Cruise Shipping's Rising Star
Genting Hong Kong is a rapidly growing global travel brand, spreading its wings – literally and figuratively – into ocean cruise, yacht, river cruise, air and shipbuilding. Maritime Reporter & Engineering News speaks with key executives at Genting Hong Kong: Mona Lai, SVP Corporate Communication; Gustaf Gronberg, SVP Shipbuilding & Marine Operations; and Jarmo Lakso, Managing Director, MV Werften, for insights on the future growth strategy.
Genting Hong Kong has been an active newsmaker in the cruise sector during the past year. As a start, for our readers that may not be familiar with the company and its brands, can you supply an overview of your activities in the cruise ship owning and cruise ships building segments?
ML - Genting Hong Kong is a corporation principally engaged in the cruise business along with leisure, entertainment and hospitality activities.Genting Hong Kong is the pioneer in the cruise industry in Asia with two ships for the “Star Cruises’ brand in 1993. It acquired Norwegian Cruise Line in 2000 and introduced a more relaxed and free style cruising, multiple restaurants, no tipping, majority Asian staff and other innovations for the cruise industry in North American. With the growth of the Asian cruise business, Genting Hong Kong divested most of its holdings in Norwegian Cruise Line and redeployed the funds received to order two 150,000 gross tons ships in 2013 with one delivered late 2016 and another to be delivered in late 2017, and these two ships will form the fleet for a new Asian Luxury brand named “Dream Cruises.” Genting Hong Kong also bought the Crystal Cruises, “The World’s Most Awarded Luxury Cruise Line” in 2015 which have ocean, river and yacht cruises as well as B-777 with all first class seats for luxury world air cruises. Due to the large number of orders for cruise ships and limited yards able to build them, Genting Hong Kong decided to buy three large German shipyards in 2016, named collectively as “MV Werften” in order to be able to have early delivery of cruise ships for its three brands.
Can you give a short description of each brand, discussing how each is distinct?
ML - Star Cruises is a contemporary cruise line for the Asian market with mostly year-round homeports in Singapore, Hong Kong, Penang, Keelung (Taipei), Manila and Shanghai. A pioneer in the regional cruise industry, Genting Hong Kong was incorporated in September 1993, operating its fleet under Star Cruises, to take on a bold initiative to grow the Asia Pacific region as an international cruise destination. Star Cruises has built its reputation on offering first-rate Asian hospitality throughout its fleet.
Dream Cruises is the first-ever Asian luxury cruise line with two new vessels Genting Dream (November 2016) and World Dream (November 2017) and they are homeport in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Singapore. Each Dream Cruise ship have about 150 Dream Palace Suites, which has butler service, typical of a luxury cruise line such as its sister brand “Crystal Cruises.” Dream Cruises delivers the highest level of guest service and spacious comfort in the Asian region and provide passengers with more choice, comfort and value to create a perfect dream voyage.
Crystal Cruises is the world’s leading luxury cruise provider, having earned more “World’s Best” awards than any other cruise line, hotel, or resort in history. In 2015, Crystal embarked on the most significant brand expansion in the history of luxury travel and hospitality, which introduced two new classes of cruising – Crystal Yacht Cruises and Crystal River Cruises and reaching new heights with Crystal Luxury Air with AirCruises offered on a B-777 on various itineraries around the world. Crystal Ocean Cruises with two luxury ships, Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity offers extensive itineraries traversing the globe, ranging from five days to 100-days World Cruises.
What does your current cruise ship fleet look like, in regards to number of ships, age, size and itinerary?
ML - Star Cruises currently operates fleet of six vessels including SuperStar Virgo, SuperStar Gemini, SuperStar Aquarius, SuperStar Libra, Star Pisces and The Taipan. They range from 3,000 to 75,000 Gross tons with about 2,000 lower berths. Star Cruises brings passengers to about 25 destinations in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Dream Cruises operates Genting Dream which debuted in November 2016 with over 70% of staterooms featuring private balconies and more than 100 connecting rooms, ensuring family friendly convenience. A “ship-within-a-ship” concept, Dream Palace contains 142 spacious suites offering European style butler service and special privileges. Genting Dream is dual homeport in Guangzhou and Hong Kong with itineraries to Vietnam and Japan.
