The European Cruise Council has announced the appointment of its new chairman and vice chairwoman for the next two years.
The chairmanship will be taken by Carnival UK managing director David Dingle who replaces Costa Cruise’s president Pier Luigi Foschi, and the new vice chairwoman will be Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ vice president and managing director Susan Hooper.
She replaces Island Cruises managing director Patrick Ryan who has been the vice chairman of the ECC since it was formed in 2004.
The ECC now represents more than 30 companies and organisations and last week it published its first report on setting out the benefits of the cruise industry for the European economy and that of its member states.
Dingle said the report that was launched in Brussels, the home of the European Commission, and will be used to demonstrate the importance of cruising and stave off legislation that could make basing ship in the Europe uncompetitive.
For more on this see Friday’s Travel Weekly.