Tag Archives: Australia

Emerald Princess to sail in Australia

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Princess Cruises is redeploying the Emerald Princess to Australia, giving it five ships there during the winter season.

The 3,082-passenger ship will be the largest and youngest of the five. It was built in 2007.

The Emerald Princess will be based in Sydney from November 2016 to April 2017. Currently it sails in the Caribbean. Its itineraries to New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific will be announced in detail later this spring.

The Dawn Princess, Sea Princess and Sun Princess sail year-round from Australia. The Diamond Princess splits its time between Australia and China.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages adds new vessel to fleet

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Cruise & Maritime Voyages adds new vessel to fleetThe 600-passenger ship Astor has been acquired by Cruise & Maritime Voyages.

The vessel, which was built in 1986, was refurbished four years ago and has been bought from bankrupt German owner, Premicon Hochseekreuzfahrt.

CMV, which had been chartering the 21,000 tonne vessel, is reported to be in the final negotiations of the purchase agreement.

Astor will return to Australia for its 2015-16 season, which will be its third year based at Fremantle.

The season will include an Asian cruise from Fremantle to Hong Kong with stops in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Sabah, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Astor originally joined the CMV fleet in December 2013 under a charter with ship management services provided by CMV’s majority shareholder, Global Maritime Group, which has acquired the vessel.

Astor will operate under long-term charter to CMV.

Christian Verhounig, chief executive and chairman of CMV, said: “The acquisition of the Astor is another important milestone in the strategic development of the group’s presence in the international markets.

“Astor has a fine pedigree and provides an important smaller ship premium option within our cruise portfolio,”

CMV commercial director Chris Coates said: “Astor has added 22,000 passengers to our global carryings and since her introduction has proved a firm favourite with high levels of customer satisfaction and repeat business being achieved.

“Next year we have programmed a special eight-night ex-London Tilbury round Britain cruise before Astor starts her German market season and forward booking levels are very encouraging”.

Astor arrived in Fremantle on Saturday following a 38 night re-positioning voyage from Tilbury and will continue to operate cruises under the CMV brand for the Australian market during the southern hemisphere summer season.

The ship will then reposition to Europe in April 2015 to operate a summer season of ex-Kiel and Bremerhaven sailings for the German market under the TransOcean brand.

CLIA: Capacity up in developing markets

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By Tom Stieghorst
CLIA’s annual report on the economic contribution of the cruise industry highlights growth in less developed cruise territories, including Asia, the Australia/Pacific region and South America.

The report said these three areas recorded 20% capacity growth in 2013 and accounted for more than half the global increase in available bed days. Europe’s capacity growth slowed from 18% in 2011 to 3.5% last year.

CLIA said the number of passengers carried in 2013 by its member lines rose 3.9%, to 17.6 million (river cruises are not included in the tally).

Bed days increased 4.8% because the average cruise was longer and capacity was higher, CLIA said.

Passenger embarkations at U.S. ports fell 1.3%, to nearly 10 million, the first time in at least four years that happened. CLIA attributed the decline primarily to redeployments to markets more distant from the U.S.

Direct spending by cruise lines, passengers and crew in the U.S. crossed the $20 billion threshold, rising 2.4% to $20.1 billion in 2013. More than 80% of that was for wages, taxes, and goods and services. Passengers and crew accounted for $3.63 billion in spending.

CLIA member cruise lines in North America showed a net increase of one ship in 2013, to 178, with a combined capacity of 338,505 berths, the study said.