Le Quang Thang, manager of Shorex & Port Agency Department of Saigontourist, told the Daily that the two cruise ships would make port calls on January 21 and January 24 on two different itineraries arranged by the company.

Saigontourist, which is the country’s leading tour operator as well as the biggest caterer of cruise passengers, will serve passengers on a seven-day itinerary from HCMC to Danang and Halong for the first ship, and the Halong-Danang-Nha Trang-HCMC tour in seven days for the other.

Business this year looks brighter for the tour operator as it will welcome back SuperStar Virgo ships after one year of interruption, Thang said.

“Apart from these two new ships, we will have two trips by the SuperStar Virgo after one year of suspension,” he said.

Saigontourist on Tuesday (12 January 2010) received around 2,000 tourists and crew members from the Costa Classica cruise ship in HCMC. She will cruise through HCMC and the Central region during three days.

The global financial crisis made many cruise passengers to shelve their traveling plans, resulting in a sharp fall of 30% in the number of international cruise passengers catered to by Saigontourist last year. The company received around 75,000 cruise passengers in 2009.

Thang said that business would still be tough for the cruise industry in the coming time. At the moment, the company is eyeing on a similar number of cruise passengers of last year.

However, Saigontourist expects that the number of such travelers will increase if the company can ink new contracts with new cruise lines in Australia and the U.S. The tour operator and foreign partners are discussing the deals.

“We are in talks over big deals. Our business this year will increase more if we win these deals,” he said.
Thang is pinning high hopes on 2011 for the cruise sector, however.

“Based on current bookings for 2011, we can say that the sector will recover, or even develop further in that year,” he said.

Last December, Saigontourist and 16 international travel firms agreed to set up an alliance named Asia Cruise Services Networks to promote the Asian region as well as to bolster cooperation by joint marketing activities targeting international cruise lines, and share information about the industry among others.

By Dao Loan - The Saigon Times Daily