Genting Cruise Lines has affirmed its confidence in “a new cruise era” at CruiseWorld Asia, TravelWeekly Asia’s latest online gathering of the regional cruise industry, held 14 December.
Terence Lim, GCL assistant vice president, said the company expected an increase in cruise capacity across Genting Cruise Line’s fleet, driven by “a sea of new FlyCruise business opportunities” within Singapore Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) and quarantine-free travel.
Demand would also spike, Lim said, with the launch of destination-centric cruises to “all-time favourite ports-of-call,” in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, and the arrival in Asia by Q4 2022 of the 208,000 gross tonne Global Dream.
World Dream will continue to offer its special occasion-themed cruises into 2022, beginning with a Festival of the World cruise through January and February.
Genting Cruise Lines’ strict health and safety protocols have given passengers the confidence to step back onboard in Singapore and Hong Kong. GCL has sailed 300 cruises and carried 400,000 passengers on its Singapore sailings.
Further generating demand has been a partnership with Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer programme, KrisFlyer Experiences, which successfully chartered a cruise in November this year.
Among a number of “firsts” in 2020-21, GCL launched Asia Pacific’s first Muslim-friendly cruise onboard World Dream with halal and vegetarian dual certifications; and in July 2020 Explorer Dream became the first cruise ship to resume sailing in Taiwan.