019 with the Center of Excellence slated
to open its doors in late 2020.
The Company currently sources
approximately 65 percent of its shipboard talent from Southeast Asia and
anticipates an even higher demand for personnel from the region in the coming
years. The central location of the Philippines, as well as its high
percentage of multi-lingual citizens, has proven to be an ideal location for
the Company’s training and development facility.
ABOUT NORWEGIAN CRUISE
LINE HOLDINGS LTD.
Norwegian Cruise
Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NCLH) is a leading global cruise company which
operates the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and
Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands. With a combined fleet of 26 ships with
approximately 54,400 berths, these brands offer itineraries to more than 450
destinations worldwide. The Company will introduce eleven additional ships
through 2027.
CAUTIONARY
STATEMENT CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements in this
release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S.
federal securities laws intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability
established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All
statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release
are forward-looking statements. Many, but not all, of these statements can be
found by looking for words like “expect,” “anticipate,” “goal,” “project,”
“plan,” “believe,” “seek,” “will,” “may,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “intend,”
“future” and similar words. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future
performance and may involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which could
cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from
the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those
forward-looking statements. Examples of these risks, uncertainties and other
factors include, but are not limited to the impact of: adverse events impacting
the security of travel, such as terrorist acts, armed conflict and threats
thereof, acts of piracy, and other international events; adverse incidents
involving cruise ships; adverse general economic and related factors, such as
fluctuating or increasing levels of unemployment, underemployment and the
volatility of fuel prices, declines in the securities and real estate markets,
and perceptions of these conditions that decrease the level of disposable
income of consumers or consumer confidence; the spread of epidemics and viral
outbreaks; our expansion into and investments in new markets; the risks and
increased costs associated with operating internationally; breaches in data
security or other disturbances to our information technology and other
networks; changes in fuel prices and/or other cruise operating costs;
fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; overcapacity in key markets or
globally; the unavailability of attractive port destinations; evolving
requirements and regulations regarding data privacy and protection and any
actual or perceived compliance failures by us; our indebtedness and
restrictions in the agreements governing our indebtedness that limit our
flexibility in operating our business; the significant portion of our assets
pledged as collateral under our existing debt agreements and the ability of our
creditors to accelerate the repayment of our indebtedness; volatility and
disruptions in the global credit and financial markets, which may adversely
affect our ability to borrow and could increase our counterparty credit risks,
including those under our credit facilities, derivatives, contingent
obligations, insurance contracts and new ship progress payment guarantees; our
inability to recruit or retain qualified personnel or the loss of key
personnel; delays in our shipbuilding program and ship repairs, maintenance and
refurbishments; our reliance on third parties to provide hotel management
services to certain ships and certain other services; future increases in the
price of, or major changes or reduction in, commercial airline services;
amendments to our collective bargaining agreements for crew members and other
employee relation issues; our inability to obtain adequate insurance coverage;
future changes relating to how external distribution channels sell and market
our cruises; pending or threatened litigation, investigations and enforcement
actions; our ability to keep pace with developments in technology; seasonal
variations in passenger fare rates and occupancy levels at different times of
the year; changes involving the tax and environmental regulatory regimes in
which we operate; and other factors set forth under "Risk Factors" in
our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q and subsequent filings by Norwegian with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The above examples are not exhaustive and
new risks, uncertainties and other factors may emerge from time to time. Such
forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs, assumptions,
expectations, estimates and projections regarding our present and future
business strategies and the environment in which we expect to operate in the
future. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made. We
expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any
updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to
reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change of
events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement was based,
except as required by law.
ABOUT NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE
As the innovator in global cruise travel, Norwegian Cruise Line has been breaking
the boundaries of traditional cruising for over 52 years.
Most notably, the cruise line revolutionized the industry
by offering guests the freedom and flexibility to design their ideal vacation
on their preferred schedule with no assigned dining and entertainment times and
no formal dress codes. Today, its fleet of 16 contemporary ships sail to nearly
300 of some of the world’s most desirable destinations, including Great Stirrup
Cay, the company’s private island in the Bahamas and its resort destination
Harvest Caye in Belize. Norwegian Cruise
Line not only provides superior guest service from land to sea, but also offers
a wide variety of award-winning entertainment and dining options as well as a
range of accommodations across the fleet, including solo-traveler staterooms,
mini-suites, spa-suites and The Haven by Norwegian®, the
company’s ship-within-a-ship concept. For more information or to book a cruise, please call +852 2165 6000 (English, Cantonese and
Mandarin assistance), contact your preferred travel professional or visit
ncl.com. For the latest news and exclusive content, visit the media center and
follow Norwegian Cruise line on
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube @NorwegianCruiseLine; and Twitter and Snapchat
@CruiseNorwegian.