|
Unique Cruise Solutions The news you need to know |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||
|
Cruise News for the Corporate Travel Professional |
March 2011 Edition |
||||||||||||||||
|
Mexico gets its very first ever leisure cruise line |
||||||||||||||||
|
Ocean Star Cruises ship the
Ocean Star Pacific (ex-Louis Cruises MV Aquamarine) will sail the Mexican
Pacific year-round from Acapulco and Manzanillo, calling at Huatulco, Puerto
Vallarta, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Chiapas. The line is targeting local tourism from Mexico City and Guadalajara by offering an international ship with Spanish-speaking crew, prices in pesos and no need for passports or visas. This means eliminating the need to speak English and adapt to different time zones and customs, along with cutting out the added cost of airplane tickets, international credit cards and foreign currency. For Ocean Star Cruise's April 11, 2011 is launch day for a new Mexican cruise line, Ocean Star Cruises. The company purchased the Aquamarine ship from the Louis Group for a sum reported to be over 23 million dollars, and is set to begin three-, four-, and seven-day itineraries from Manzanillo and Acapulco. Gloria Guevara, Mexico's Minister of Tourism, made the announcement of the country's first national cruise line, noting that Mexico is the number one tourist destination in the world, and second in the cruise industry. The line is expected to generate over 300 million dollars annually, and will visit six Pacific destinations: Huatulco, Acapulco, Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo and Los Cabos. This news comes on the heels of the announcement that three cruise lines were cutting back or ending routes to Mexico, and underscores two very different perspectives on Mexican tourism. While fears about drug violence have contributed to business decisions like the discontinuation of Mexican cruise routes, the numbers tell a different story. According to World Trade Organization head Taleb Rifai, Mexican tourism and revenues are actually up in 2010, despite a troubled economy, the H1N1 scare of 2009, and drug violence fears. Similarly, travel giant
Orbitz recently released their Insider Index, which forecasts travel trends
based on data from past years. Of the top ten international destinations for
2010, Mexico took three spots, including number 1 (Cancun). |
 |
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||
| Up | |||||||||||||||||
| Up | |||||||||||||||||
|
Worldwide Travel & Cruise Assoc., Inc. 150 S. University Dr. Ste E, Plantation, FL 33324 - USA Tel: +1 954 452 8800 Fax: +1 954 252 3945 EMail: sales@cruiseco.com |
|||||||||||||||||
|
Designed & Published by: Worldwide Media. |
|||||||||||||||||
