Royal Caribbean Cruises Line (RCCL) is working to come up with a fare program that will definitely recognize key account status and address components that includes marketing, Lisa Bauer, the company´s vice president for North America sales, said.
The cruise line is discontinuing its key account fares, a controversial policy that gives top accounts access to group rates for individual bookings. It is also working on a revised group policy to discourage agencies from blocking so-called "speculative" group space and filling it with individual travelers.
Last year, Peru received the calls of 15 cruise liners in the ports of Callao (Lima), Salaverry (La Libertad) and San Martin (Ica), logging a grand total of 11,382 passengers. This time around, Peruvian authorities expect to see a dozen deluxe vessels docking in during the first third of 2005.
These cruises will bring somewhere between 200 and 1,900 passengers each, the Peru Trade Office in Miami reported this week.
When Caribbean and Latin American countries are debating whether to set or raise fees on cruises, the government of Puerto Rico has approved the creation of a US$10.7 million fiscal incentive package for the cruise industry, which includes breaks on port taxes, other provisions and fees for ships making San Juan its homeport.
Currently, all cruise passengers pay a US$13.25 head tax in San Juan. As part of the program, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC) will return to the cruise lines a $2.95 destination incentive for each passenger who visits San Juan.
The cruise ship Holiday Dream, owned by the Spanish company Pullmantur Cruises, has included Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) in its itinerary in Cuba. Punta Francés, the place where the boat will soon dock, is one of the most beautiful natural environments on the island, ideally for diving.
The first stopovers of the 39,000-ton, 1,047-passenger ship brought more than 1,000 Spanish travelers, who were enchanted by the excellent state of coral reefs, tunnels and underwater caverns near the El Colony Dive Center.
The Chilean maritime city of Valparaiso has been getting a mighty shot in the arm thanks in part to the arrival of more and more cruise passengers, according to stats provided by MundoCruceros agency.
The coming of cruise travelers to that Chilean city has jumped from only 26,000 in 2002 to 80,000 last year. These travelers that come aboard deluxe vessels spend somewhere between $80 and $159 apiece on a daily basis.
The fourth edition of the International Cruise Fair held over the weekend in Malaga gathered the industry´s main companies -23 in all- that sell their products in Spain.
The event took place at the AC Malaga Hotel –sponsored by Marina Sun Travel, a Spanish cruise company- and unfolded before the official kickoff of this year´s cruise season, giving these firms the possibility of flaunting their roots.