Seychelles Tourism Board works with Ucruising, tapping into Chinese cruise segment

Seychelles welcomed 40 Chinese visitors onboard Costa Victoria on Tuesday, November 13, the first batch of passengers from the Asian market that made their booking through Ucruising with the support of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) office in China.

The collaboration between Ucruising and the tourism board is part of STB’s strategy to tap into the Chinese cruise segment.

As a result of this initiative, over 350 cruisers from China are expected to come to Seychelles during the 2018/2019 cruise ship season, which opened on October 10 this year.

The STB Marketing Director for China & Japan, Jean-Luc Lai-Lam stated that the collaboration is strategic for the destination.

Headquartered in Guangzhou, China, Ucruising is a major online cruising agency specialized at providing all-in-one cruise packages. The company has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Canada, America and Australia, which opens various other doors for Seychelles.

“This collaboration with Ucruising and STB opens our Islands to the Chinese market. We are working actively to increase the number of visitors this season,” said Mr. Jean-Luc Lai-Lam. The premium cruise company mainly sells overseas cruise routes out of China. Working with major cruise brands such as Costa, Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises and Silver Sea among others, the company targets the Chinese market and Chinese who live abroad.

On the returning voyage of Costa Victoria on November 27, the 115-island archipelago will welcome a larger group of Chinese – 250 person in total. Costa Victoria, owned and operated by Italian cruise line Costa Crosiere, has the capacity to carry a maximum of 2,394 passengers.

During the 2018/2019 cruise ship season, Seychelles will continue welcoming visitors preferring a much-laid back form of travel. Several of the vessels that will be bringing in visitors to the exotic islands of Seychelles are on tour in the Indian Ocean.

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