The M.V Star of the orient is a 14,000 ton-cruise ship that was built in 1977. The ship is Greek-registered and Hong-Kong owned. The ship spent the ten years prior to 1989 cruising from Miami, but was transferred in 1989 to the new and booming Southeastern Asia cruise circuit. This circuit involves programmes between 7 and 12 days from Singapore, calling at Penang, Phuket, Bali, Cebu, and Ho Chi Minh City.
The ship has cabin capacity for 720 passengers in double and family berths. The on-board facilities, renovated and themed prior to the move from Miami, include extensive sporting, leisure and recreational options (both organised and free-standing) for guests. There are five passenger restaurants on board:
• The China Seas - a themed Cantonese restaurant
• Star of the Orient - a mixed Asian family restaurant
• The Moulin Rouge - a continental cabaret restaurant and supper club
• The Mermaid - a 24-hour coffee shop and family eatery
• The Seaburger - a fast food grill
In addition, there are six bars and five retail outlets on the ship. Land-based programmes with local guides are scheduled at each port-of-call.
The cruise market is very mixed, creating some product management problems. The market consists of, in approximately equal proportions, Japanese, European, North American, and regional (mainly from Hong-Kong and Singapore) guests. Except for some of the European and Japanese officers, the ship's technical and maritime crew are recruited locally. Service and hospitality staff - those with direct customer contact and those in food-related jobs - are recruited to cope with the cultural diversity of the customer markets. Currently, the origin of service and hospitality staff is as follows:
• Regional 35%
• Japanese 20%
• European 25%
• US/Canada 20%
Staff work on the basis of three months on and three months off. The problem is that labour turnover between cruises is currently over 30% and there has been poor customer feedback on personal hygiene, inability of staff to help when it came to currency exchange, poor information when it came to the type of excursions or trips available land based, chaotic running of emergency drills to name but a few.
(a) From the above case, prepare a Training Needs Analysis for the service and hospitality areas. Identifying at least six training needs.
(b) Prepare a complete training plan for the employees at Star of the Orient, based on your training needs analysis.
(c) Show how the above training needs can help to alleviate turnover problems at Star of the Orient.
(d) Elaborate on how training can help to improve the customer feedback at Star of the Orient.