Costa Cruises is looking to boost cruise numbers in Southeast Asia with a tie up with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Changi Airport.
The tripartite aims to leverage Costa’s global presence, Singapore’s cruise hub status and Changi Airport’s air hub connectivity.
It hopes to further enhance Southeast Asia’s appeal as a cruise destination and is aiming to bring in over 100,000 cruise visitors to Singapore over three years.
Costa claims to have been among the first cruise companies to start regular cruises in Asia back in 2006.
Four ships out of the total Costa fleet of 14 are based in Asia year round. The 102,669-gt Costa Fortuna (built 2003) is currently deployed in the Far East will be homeported in Singapore from mid November 2018 to March 2019.
“We are thrilled to strengthen the opportunity to further develop such an exotic destination like Singapore, where Costa has a longstanding presence and which offer a big potential for the cruise holiday market thanks also to the presence of the international Changi Airport,” said Neil Palomba, President of Costa Cruises.
In 2017, Singapore welcomed 421 ship calls and logged a passenger throughput of 1.38m. This represents an increase of 3% and 17% respectively over 2016 figures.
“Costa Cruises is a valued partner that has homeported out of Singapore for over 10 years,” said an STB spokesperson.
“This latest collaboration will…strengthen Singapore’s position as the region’s homeport of choice.”
