Tag Archives: cruise industry

Renderings Leaked Of New Ship For Virgin Cruises

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The cruise industry can hardly keep a secret anymore and today we learned even cruise lines that don’t technically exist aren’t exempt.

virgin cruisesVirgin Cruises, Richard Branson’s new cruise line, is set to make waves by 2019 and promises to deliver a cruise experience not yet offered by any other cruise line. Today, the cruise industry has been granted a peek into Branson’s plans thanks to a lawsuit filed against Virgin Cruises by Colin Veitch, the former President and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line. Veitch, a former partner of Branson, claims the Virgin Group stole his plans for a “Virgin style” cruise line.

The lawsuit, which has now been made public, shares detailed renderings of ships that could potentially sail for the Virgin fleet. The designs leaked through the lawsuit show a red hulled ship sporting a unique bow design, a split superstructure similar to Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas, and even a skydiving simulator similar to the one found aboard yet another Royal Caribbean ship, Quantum of the Seas.

virgin 2The renderings, while undated, would appear to share similarities with many modern cruise ships sailing today, notably with the Royal Caribbean ships mentioned prior.

The new Virgin Cruises brand states they will debut two new ships focused on offering a high end, yet mainstream, cruise experience to cruise passengers. While Virgin has been successful with this unique approach in other industries, Virgin may find difficulty in cornering a market that has already been captured by cruise lines such as Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity.

Virgin Group confirms entry into cruise business

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By Tom Stieghorst

Tom McAlpinVirgin Group announced that it has formed Virgin Cruises, making official its rumored entry into the global cruise industry.

The collection of companies run by British entrepreneur Richard Branson is perhaps most well known for Virgin Atlantic Airways. It has also started a hotel brand, with its first U.S. property to open in Chicago.

In its announcement, Virgin said it has hired Tom McAlpin to be CEO. Most recently, McAlpin had been president and CEO of The World, Residences at Sea. He was also part of the founding management team at Disney Cruise Line, and served as its president.

Virgin Cruises will be headquartered in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, the company said. Virgin said it plans to build two “world class” cruise ships.

Details about the timing of Virgin’s start of operations are being withheld for competitive reasons, the company said.
Bain Capital has been named lead investment partner.

“We plan to shake up the cruise industry and deliver a holiday that customers will absolutely love,” Branson said in a statement. “They’ll be sailing on the latest ships offering great quality, a real sense of fun, and many exciting activities all delivered with the famed Virgin service.”

£2.4bn poured into Britain’s coffers last year

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Cruise news

: £2.4bn poured into Britain’s coffers last year with more than 1m passengers getting on boardIndustry’s

contribution to country’s economy highlighted at Barcelona convention

Ship shape: the port at Southampton welcomes a cruise liner

The cruise industry contributed £2.4billion to Britain’s economy last year, with passengers spending an average of £80 a day each during visits to UK ports such as Southampton and Dover

Latest figures compiled by CruiseBritain show that in 2013 there was a 10% year-on-year increase in cruise embarkations, to 1.04 million, and a 20% increase in day visits, to 866,000. The spend includes crew expenditure, cruise line purchases, ship repair, and employee salaries.

“Cruise tourism is a valuable source of income to ports and destinations across Britain and is increasingly being factored into local and regional tourism,” said Daren Taylor, chair of CruiseBritain, speaking at the Seatrade Med convention in Barcelona.

In the Mediterranean, while other tourism sectors have seen no increase in performance, cruising has grown in volume by 43% since the global recession struck in 2008.

Across the region, there were 27 million passenger movements: 19 million in the Western Med, five million in the Adriatic, and – reduced by concerns over violence in the Middle East – three million in the Eastern Med.

Referring to the fact that most cruise calls to ports in Ukraine have been cancelled this summer, David Dingle, chairman of Carnival UK, said political conflict in the Black Sea area dates back centuries. “They are a fact if life we just live with,” he said.

A proposal to provide an alternative to dredging a new channel for cruise ships visiting Venice was submitted to the Italian government this week.

Lagoon show: a cruise ship sails past St Mark’s Square in Venice

A £101million floating jetty, capable of handling up to five ships at a time, would be set up in the sea near Bocca di Lido, and passengers would be transported into the city’s cruise terminal by a large, environmentally-friendly catamaran.

Carnival’s David Dingle still believes the deep channel proposal to be the preferred option, and told Seatrade Med: “What we want is certainty, but we want to do the right thing by all the stakeholders in this debate.”