Department of Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo announced that many other international cruises are expressing interest in setting dock in the country.
“I’ve been meeting with the executives of Carnival Corp. and Genting. Both agreed that the Philippines has great potential to become one of Asia’s cruise hubs,” Teo told Philippine Star.
Star Cruises, a subsidiary of Genting Hong Kong, earlier announced its fleet flagship, Superstar Virgo, was set to establish Manila as its new home port this summer. This is the first time a company has chosen the city as its vessel’s base.
Michael Goh, SVP of Genting’s Dream Cruise Line, said the ships would start docking in Manila waters in March until May.
He said Superstar Virgo would then offer a five-day cruise itinerary starting from Manila as its home port, going to Laoag, then Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and finally to Hong Kong, before going back to Manila.
“It’s the first time we’ll do it and we want to test out the market. And we have confidence about it,” Goh said in an interview.
From January to October 2016, a total of 19 cruise ships carrying 24,712 passengers made calls to the Philippines. This was still short of the 72,350 passenger target set by the DOT under its National Cruise Tourism Strategy.
This year’s target, meanwhile, is to attract 85 port calls, bringing in 75,000 travelers into the country.
Superstar Virgo has a passenger capacity of 1,870.
