Royal Caribbean Had the Most Highly Compensated Cruise CEO of 2016
Photo Credit: Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO Richard Fain was the most highly compensated CEO among publicly traded cruise companies in 2016. In this photo, he is shown at a cruise industry conference. Flickr / JD Lasica
Skift Take
Passengers may not care much what executives at cruise companies earn, but it's instructive to realize what goals those CEOs are driven to reach.
It's not the biggest cruise operator in the world, but Royal Caribbean Cruises can boast plenty of superlatives: It operates the largest individual cruise line by passenger capacity, sails the world's largest cruise ships, and — last year at least — employed the most highly compensated CEO.
Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of the Miami-based company, received $10.4 million in total compensation in 2016. That puts him at the top of the list of chief executives at publicly traded cruise companies. Arnold Donald, president and CEO of cruise giant Carnival Corp., made nearly $9.9 million. And the third-highest earner with more than $4.6 million was Stein Kruse, CEO of Holland America Group, a unit within Carnival Corp.
Frank Del Rio, chairman and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, came in closer to the bottom of the 2016 list with total compensation of $2.9 million after hefty stock and option awards brought his total in 2015 to nearly $32 million.
Total compensation inclu
