Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Grateful to Barbados for Their Help During the Pandemic.

President Michael Bayley promises in the future to begin to hire many more staff and crew from the island.

The beautiful island of Barbados made news on the first day of the annual Seatrade Global Meeting when Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley announced his company's commitment to hiring much more staff and crew from the island.

The decision to do that was as a thank you for the assistance offered by the island to the cruise line during the pandemic.

Bayley said at the conference that when they needed help getting crew and guests off their ships, "It was Barbados that stepped up and was incredibly supportive and helpful, allowing ships to disembark travelers there and fly home — instead of closing borders, as many countries did." Bayley added, "When the chips are down, all those relationships and connections really do matter."

Cummins said, "We were a friend to the cruise industry in the worst of times, and the memorandum of understanding announced with Royal Caribbean about jobs for Barbadians is a way for the company to repay that."

Shelly Williams, chair of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. and the Barbados Tourism Product Authority added, "the cruise giant plans to hire not just hospitality staff but also creative positions like entertainers, musicians, choreographers, and photographers, plus engineers, carpenters, plumbers, seamen and sports facilitators — 'the largest cross-section I've ever seen."

Bayley did not announce how many jobs would be available but did say

Royal Caribbean employs about 50,000 crew from all over the world and 15% to 20% of those positions turn over each year. So the company needs to source about 10,000 new crew annually to replace them; plus, with two to three new ships added per year, there's demand for about 6,000 more.

The company is planning a recruitment fair to be held in six to eight weeks.