Celebrity Cruises to hire more Filipino crew

The company Celebrity Cruises is eyeing to hire more Filipino crew as part of its expansion program in the coming months.

This was bared by captain Nicolas Christodoulakis, a European, during the inaugural port of call in this resort island by MS Celebrity Millennium being operated by Celebrity Cruises, Wednesday. The MS Celebrity Millennium has both visited the ports of Manila and Boracay Island.

"The plan to hire more Filipinos has been discussed just this week by the management. Currently, there are 12,000 Filipinos working in the star cruises," he said.

Around 300 of these Filipino crew are working at the MS Celebrity Millennium.

"Based on our experience, Filipino crew are hard working, determined and industrious. This is the reason why we are planning to hire more in our expansion programs," said Christodoulakis.

The MS Celebrity Millennium was welcomed by the representatives coming from the Aklan Provincial Government, Department of Tourism, Philippine Ports Authority, Boracay Police, Wallem Philippines, and Aklan media, among others.

The MS Celebrity Millennium was known worldwide as it played host for a US based television series the top chef. The cruise proceeded to Singapore after it stayed for almost 12 hours in this resort island.

Carrying more than 2,000 passengers, it has registered the largest cruise ship record to set sail in Boracay since it started cruising three years ago.

For his part, Niven Maquirang, jetty port administrator, said that around 12 cruise ships are expected to arrive in this resort island this year.

The DoT has considered Boracay as a cruise ship destination along with Metro Manila and Puerto Princesa in Palawan.