Turkish tour operator Etstur has turned to the Louis Group of Cyprus to secure a vessel that will allow it to break its hiatus from operating its own cruiseship.
In a surprise move this week, Etstur revealed that it has chartered Louis’ 15,800-gt cruiseship Louis Aura (built 1968) for a summer season of cruises that will run from June until the end of September.
Greek sources say that the ship was recently moved from its layup berth in Perama to a shipyard on the island of Salamina for a refit.
The charter ends much speculation as to the future of the veteran vessel, which was not shifted across to Celestyal Cruises when Louis restructured its cruise operations in 2014. It went on charter to a French tour company until November 2015, after which it was placed in long-term lay-up.
Etstur, one of Turkey’s largest tour operators, has been active as a cruise operator since 2012. For most of this time it chartered the 23,300-gt Aegean Paradise (built 1990) from the Restis Group, but was forced to look elsewhere when the ship was sold to Singaporean interests in late 2015.
Last year, the company managed to charter the 16,200-gt Delphin (built 1975) from India’s Vishal Cruises, but this year it looked as if it would retain only a toehold in the cruise game by booking passengers on ships operated by other companies.
Etstur’s promotional material released this week indicates that the Louis Aura will be renamed Aegean Queen. It is not clear yet whether this will be a formal renaming or just a marketing name. Optimum Shipmanagement, the Piraeus-headquartered technical manager of Louis and Celestyal-owned ships, declined to comment.
The Louis Aura was built as the Starward for Norwegian owner Knut Kloster’s fledgling Norwegian Caribbean Cruise Lines, which today continues as the giant Norwegian Cruise Line.
