Carnival Corporation has been named among America’s Best Employers for Women 2026 by Forbes, earning recognition for its workplace culture and its commitment to creating an environment centred on well-being, inclusion and a sense of belonging.
The annual ranking, now in its ninth edition, was developed by Forbes in partnership with Statista and is based primarily on an independent survey involving more than 146,000 women working for U.S. companies with at least 1,000 employees. More than four million employer evaluations were considered over a three-year period, with participants assessing factors including their willingness to recommend their employer, workplace culture, atmosphere, representation and parental leave.
The final ranking includes 700 U.S. companies, making Carnival Corporation’s inclusion particularly noteworthy for a business whose workforce extends far beyond the United States and reflects the genuinely international character of the cruise industry. Carnival Corporation employs more than 160,000 team members representing around 150 countries across its cruise brands, destinations and shoreside operations. “This recognition is especially meaningful because it reflects the experiences and contributions of women across our company,” said Bettina Deynes, Global Chief Human Resources Officer at Carnival Corporation. She highlighted the company’s responsibility to create a culture in which employees have a voice, opportunities to grow and the support required to build meaningful careers, while reaffirming Carnival’s ambition to become the leading choice for careers in hospitality, travel and leisure.
Beyond the award itself, the recognition also reflects an aspect of the cruise industry that is perhaps less visible to guests but increasingly important: the ability of major cruise groups to attract, develop and retain talent across an exceptionally diverse international workforce. For a corporation operating more than 90 ships and visiting over 800 ports and destinations worldwide, people remain an essential part of delivering the onboard experience, making workplace culture far more than an internal corporate matter. This is especially relevant in cruising, where service standards are closely linked to the motivation, continuity and professional growth of thousands of employees working both at sea and ashore. Recognition of this kind therefore has a significance that goes beyond corporate reputation, as it also touches on the long-term quality and consistency of the guest experience.
The Forbes recognition follows a series of other distinctions received by Carnival Corporation during 2026, including its inclusion among TIME’s America’s Best Companies and Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies. Together, these acknowledgements reinforce the company’s focus not only on its operational and commercial performance, but also on the people behind its brands and experiences. In an industry where hospitality is ultimately built around human interaction, this is an area that deserves increasing attention, and Carnival Corporation’s latest recognition provides another indication of how workforce culture has become an important part of the wider evolution of the cruise sector.
Gabriele Bassi