Ports & Itineraries

 

Grenada  seeks to encourage wealthier tourist with luxury upgrades
Grenada is a beautiful island that until now has been passed by as far as the top end resort/hotels have been concerned, but not for much longer as developers seek to create “a new St. Bart’s” for the high-end travel set.

British entrepreneur Peter de Savary is leading the way, making a multimillion-dollar investment, including a redesigned harbor for the capital, St. George’s, so his new Port Louis marina can welcome big yachts.

With a population of about 102,000, Grenada has previously held a low-key position on the tourism map. In fact, the English-speaking West Indies island nation may be the last of the truly authentic places in the Caribbean.

Once a favorite of sailors as a gateway to the Windward Islands, there hasn’t been much of a tourist trade of late beyond small hotels and resorts. Most businesses cater to locals rather than tourists, though a new cruise facility is attracting visits by cruise ships on Southern Caribbean itineraries.

Grenada currently has only 1,500 hotel rooms. But with de Savary’s plans for villas and luxury hotels, and the unrelated construction of a Four Seasons Resort and other small projects, that number is expected to double by 2012.

 

Holland America Line will offer nine select voyages throughout Australia and New Zealand in 2009 aboard the 1,432-passenger ms Volendam. The ship will operate itineraries ranging from 14 to 19 days, departing from Auckland, Sydney or Singapore.

Destinations will include the Great Barrier Reef and a variety of port cities between Australia and New Zealand. Starting fares for the 14-day cruises are $1,199 per person; $2,999 for 16-day cruises; $2,249 for the 15-day Great Barrier Reef journey; and $2,599 for the 19-day variety.

Shanghai's new cruise terminal nears completion
Scheduled to open for business later this year the bubble-shaped glass building is nearing completion on the Huangpu River in downtown Shanghai. Able to accommodate three mid-sized cruise ships at the same time.  The terminal is expected to handle a million passengers a year and should help fulfill the city's dream to become one of the premier cruise ports in Asia.

As one of the biggest economic centers in China, Shanghai enjoys preferential geographic advantages, rapid economic development and plenty of tourist attractions - it's also a city where east meets west. All of these elements make Shanghai an ideal cruise destination in China. The Shanghai government's port development blueprint for the next five years calls for the development of cruise business and for Shanghai to be developed into a homeport.
 
In recent years cruising has developed rapidly in Shanghai with the volume of both calls and passenger numbers increasing dramatically. Meanwhile, the strong economic growth and prosperous tourism market provides scope for the healthy development of the cruise industry in the region. The potential cruise market is huge due to the global interest of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 World Expo, hosted by Shanghai, estimated passenger numbers will be around 500,000 each year for the next several years.

Construction of the cruise terminal, on a 165,000 square metre site, began in 2004 and occupies an ideal position opposite the Lujiazui financial centre a few hundred meters from the Bund. Blessed with convenient transportation links and excellent connections to the surrounding tourist attractions.
 
Shanghai has a backup facility for larger cruise vessels at the Waigaoqiao terminal, 30km away from the city centre. Meanwhile, the Customs, Border and Immigration Office are working hard on simplifying the process for ships and passengers traveling to the region.

International cruise ships started visiting Shanghai in 2000. In 2006, Costa Crociere SpA launched a Shanghai-Japan-South Korea itinerary using its 1,000 passenger ship Costa Allegra, one of its fleet of 12 that serves Asia. Royal Caribbean Cruises will also start operating cruises from Shanghai this April, using its 2,400 passenger ship Rhapsody of the Seas.

In 2007, 47 ships and nearly 100,000 domestic and foreign cruise passengers passed through Shanghai.

Between 23 - 25 October 2008, Shanghai will play host to the inaugural Seatrade All Asia Cruise Convention where leading cruise line executives and industry players will come together to look at this emerging cruise market to discuss how its huge potential can be realized, making it a must-attend event for anyone involved or interested in this market.

A major exhibition of products and services will run parallel to the show's leading industry conference, and international travel agents will be invited to attend a complimentary symposium designed to increase their awareness of the cruise market.
Tender closes for the new Hong Kong Cruise Terminal

Two consortia backed by Hong Kong’s leading developers Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Sun Hung Kai Properties are vying to build and operate the city's new cruise terminal.


Cheung Kong’s subsidiary Asia Pacific International Enterprises had teamed up with Canadian ports operator Ceres Terminals, operators of Vancouver’s Canada Place, among others. The other bidder is an alliance of SHKP, Star Cruises, VXL Capital, and Nan Fung Development.
 

The terminal, to be located at the former Kai Tak airport runway, will be part of a massive project to turn southeastern Kowloon into a residential and commercial centre.

The Government adopted a market-driven approach in the new development. Selected through an open tender exercise, the successful bidder will own the 76,000 square metres of land for a 50-year period and form the site as well as design, build and operate the terminal.
 

Development of the new facilities on the 76,000 square metres of land earmarked at the end of the former airport runway includes:

  • berthing facilities - two alongside berths of 800 metres, an apron area, fender system and passenger gangways;
  • support facilities - located mainly in the cruise terminal building, such as customs, immigration, quarantine counters, and baggage handling; and,
  • a commercial area inside the cruise terminal building with a maximum gross floor area of 50,000 square metres for offices and retail facilities.

The tender will be awarded in the second quarter of 2008. The estimated development cost, excluding that for the commercial area, is about $2.4 billion.

New German/Turkish group to start Aegean cruise itinerary

Turkey’s Tura Turizm and German incentive company HH Tours are jointly chartering Sky Wonder from Pullmantur to offer a winter cruise program from the Turkish ports of Antalya and Kusadasi.

The ship will be based in Turkey for 20 weeks in total during October and November this year and February and March of 2009. Passengers will be offered either a three- or four-day cruise plus a one-week package or land tour. HH Tours carries around 100,000 Germans to Turkey for land-based packages each year.

The three-day cruise starting in Antalya will call at Crete, Heraklion, Santorini and Piraeus and end in Kusadasi. The longer return leg of four days’ duration repeats the program and adds Rhodes.

Aimed at German holiday-makers, the program represents the first time a cruise ship has been homeported at the two Turkish ports with passengers flying from Germany into/out of Izmir (for Kusadasi) or Antalya airports before joining the cruise.

Significant cruise-related developments are under way at 13 ports across Mexico
Investments range from Puerto Costa Maya’s reconstruction to a new pier in Mazatlán, plus the development of themed routes on the Pacific and Gulf coasts.

Some 6.8m passengers passed through the country’s ports in 2007, a 4.6% increase even though Hurricane Dean in August knocked the No. 2 port, Costa Maya, off the map, noted Carolina Cardenas, under-secretary for tourism.

Cardenas addressed reporters on Wednesday at Seatrade Miami, where 24 ports and 187 representatives are participating in the Mexico Pavilion. ‘The cruise industry is really very important for tourism in Mexico at the federal and local levels,’ she said, adding that the business generates 11,000 jobs and $188m in revenue.

Mexico is working to develop the Gulf of Cortez route and a new Gulf of Mexico route, according to Cesar Patricio Reyes Roel, general coordinator of ports and the merchant marine.

Costa Maya, which sustained heavy damage by Hurricane Dean, is ahead of its rebuilding schedule and preparing to reopen in July, said Cesar Lizarraga, marketing director, who also noted that $15m is going into revitalizing and improving the neighboring town of Mahahual.

 

.