MIAMI, May 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure travel company, announced today that it is the winner of three Stevie® Awards in the areas of consumer electronics, social business solutions and large hospitality & leisure company of the year in the 17th Annual American Business Awards®.
The Stevie Awards – created in 2002 to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and working professionals worldwide – are the world's premier business awards. The American Business Awards, one of the seven Stevie Awards programs, feature a wide variety of categories to recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. More than 3,800 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in multiple industries were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories.
The OceanMedallion™, the company's proprietary wearable device that elevates the guest experience by delivering an enhanced level of personalization and innovative services on MedallionClass™ ships from Princess Cruises, received a Gold Stevie New Products Award in Consumer Electronics. The prestigious American Business Awards' judges specifically recognized the Medallion™ as a "great tool to help solve a big challenge – information and organization on a cruise."
This is the fourth innovation award for the OceanMedallion which seamlessly connects a cruise guest's unique digital identity with a patented intelligent shipboard Experience Internet of Things™ (xIoT™) ecosystem that enables hassle-free payment, turn-by-turn shipboard wayfinding, shipmate locator and personalized itineraries; speeds up embarkation; facilitates on-demand services; powers anywhere wagering; and more.
The second Carnival Corporation innovation to receive a Gold Stevie New Product Award is OceanCompass™, the wayfinding digital experience on board MedallionClass ships, which was recognized in the Social Business Solution category. Powered by the OceanMedallion, OceanCompass provides seamless engagement with guests through the use of wireless sensing technologies to provide intelligent navigation assistance, similar to GPS but on a ship that's constantly in motion. It also helps guests locate and chat with members of their travel party while on board using a "find-friends" feature called ShipMates, as well as enables point-to-point wayfinding throughout the ship.
Calling the OceanCompass digital experience a "brilliant tool," the Stevie Award judges said, "the OceanCompass will make navigation a pleasure and will greatly enhance the customer experience for its users."
In addition to the two top awards, Carnival Corporation also was honored with a Silver Stevie for Large Hospitality & Leisure Company of the Year for the guest experience innovation it has demonstrated through the creation of the MedallionClass Experience. Judges recognized the company for showing "that they are continuing to innovate and evolve the travel industry forward with new products and services," and applauded how "this personalized approach demonstrates how they continue to innovate to address their customers' needs and desires for creating a better overall experience."
"Guest-centricity is core to our everyday service delivery focus, as well as our current and future experience innovations, and it's such an honor to have that focus be recognized by an organization as prestigious as The American Business Awards," said John Padgett, chief experience and innovation officer for Carnival Corporation. "The OceanMedallion is getting rave reviews from guests sailing on our first three MedallionClass ships from Princess Cruises, and we're working aggressively to deploy our next-level experience across the Princess Cruises fleet so we can bring this personalized experience to even more guests."
The American Business Awards are the fifth prestigious organization to recently honor Carnival Corporation's patented IoT innovations. In November, CES recognized the company as a CES 2019 Innovations Award Honoree for the OceanMedallion. In December, the company received a 2018 Gold New York Design Award for Digital IoT for its Ocean Guest Experience Platform. Earlier this year, IoT Breakthrough awarded the OceanMedallion with its 2019 IoT Wearables Innovation of the Year and last month the OceanMedallion was announced as a 2019 Edison Awards Winner.
MedallionClass vacations enabled by the innovative OceanMedallion are currently available for all guests sailing on three ships from Princess Cruises – Caribbean Princess, Regal Princess and Royal Princess. The Crown Princess and Sky Princess will launch the OceanMedallion later this year. And in 2020, MedallionClass vacations will expand to six additional ships – Ruby Princess, Grand Princess, Enchanted Princess, Emerald Princess, Coral Princess, and Island Princess.
About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is the world's largest leisure travel company and among the most profitable and financially strong in the cruise and vacation industries, with a portfolio of nine of the world's leading cruise lines. With operations in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia, its portfolio features Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.
Together, the corporation's cruise lines operate 104 ships with 243,000 lower berths visiting over 700 ports around the world, with 19 new ships scheduled to be delivered through 2025. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour company in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices.
With a long history of innovation and providing guests with extraordinary vacation experiences, Carnival Corporation has received thousands of industry awards – including recognition by the Consumer Technology Association™ as a CES® 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree for the OceanMedallion™. A revolutionary wearable device that contains a proprietary blend of communication technologies, the OceanMedallion enables the world's first interactive guest experience platform transforming vacation travel on a large scale into a highly personalized level of customized service. The prestigious CES Innovation Awards honor outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products.
Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com, www.princess.com, www.hollandamerica.com, www.seabourn.com, www.pocruises.com.au, www.costacruise.com, www.aida.de, www.pocruises.com and www.cunard.com.
About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Sponsors of The 2019 American Business Awards include HCL America, John Hancock Financial Services, and SoftPro. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.
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SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation Media Contacts: Roger Frizzell, Carnival Corporation, rfrizzell@carnival.com, (305) 406-7862; Mike Flanagan, LDWW, mike@ldwwgroup.com, (727) 452-4538
