International classification society RINA Group has grouped all its experts on cruise vessels under a new Cruise Ships Center of Excellence.

The aim is to deliver improved service to operators, designers and builders of cruise vessels, and to foster innovation in new services internally.

Paolo Moretti, General Manager, Business Line Marine, RINA Group, said: “We have a lot of expertise around the group which can benefit cruise ship owners. Our recent internal reorganisation has given us the chance to harness that expertise more effectively. We have created a Cruise Ship Excellence Centre which brings together a group of leading experts in passenger ship safety, environmental issues and operational aspects. The Centre has a footprint in Italy, the USA and Asia so that we can serve clients in both mature and emerging markets.”

The Cruise Ship Center of Excellence will provide a one-stop point of contact for the cruise industry to deliver assistance with classification and design review, environmental services, risk assessment, trouble-shooting and management and software tools.

Added Moretti, “We currently class forty cruise vessels and we get diverse approaches about technical issues such as Safe Return to Port, environmental issues and energy efficiency, and above all at present about operational efficiency. Cruise companies really know that their big risks, and big operational gains, come from improving the skills of their people and helping them to work smarter. We want to help the cruise lines with the software, their people, as well as their hardware. That is why we are delivering specialised behavioural training, risk-assessment and trouble-shooting services, health, sanitation and hotel services management, monitoring and certification and managerial software, including maintenance activity, purchase cycle and cost control. People matter.”