Crystal Cruises’ fleet currently consists of two luxury ocean vessels, Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, operating global itineraries; Crystal Esprit for Crystal Yacht Cruises, with itineraries in the Seychelles, Adriatic Sea and the Caribbean; and, Crystal Mozart for Crystal River Cruises, operating on the Danube River.
New Construction: Discuss in overview the current orderbook of new cruise ships for all of the Genting Hong Kong brands.
GG - Star Cruises has ordered two “Global Class” ships, each measuring 204,000 gross tons with about 5,000 lower berths for delivery 2020 and 2021 and they will be positioned in Asia. Crystal Cruises has ordered four river ships with two river ships delivered by this year and another two river ships in 2018 for cruising on the Rhine and Danube Rivers. Crystal Cruises also ordered three “Endeavor Class” polar expedition yacht with the first to launch in 2019 and they will sail most of the time in the north or south poles. All of these newbuilds will also take place in our MV Werften shipyards. Finally, Dream Cruises’ second new ship, World Dream, is currently under construction at Meyer Werft and will make her debut in the Asia in November this year.
Why specifically was it decided to consolidate this shipbuilding capability in Germany?
GG - 75% to 80% of the value of a cruise ship is from up to 800 suppliers/contractors and these clusters of suppliers/contractors are concentrated around the Baltic, France and Italy. As Genting Hong Kong has built almost all its ships with Meyer Werft in Germany over nearly 20 years, it is only natural that Genting sought German shipyards which are able to build cruise ships with suitable investments. Germany is also where the largest cluster of marine equipment suppliers is located and has excellent Government maritime coordination policies. MV Werften has three yards, which have covered halls and production is not affected by the weather, leading to high productivity. With about 1,500 experienced management and workers, which will be increased in the future, MV Werften is well placed to successfully build cruise ships.
The company has a 10 year production plan and there will be good returns on the investment in the shipyards and fits perfectly with the long term Company’s global cruise strategy.
Can you provide in overview the breadth of Genting Hong Kong’s shipbuilding capability today, with insight on current or planned investment to improve or grow this capacity in the coming months and years.
JL - MV Werfen, Genting Hong Kong’s three shipyards in the German State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Wismar, Warnemunde and Stralsund, is managed in Wismar and will focus on building large new ships. To make MV Werften into one of the world’s most modern and efficient cruise shipyards, we will invest another 160 million euros in a thin plate laser welding line, a cabin module factory, a new covered section block building hall, the modernization of manufacturing control systems and new executive and employee offices and facilities.
Looking at the maritime/shipbuilding side, what technologies do you count as the most important advances in delivering safe and efficient ships
GG - Star Cruises is the first cruise line to have its own simulator for training of our officers and the installation of video recording in the bridge in 1995. We will continue this tradition with plans for a global fleet-wide control and training center in Wismar with remote monitoring of equipment and bridge for all our new ships.
We work continuously with our marine suppliers in adopting the state-of-the-art technologies and systems which will keep all our passengers safe on all our cruise ships.
Star Cruises has been the pioneers in the field of safety and security. Video recording of the bridge into the VDR’s with capabilities to view shore-side was implemented at the early stage, and already 1997 Star Cruises become the first shipping company ever to build and operate our own Bridge Simulator. Implementation of the Pilot Co-Pilot system on the bridge with minimum always two certified officers at any time was already in place at our first cruise in December 1993, this is now an standard in most major cruise lines.
Also since the first day of operation we have had complete security screening equipment’s onboard to ensure screening can be done in all ports of call, included any small tendering islands which do not have the equipment’s. Ghurkhas from Nepal was hired to ensure the best security.
As a part of our selection process for hiring Captains and Officers, we contracted Marine Profile to do a psychosocial screening which in certain extent is similar to what are used in the aviation. We will continue this tradition with plans for a global fleet-wide control and training center in Wismar with remote monitoring of equipment and bridge for all our new ships.
We work continuously with our marine suppliers in adopting the state-of-the-art technologies and systems which will keep all our passengers safe on all our cruise ships.
Looking at the entertainment side of the ships, which technologies do you count as most ‘sought after’?
GG - Fast and cheap Internet connectivity and ability to use mobile devices to access cruise ship services, such as information, reservation, order and others will be the most sought after technologies in the future.
(As published in the February 2017 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News)