DNV GL has been tasked with creating a cruise compliance audit and certification programme for cruise lines that want to restart cruise operations out of Singapore.
The work comes as a result of the classification society winning a tender worth SGD 145,000 ($106,000) from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), according to the Business Times.
The tender documents show the work will require DNV GL to review and enhance the STB's preliminary list of cruise safety management measures, recommend an approach to audit the cruise lines, and develop a non-compliance framework.
DNV GL will also conduct the audits and onboard inspections for cruiseships planning to restart sailings out of Singapore, and issue certification benchmarked against global health safety and hygiene standards to eligible cruise lines.
All cruiseships that sail out of Singapore will be audited and certified, and for the first three months after sailings resume, inspectors will also conduct onboard checks.
The STB's cruise director Annie Chang told the Business Times the tender was to “appoint an audit and certification company with maritime expertise to audit cruise lines' adherence to safety and hygiene measures”.
Cruise lines that pass the compliance audit will be given certification that will serve as a “quality mark to assure consumers that the cruise has met these required standards”.
Sailing in circles
Singapore has long been a starting point for longer regional cruises, but when cruising resumes passengers will have to be content with views of the Malacca Strait.
STB said it planned to initially allow only high seas cruises to nowhere lasting from two to four nights, with the passenger capacity of cruiseships capped at 50% for at least the first three months.
This marks a significant departure from current restrictions limiting high seas cruises to approximately 30% of a ship’s total schedule. The policy was put into place decades ago to deter gambling ships operating out of the city-state.
Genting Hong Kong’s Dream Cruises and Royal Caribbean International were the two largest cruise operators in Singapore prior to the country banning port calls for all cruiseships on 13 March.
While a timeline for the resumption of cruises has yet to be issued by the STB, local industry insiders told Tradewinds that both companies have already done the groundwork to resume cruise operations and are hoping that the certification process can be completed in time for the peak December school holiday period.
Similar coronavirus protocols have already been put into place in Taiwan and some European countries and so far have largely proven successful at preventing any Covid-19 outbreaks on board.
Dream Cruises’ 2,800-berth Explorer Dream (built 1999) was one of the first cruiseships to resume service in Asia when in July it began operating two, three and four night Taiwanese domestic cruises departing from Keelung to Kinmen, Penghu and Matsu islands.
Singapore has gradually been reducing its coronavirus circuit breakers as the virus is brought under control and community cases are measured in single digits. However, its international borders remain sealed for all but the most essential travel.
