Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines 2003 Annual Report Download - page 6

Royal Caribbean International ships from the
same poll, our brands had 17 of the top 30 places.
Partners In Progress
In recent years, we have cultivated several brand
partnerships that enhance the quality of our cruise
vacations, whether it’s a burger and shake at
Johnny Rockets®, a double-fudge scoop of Ben &
Jerry’s®ice cream, or coffee from Seattle’s Best
Coffee®and Cova Café Milano. And our recent
announcement that Celebrity Cruises will partner
with Cirque du Soleil to enhance the entertainment
on the Millennium-class ships has been extremely
well-received by the travel trade and our loyal
guest base. We believe these marketing alliances
are providing great value to our onboard products.
We also have nurtured environmental partnerships
since 1996 through our Ocean Fund, contributing
$6.6 million to marine-conservation groups such
as The Nature Conservancy, National Audubon
Society, and World Wildlife Fund. Clearly, our
stewardship in this critical area is making a differ-
ence in protecting our valuable marine resources.
A separate initiative, in partnership with
Conservation International and manufacturers of
marine equipment, is now finalizing the develop-
ment of a far more advanced wastewater-purifica-
tion system. These AWP systems offer the potential
of purifying these waste streams to near drinking-
water levels of purity. We continue to test prototype
systems and will have placed contracts for four
additional systems in 2004 to determine their
operational suitability. Last year we, along with
other major cruise companies, committed to install
them on all our ships, once the systems have been
proven and meet our high purity standards.
Corporate Governance
An important societal issue affecting everyone
in business today is the subject of corporate
governance. A number of horrific examples of
improprieties have tarnished the image of busi-
nesses everywhere and demand that companies
respond appropriately. The challenges are
significant – we, along with most businesses,
already had high standards, and it’s not obvi-
ous how to “raise the bar” in a reasonable
manner. Nevertheless, our Board and our man-
agement have undertaken this responsibility in
a serious and diligent way. In addition to all the
new requirements established by the Sarbanes-
Oxley Act, SEC, the New York Stock Exchange,
the Oslo Stock Exchange, etc., we have reinvig-
orated and expanded our pre-existing ethics
4ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISES LTD.