25 March 2008

Singapore doubles cruise ship capacity

Singapore is bidding to become Asiaââ¬â¢s main cruise hub by creating facilities to handle the biggest ships in the world.

Capacity will double by 2010 with two berths at a new international cruise terminal capable of accommodating largest ships in service as well Royal Caribbean Cruise Linesââ¬â¢ planned 5,400-passenger Genesis-class ships.

The new facility will complement two existing berths at the Singapore Cruise Centre at HarbourFront. The terminals are a 10- to 15-minute drive from each other.

Both will increase Singaporeââ¬â¢s cruise passenger handling capacity and help to meet a target of achieving 1.6 million cruise passenger throughput by 2015.Ã~

Singapore Cruise Centre reported a cruise passenger throughput of more than 943,000 last year, an increase of more than 10% over 857,000 passengers in 2006.

The Singapore Tourism Board hopes to tap into the already buoyant UK cruise market, which showed record growth in 2007.

The biggest growth was in the fly-cruises, up by 17% from 2006 to 879,000. The Far East and Australia showed a 51% increase.

Area director for Northern and Western Europe Divya Panicker said: ââ¬ÅâœMore and more UK and European visitors are choosing Singapore as their preferred destination for a cruise holiday.Ã~

ââ¬ÅâœWe continue to see record breaking visitor figures from the UK to Singapore and we hope to see this trend to continue, particularly with cruise visitors wanting to explore the region from Singapore.ââ¬~

Several cruise lines, such as Star Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Costa Cruises, P&O Princess and Silversea have made Singapore the homeport or ââ¬Ëœmarqueeââ¬â¢ port for Asian ship deployments. Royal Caribbean and Silversea also opened offices in Singapore last year to play a more significant role in Asia.

Singapore will be port-of-call for a variety of ships this year, including Cunardââ¬â¢s Queen Victoria on its maiden world cruise, and ships from Princess Cruises, P&O Cruises, Oceania, Holland America Line and Crystal Cruises.

by Phil Davies

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