Changi Airport Group, Singapore Tourism Board and Princess Cruises have joined forces to grow Asia’s fly cruise segment and promote demand for cruise holidays from Singapore. The common goal is to make Singapore the preferred regional cruise hub.
This tripartite collaboration costs multi-million dollars and started last month with a series of marketing campaigns promoting Princess Cruises’ vacations to Asia, Australia, United Kingdom and United States. Targetted Asian countries include China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan.
Cruises has a low penetration in Asia and Singapore’s Changi Airport has a strong connectivity to 270 cities worldwide with 6,600 weekly flights. Last year, Singapore received 1.03 million cruise passengers and 391 ship calls with a year-on-year increase of 13% and 17% respectively. This year, the worldwide cruise passenger volume forecasted by Cruise Line International Association is estimated to be 21.7 million. The global cruise industry has seen annual passenger numbers increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 7.5% from 2007 to 2013. The Asian cruise market is poised to grow 3.8 million by 2020, according to Asia Cruise Association.
This competitive advantage of cruising from and through Singapore will benefit cruise liners when working with Changi Airport Group and Singapore Tourism Board. This arrangement started in September 2012, when Costa Cruises was the first cruise brand on the multi-million dollar collaboration to deploy more ships and to market the cruise liner within Asia Pacific. The support Costa Cruises received yielded a positive result of 5,000 Asian cruise passengers flying through Changi Airport and spending time in Singapore or after their cruises.
Changi Airport Group has been collaborating with airlines and travel agents on marketing campaigns to promote fly-cruise packages in key Singapore markets including China and India. Singapore Tourism Board has devised a training programme for travel agents across Southeast Asia.
Princess Cruises will offer more destinations from Singapore than any other cruise line, calling at nine countries and 26 points with cruise lengths from three to 17 days. The 2,670-passenger Sapphire Princess will make 16 sailings from November 2014 to March 2015) with the option of combining 26 cruises of up to 17 days in length. Prices start from S$549 per person for double occupancy.
The shortest cruise is a three-day Strait of Malacca cruise with calls to Penang and Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang). The longest cruise journey will be the 17-day Grand Asia cruise which calls at Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Busan and Beijing (Tianjin).
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