The global head of Celebrity
Cruises, Dan Hanrahan, says he
was ‘mortified’ at suggestions
he had promised to “teach
Australians how to tip”.
HANRAHAN visited Australia for the first
time last week, and told CW that he wanted to
set the record straight.
“I would have to be either really really dumb,
or arrogant, to say something like that, and I’d
like to think that I’m neither,” he said.
He said the question of tipping arose during
a dinner on the recent launch of Celebrity
Silhouette in Europe, when a journalist from an
Australian newspaper overheard a discussion
about Aussie attitudes to gratuities.
“My response was that we really don’t have
an issue; we carry quite a few Australian
guests today; I don’t see any issue with it.
“I think a big part of the reason is that the
way we price our product, tipping is included;
it’s a line item in the bill, so it’s not an issue.”
However when the topic was pressed further,
the question was raised of how passengers can
know how much goes to each group of staff on
board, and what the amounts are.
Hanrahan said his response, which was
misunderstood by the journalist, was that it
was incumbent on the cruise line to educate
people about how the onboard tipping works.
“It’s on our website, it’s in our brochures, it’s
in our documents, it’s available at guest
relations, and we usually put it in the planner
on the ship,” he said.
“So somehow…the person at the table who
wasn’t even part of the conversation, sitting
away from me, interpreted that as me saying I
was going to teach Australians how to tip.
“It couldn’t be anything further from the
truth,” he said, adding that “even if somebody
thought that was possible, I can’t imagine how
you could change a culture, so it’s certainly not
what I said… but somehow it got spun into that.”
More from the Celebrity ceo’s visit to
Australia on page four; to have your say see
www.facebook.com/cruiseweekly.
