Last week we looked at IT and Cruise stories from the first six months of 2019, a year of tremendous growth in the cruise industry. theICEway ecosystem, comprising of ICE Technology Services, CRIBB Cyber Security, eTestware and AI/VR Labs, has provided a full IT solution for Cruise for over 20 years, so we are delighted to see such positivity in the industry. Here we look at the last six months of the year…
July
In July our very own co-founder and CEO, Ian Richardson, wrote about his experience attending the naming ceremony for Saga’s Spirit of Discovery at the new Dover cruise terminal. ICE Technology Services, part of theICEway, were honoured to work with the new build team on the ship which was built in the Meyer Werft yards in Pappenburg. Richardson recalled the day fondly and you can read the article in full here.
The Spirit of Discovery was Saga Cruises’ first new build and took five years of planning before arriving last year; containing a 1000-piece art collection worth £1 million, it is certainly just one more reason behind the continued boom in the cruise industry.
August
August saw our sister brand, CRIBB Cyber Security, publish a blog piece on the GDPR fine suffered by British Airways. The ICO announced its intention to fine BA £183 million for its data breach from the previous year, and our cyber security experts decided to look at the incident and to outline the biggest risks to businesses before offering up some pointers for preparing for a cyber-attack – you can read that piece here.
The General Data Protection Regulation came into effect nearly 2 years ago to protect the EU, with few places outside of that area having anything similar in place. Many industry experts are predicting that this will change in 2020, starting with the USA – and CRIBB Cyber Security’s Patrick Carolan is one of those:
“GDPR has largely been successful since it came into being and it’s only a matter of time before other countries and areas of the world implement something like it. The CCPA is due to come into effect at the end of this month (January 2020) for a start, so I do think that the US is going to be leading the way this year.
As the California Consumer Privacy Act is going to be looking at all companies conducting business with California residents, the impact is going to be big on America as a whole.”
September
Seatrade Europe was the highlight event of the cruise calendar in September, viewed by many within the cruise industry as being the best meeting place for the European market.
2019 saw representatives from theICEway in attendance and we were also Principle sponsors of the 2019 Seatrade Cruise Awards.
During the event our experts spoke excitedly about the new cyber security solution for the cruise industry launched through CRIBB Cyber Security, the fully accredited cyber security arm of theICEway: CRIBB Maritime Cyber Assurance (CMCA).
You can read more about Seatrade Europe, the 2019 Seatrade Cruise Awards and CMCA in the ICE Technology Services Innovation Hub.
October
In the wake of the high-yield summer season cruise operators began the task of refurbishing their ships, with Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas drydocking in Cadiz for a $165 million refurbishment.
The new additions for this included a Bionic Bar, a quantum-class feature that sees a bar ‘manned’ by robot bartenders – yet another impressive example of just how far digital transformation in cruise has come in recent times.
You can read about some of the other trends that particularly caught our eye last year here…
November
November gave us the International Cruise Summit 2019 in Madrid, where theICEway’s Ian Richardson featured as speaker and moderator. He presided over a session on data during which presentations were given on MSC for Me and Ocean Medallion, plus also on interactive in-cabin systems – all of which are designed to enhance the client experience.
The session gave a great account of how digital technology in cruise was and is being used to connect guests with crew and the ship itself to give them a seamless holiday, with a greater degree of personalisation.
Once again, you can read much more about ICS2019 in our blog section, an event which wasn’t quite the last of 2019 for us…
December
Finally, the event-laden winter period saw theICEway team flying out to Miami for the CLIA 2019 Executive Partner Summit.
As this blog post revealed, the journey was an exciting one as we anticipated what was sure to be a fantastic cruise industry gathering. We were particularly looking forward to the sessions on data and digital growth in cruise, which featured the chairman of the CLIA Executive Partner Technology Initiative, Ian Richardson. That’s correct, the very same Ian Richardson who co-founded theICEway with Conor Byrne – who mentioned the word, ‘biased’ just then?!
All joking aside, we were all delighted to attend this flagship event and it was a great way to end what was a very interesting year for cruise and IT. Hopefully those of you who read the first part of this piece last week enjoyed it, and hopefully having also read this second part, you will have noticed that as 2019 went on, our focus shifted from the wider cruise industry to our own efforts.
This was purely unintentional but just goes to show how after more than 20 years in the cruise industry, theICEway continues to go from strength to strength – here’s to 2020!
Glossary
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation; a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy which also addresses the personal data transfers outside the EU and EEA areas.
ICO – Information Commissioner’s Office; based in the UK, this is a non-departmental public body reporting directly to Parliament.
CCPA – California Consumer Privacy Act; enacted in 2018, this creates new consumer rights based around the sharing, access to and deletion of, personal information collected by businesses.
CLIA – Cruise Lines International Association; established in 1975, this is the largest cruise industry trade association in the world. CLIA supports practices and policies which are dedicated to promoting cruise and helping to maintain a secure and sustainable cruise ship environment.
Top Tip
Our Innovation Hub will continue to explore the fascinating trends with IT in cruise throughout 2020, so tune in each week for more insights…
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