Earlier in the month, more than 11,000 people gathered in sunny Miami Beach for Seatrade Cruise Global, a conference that attracts representatives from the world’s leading cruise lines, suppliers, ports and destinations.

It’s now safe to say that the cruise industry is back in full swing following the pandemic, with operators expecting more than 36 million people to take a cruise in 2024 – a 14 percent increase over 2023.

The overall vibe at Seatrade was very positive. As a collaborative organization, VIKAND had the chance to connect with current cruise partners and to present our services and capabilities to a number of startup ventures. Together with like minded partners from RadMedix, Circadian Positioning Systems (CPS) and Ocean Technologies Group (OTG), we were stationed in the Seafarer Human Sustainability Pavilion, giving our team the chance to engage attendees on critical industry issues.

VIKAND has grown tremendously in recent years, and Seatrade was an opportunity to highlight our proactive approach to onboard health and wellness. We took special care to promote several of VIKAND’s newest services, including our medical screening platform, fatigue support to reduce risk for night crews, and oxygen generation solutions for vessels that wish to meet their own medical oxygen needs.

Another takeaway from Seatrade: While sustainability continues to be a priority, there is growing industry concern around crew welfare. At VIKAND, we believe maritime’s entire future depends on a Crew Asset Management approach to seafarer wellbeing, and we are inspired to see a growing number of stakeholders share our vision.

As the cruise industry continues its comeback, with new builds, new launches and new operators ready to set sail, VIKAND is well positioned to continue being the maritime industry’s leading provider of health and wellness solutions at sea. 

On behalf of VIKAND, thank you for meeting with our team and partners at this year’s Seatrade. It was a highly productive and engaging experience. This month’s edition of Pulse offers fascinating insights and content on seafarer health and wellbeing, including an examination of our 2023 case management data to uncover crew health trends, a deeper look at psychological safety and what it means to maritime work, and a discussion on why health and safety are really two sides of one coin.