VARD, one of the major global designers and shipbuilders of specialized vessels, is cementing its relationship with Australia’s Coral Expeditions following the success of the recently delivered Coral Adventurer vessel, built at Vard Vung Tau in Vietnam. Delivered in April, the 93.4 meter ship, of VARD 6 01 design, has commenced commercial operations in the Asia-Pacific region. Its on-time delivery, high quality finish and excellent feedback has resulted in the contract for a second vessel with Coral Expeditions – Coral Geographer. Coral Adventurer and Coral Geographer have been tailored to ...

Saga is delighted to announce HRH The Duchess of Cornwall as the Godmother of its newly built boutique cruise ship, Spirit of Discovery. The naming ceremony will take place in Dover, Kent, on 5 July 2019. She will be the first cruise ship to be named at the Port of Dover for over a decade, and the first to be docked at Dover Western Docks following the £250m redevelopment of the area. Before the naming ceremony, HRH will be given a tour of the ship. In building Spirit of Discovery, ...

The Ellen E-ferry, the world’s most powerful fully-electric ferry, is close to entering passenger operations. Covering a 22-nautical mile crossing between the Danish islands of Ærø and Fynshav, the vessel will travel seven times further than any other electric ferry currently in operation anywhere in the world. The Ellen E-ferry is just under 60m long, has a breadth of approximately 13m and will travel at speeds between 13-15.5 knots. It is capable of carrying 198 passengers in summer months, with this capacity dropping to 147 during the winter. The ferry ...

The Port of Durban has been named Africa’s Leading Cruise Port at the World Travel Awards – and winning in two other categories, Leading City Destination and Leading Meetings and Conference Destination. Operated by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), the Port of Durban came up against some stiff competition at the Africa & Indian Ocean gala awards in Mauritius on Saturday. Among the contenders for the award was Kenya’s Port of Mombasa, Tanzania’s Ports of Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar, as well as South Africa’s Ports of Cape Town and ...

Corvus Energy, the leading supplier of batteries for hybrid and zero-emission vessels, is proud to introduce its next generation Energy Storage System (ESS): Corvus Blue Whale, a groundbreaking energy storage system for Cruise ships, Ro-Pax and Ro-Ro. Reinventing energy storage “Once again we reinvent energy storage for ships,” states Geir Bjørkeli, CEO of Corvus Energy. “When we launched the Corvus Orca Energy in 2016, we set a new standard for performance, safety and economics in a maritime ESS. The Corvus Orca Energy became an enormous success when launched and is ...

Tired of the Caribbean? Called at every Mediterranean port? Bored of the Alaskan fjords and the Baltic capitals? An entirely new body of water may soon be open to intrepid cruise fans seeking new horizons. The only issue: It’s a landlocked sea surrounded by some of the world’s most cloistered countries. But for many travel adventurers, this will be part of the appeal. Besides its fame as the main source of prized black caviar, the Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water. In fact, for a long ...

As the official Satellite Communications Partner to the Volvo Ocean Race for a fifth consecutive edition, the crews can stay

CLIA Europe organized a very interesting panel on Sustainable Tourism in Greece, in the context of the 5th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum 2019, conveying a main message about the economic contribution of cruising not being enough to empower local communities, in the sense that a place should be good for its residents, in order to be good for its guests as well The importance of collaboration among cruise companies, regulators, ports and destinations towards the achievement of sustainable growth in the cruise industry was discussed yesterday by representatives of cruise, ...

Very few still see LNG as a novelty and there is nothing new about a cruise ship. But until this year the two have never been combined. This is about to change. In December, Carnival Cruise Line took delivery of AIDAnova, the first LNG-powered cruise ship. It will also put its second LNG vessel, the Costa Smeralda, into operation this summer. There are now about 20 new LNG-fuelled cruise ships on order, with all the major cruise companies – Carnival, MSC, Disney, Royal Caribbean, and TUI – betting big on ...

Piraeus, Greece’s largest port, is interested in securing more Chinese cruise passengers while acknowledging that the potential of the Chinese market is huge, a senior Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) official said. Speaking at the 5th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum, which opened here on Tuesday, PPA Strategic Planning and Marketing Manager Theodora Riga stressed the importance of attracting more visitors from China and presented a PPA report on Chinese cruise passengers visiting Piraeus. The survey revealed that the typical Chinese cruise visitor has a budget of some 10,000 euros (11,200 U.S. ...

Regional volatility, the small available pool of cruise-ready ports, an acute lack of busses and tour guides at destinations during peak times and a dated infrastructure that is unable to cope with increasing numbers of cruise guests are the key challenges obstructing the growth of cruising in the East Med, according to representatives of three of the world’s biggest cruise lines speaking on the second day of the 5th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum in Athens. And with a 7% projected increase in cruise passengers for Greece alone estimated for this ...

The prospects for the growth of the cruise industry in East Med are positive but still need much to improve in terms of safety and security for the sector to fully capitalize on its unique advantages. This was the main message conveyed during the first day of the 5th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum that opened today at Domotel Kastri Conference Centre in Athens, where ministers, representatives of international cruise associations, cruise lines, destination authorities and decision makers gathered to debate the state of the industry and share their views and ...

At weekends, parents push babies in strollers and take family photographs in the attractive roof garden that crowns Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, seemingly oblivious to the smoke belching from whichever ocean liner happens to be berthed alongside. “It’s rare to have such a nice big space,” says a young mother from West Kowloon, as she enjoys a stroll with her partner and son. Behind her, a plume of filthy rust-coloured smoke belches from the exhaust funnel of the 335-metre cruise liner World Dream; smoke full of sulphur dioxide ...

Australian shipbuilder Incat has secured a contract to build the world’s largest aluminium ship. Incat Tasmania Pty Ltd will build the 130 metre long ship for long standing customer, Buquebus to operate between Argentina and Uruguay. The completed vessel will be the largest aluminium ferry ever built and the ninth vessel for Incat’s valued South American customer. The 130-metre ferry will join the other Incat ships already serving various ports on the River Plate (Rio Plato) between Argentina and Uruguay. At a probable 13,000 gross registered tonnes the 130-metre long, ...

Damen has established a presence in Finland for the first time. The Helsinki office has been set up to take advantage of the depth of engineering expertise that exists in the country following the group’s entry last year into building large vessels for the RoPax, Cruise and Offshore markets via its new Romanian yard, Damen Shipyards Mangalia. The new office will augment and extend Damen’s engineering capability in this market segment. Finland was selected as the location because, along with Italy, Germany and France, it is one of the leading ...