|
HONG
KONG—Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ships will return to
Hong Kong in 2008 after a six-year hiatus as the world’s
second-largest cruise-line operator seeks to sell more
trips to Chinese tourists.
The
Rhapsody of the Seas, Asia’s largest cruise ship, will
make three 12-night trips from Singapore to Hong Kong
beginning in January, the Miami-based company said in a
statement last week.
The
ship, able to carry 2,435 passengers, will then make a
number of shorter trips from Hong Kong starting the next
month.
Royal
Caribbean and larger rival Carnival Corp. plan to add
more
China
services as economic growth makes holidays affordable to
more people in the country. The cruise market in
Southeast Asia will likely expand about 40 percent to
550,000 passengers in the five years ending 2010,
according to Ocean Shipping Consultants Ltd.
“The
potential for the market in this region is enormous,’’
Adam Goldstein, president of Royal Caribbean
International, told reporters in Hong Kong last week.
The
cruise line plans to offer shorter trips from Hong Kong,
as Chinese people spend less on vacations than people in
North America and
Europe, Goldstein said. A two-night trip to Shanghai, due to start
in April, will cost between $129 and $799.
Royal
Caribbean stopped sailing to Hong Kong in 2001 because
of the poor quality of infrastructure for cruise ships,
Goldstein said. The city plans to build a HK$2.4 billion
($307 million) two-berth cruise-ship terminal on the
site of the former Kai Tak airport in bid to attract
more visitors.
The plan
is part of the local government’s HK$10-billion project
to expand tourism over the next five years.
Hong Kong’s visitor numbers grew at an average annual rate of 13 percent in the
five years ended 2006, according to the Hong Kong
Tourism Board.
In a
separate report datelined Singapore, the company has
asked Singapore to build a new terminal to accommodate
bigger ships, the Business Times reported, citing Adam
Goldstein, president of the company.
Singapore
is conducting a feasibility study on whether a
second-cruise terminal is needed, the newspaper said,
without citing anyone. Most giant cruise liners are
unable to call at the present Singapore Cruise Centre,
which was built when ships were smaller, the newspaper
said.
Royal
Caribbean officially opened its Asia-Pacific
headquarters in
Singapore
last week, and will use the island-state as its home
port for its Rhapsody of the Seas cruise liner, the
largest in the region, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, in another report datelined New York, the
cruise-ship operator said broken propellers forced the
company to give out refunds on a European trip, costing
it 4 cents a share in earnings.
The
Celebrity Millennium’s propellers hit a submerged rock
while the ship was anchored off of
Villefranche, France, on July 2. The trip’s itinerary was “significantly
altered’’ for repairs, and passengers will receive full
refunds, Miami-based Royal Caribbean said last week in a
statement.
The
company in May forecast second-quarter profit of 59
cents to 63 cents a share. The average estimate of
analysts surveyed by Bloomberg is 59 cents. Royal
Caribbean didn’t say when it will record the costs.
The
Celebrity Millennium left
Barcelona,
Spain,
on June 30 for a 12-night Mediterranean voyage ending in
Venice, Italy, on July 12. The propellers hit the rock
following an electrical malfunction.
The ship
cancelled a July 3 stop in
Livorno,
Italy
and sailed to Civitavecchia, Italy, for repairs. The
ship will stay there until tomorrow, forgoing stops in
Naples, Italy, and Santorini and Athens in Greece. The
ship can carry more than 2,000 passengers.
The
company operates about 35 ships under the Royal
Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur
and Azamara Cruises lines. Carnival Corp. is the world’s
largest cruise operator.
--Bloomberg |
