1st INTERNATIONAL CRUISE CONFERENCE, BREMERHAVEN, GERMANY

The 1st International Cruise Conference took place on 26/27 September 2008 at the University of Applied Sciences in Bremerhaven, Germany.

I presented a paper at the conference on 'establishing the need of a standardised rating system for cruise ships' - part of my undergraduate dissertation at University. I was a bit overawed, as the speakers either had PhDs or worked in the cruise industry. But what I lacked in experience and academia, I hoped I made up for in enthusiasm about the cruising. As a passionate cruise traveller and cruise ship lecturer, I come across people who are so confused by the variety of different cruise lines and ships that they do not know which one to pick. I'm hoping my little piece of research might just highlight the need for a proper rating system which is easily understood and accessible.

Other speakers at the conference included Brian Johnson, Director of Fleet Training and Employee Relations at Princess Cruises, who spoke fascinatingly on "Implementing Organizational Transformation" and Professor Joachim Willms from Merkur International University, who looked at cruise tourism from an alternative viewpoint - the day visitor who goes to see a ship in port or at a ship yard - in his talk "Cruise ship yards, cruise ship river transfers and cruise ship harbour visits as land-based extensions of the cruise tourism market".

This conference was excellent in the way it brought together academics, cruise companies and enthusiasts so that we could all share information on this fascinating and vastly under-studied topic.

For more information on this conference, please go to: http://www.imt.hs-bremerhaven.de/index.php?lang=en