To Our Invaluable Travel Partners:

Like you, all of us at Celebrity Cruises, both shipboard and shoreside, are deeply saddened by the events surrounding the tragic Costa Concordia accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the incident.

As a travel professional, you know very well the outstanding safety record our industry and certainly our company has. I'm sure, like us, you are dismayed to see the safety of cruise ships questioned so extensively. As a true partner in this business, I wanted to provide you with the facts about our approach to safety. I want to take this opportunity to reinforce what an intense focus we have always placed on safety, and how rigorously we put that focus into practice every day.

Since Celebrity Cruises’ founding more than 20 years ago, the safety of our guests and crew has always been our highest priority. The measures we take in the interest of safety are many, often exceeding regulatory requirements. It’s a critical part of our ongoing commitment to innovation and continuous improvement in every aspect of our business.

Our guests see just a portion of our safety practices through the mandatory muster drills we conduct at the outset of every sailing. But, our safety practices encompass so much more. In light of the Costa Concordia accident, we chose to post a summary of our safety practices on our web site (www.celebritycruises.com/safety). I encourage you to take a look, and to share the information with your colleagues, your clients, your family and your friends.

Above and beyond what we’ve communicated there, as I wrote today to our Captain's Club members and other guests, you also may be interested to know that the leader of Celebrity Cruises’ Captains is a highly experienced former officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, Greg Purdy. As the head of our Marine Operations Department, Greg’s highest priority is to guide and monitor the safety of our fleet. His own experience at sea, including serving as Captain of a Coast Guard vessel, combined with his in depth of knowledge of cruise ship safety, ensures that he and the entire Celebrity Marine team continue to build on our strong safety culture.

Our Captains across the Celebrity fleet hold degrees from some of the world’s finest maritime institutions. And along with the Captain, every one of our ships has at least two other officers who hold the level of license required to serve as Captain of a cruise ship. Essentially, we have three people onboard every Celebrity ship who qualify as a Captain.

On average, each of Celebrity Cruises’ Captains has 25 years of seagoing experience. Besides the training and drills we conduct onboard, our Captains and their bridge teams also participate in navigation simulator courses and other training. One of the cornerstones of our training is that everyone is expected to speak up if they detect something wrong, regardless of their rank. Our shipboard officers and our shoreside team spend a considerable amount of time focused on how we can continually improve our safety procedures.

Along with our vast in-house expertise, we also rely on a group of experts known as our Maritime Safety Advisory Board. The group was established in 2006 to help guide our safety program and provide critical thinking from the world’s leading marine safety experts. The group includes former senior officials from the US and UK Coast Guards, as well as leadership from the academic world.

Our Chairman Richard Fain has said there’s no such thing as perfect safety, but there is such a thing as perfect dedication to safety. And that’s what we strive for daily.

I know you are already well aware cruising continues to maintain the best safety record of any industry in the travel business. I'm hoping that you find this note and the summary of our safety practices on the Celebrity web site. Thanks for taking the time to read it. We're in this together, and ready and willing to help provide the information you need as you run into objections regarding our safety practices.

Our highly skilled and dedicated crew members look forward to welcoming your clients onboard soon to provide them with an outstanding vacation experience. Meanwhile, I thank you for your continued support of our brand and our business.

Sincerely,



Dan Hanrahan
President & CEO