One of the world’s largest cruise companies has announced that it will be looking carefully into how to handle its policy on tipping. Royal Caribbean realizes that there is a big difference between the American attitude to paying gratuities on board their ships and the British attitude.

U.K. managing director and vice president of Royal Caribbean, Robert Shaw says that it is a cultural difference. He also said that the issue was a significant one and that Royal Caribbean would be looking at all the options in order to come up with a fair solution.

At present a passenger’s tips will make up a large proportion of what a member of staff will earn on a cruise. When the majority of passengers on a cruise are from America where tipping is second nature then staff can expect to do rather better than if the cruise is filled mostly with passengers from the U.K. where tipping is not so automatic.

Shaw said that the problem was now becoming an issue because cruise lines from the U.S. are trying to attract more customers from Europe. Royal Caribbean will be sailing its Celebrity Eclipse exclusively out of Southampton at the end of 2010 and with the imminent launch of the Oasis of the Seas it would be useful to have a policy on tipping hammered out sooner rather than later.